Just learned about the work of Iranian photographer Newsha Takavolian. Her work has been published in the likes of Time and Newsweek, and her images of women are striking. She has a new exhibition called “Listen,”were she photographed female singers who are not allowed to sing, perform or record CD’s because of Islamic law in Iran. These two images are from this series, which was recently shown in Los Angeles at the Morono Kiang Gallery. Disappointed that I missed it.

Reminds me of No One Knows About Persian Cats,  a 2009 film which follows a band in Iran, and the underground rock world that musicians and youth are forced to create in the confines of strict laws.

Today on eHow’s Edible Gardens, Willi and I talked about our favorite cookbooks and recipes. She mentioned a really great one called Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. I am definitely intrigued by this book and from what she said, it sounded great. I have a couple of vegetarian cookbooks, but none of them seem complete. This is especially helpful now, as I’ve recently become vegetarian this year, although I suppose I could be considered a pescetarian because I do occasionally eat fish. A book that I mentioned, New Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies by Najmieh Batmanglij, is one of my favorites. Last year, I asked my mom to get me a book that would encompass all the food she’s made over the years. I started to feel like, that although I loved to bake and cook, I didn’t know much about Iranian cooking or recipes, and that concerned me slightly, because I didn’t want those traditions to die.

You see, although I am Armenian, my family is from Iran, which doesn’t make too much of a difference, because Armenian and Iranian cooking are very closely related, as is Arabic and Greek cuisine. So this book is just a complete encyclopedia of Iranian food. It covers dishes such as Dolma, or Ghormeh Sabzi or Shirin Polo (all pictured here, with photos taken by me) and tons of delicious Iranian and Armenian desserts and pastries.

Persian cuisine is not only versatile and flavorful, but it’s very healthy as well. Vegetables are always used in dishes as opposed to on the side and ingredients such as lentils, saffron, parsley, rose water and a mixture of herbs and spices. When you eat Persian food, you really get a sense of culture from it. The flavors that are combined together make for one amazing people. The great thing is that, if you don’t eat meat like me, the food has so much substance on its own, that omitting meat or replacing it with something like tofu does not change the dish by much.

This is shirin polo. Shirin polo in Persian means “sweet rice” and is one of my favorite dishes ever. The combination of almonds, candied orange zest and saffron in the rice makes for a titillating experience in the confines of your mouth.

It’s not necessarily a dish you make everyday, but reserve for special occasions, such as celebrations or weddings. The colors alone are beautiful, let alone the taste.

Rose water or Golab in Persian is used to flavor food, as a component in some cosmetic and medical preparations, and for religious purposes throughout Europe and Asia.

Rosewater has a very distinctive flavor and is used heavily in South Asian, West Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine

In Iran it is added to tea, ice cream, cookies and other sweets in small quantities. Two of my favorite desserts are akbar-mashti and faludeh, both Persian delicacies that have rose water added to them. Akbar-mashti is a thick creamy ice cream that has rose water (and sometimes pistachios added to it). Faludeh is a Persian sorbet made of thin vermicelli noodles frozen with corn starch, rose water, lime juice, and often ground pistachios as well.

I hope to present more Persian and Armenian recipes on this blog, as I definitely think it’s an undiscovered area of food for most of the U.S. If you’re interested in Middle Eastern recipes, a blog you should be reading is Desert Candy. I read it weekly and the recipes are just amazing. Noosh e jan! (Bon Apetit)

(Top to bottom: round walnut – walnut cookie covered with sugar icing; vanilla kipfriel – vanilla flavored hazelnut cookie; date slice – date filled cookie; Vanilla white – vanilla cookie dipped in white chocolate; apricot – almond flake cookie filled with apricot filling; almond heart – traditional Iranian almond powder cookie)

On the corner of Rue Sherbrooke and Mackay in Montreal, sits a quaint patiserrie and cafe called Nocochi. Nocochi, owned by Shahnaz Bagherzadeh is known for it’s homemade Persian-influenced pastries. In fact, “Nocochi,”(Nokhodchi) means “chickpea” in Persian.

Whenever we travel, we always look for tea houses. When we were in Rome, we fell in love with oh-so-calming, but expensive Babington’s Tea Shop at the Piazza di Spagna and in New York, we finally sought out the coveted Teany cafe, co-owned by one of my favorite people on Earth, Moby, and his now ex-girlfriend Kelly Tisdale. I believe Moby gave ownership of the entire cafe to Tisdale recently.

In this case, we were just looking for a great place to eat on our walk back to our hotel, when we came upon Nocochi. The minute we walked in, I absolutely fell in love. The bite-sized Persian pastries, with their unique flavors and textures brought memories back. Though they haven’t lately, my parents always used to buy the packaged versions of many of the pastries that were behind the glass.

The decor of Nocochi is very modern and simple. White tables and chairs that have IKEA written all over them sit on a white tiled floor across the cafe. Prints mounted on the wall feature closeup versions of their pastries along with vases, that are also filled with whimsical colored sweets. Two section of seating area feature a white quilted couch with single color pillows lined against them. The window panes feature Iranian inspired tea sets and tea cups for passerbys to admire as they make their way down Mackay.

Nocochi’s love of coffee brand Illy is evident, from the beverages they serve to the mugs they serve them in. Either way, I didn’t care. I wasn’t there to drink coffee. Tea is what I’m always after.

The sales associates/baristas wear black with muted baby blue aprons. All of them speak English, and quite well.

We were feeling a bit hungry, so we decided to order some food. In addition to selling pastries and serving tea, Nocochi is a full service cafe with a great selection of food. I ordered a tuna melt and Keeg ordered a mushroom pizza.

As Keeg says, it was absolutely del-eesh-oos! The tuna melt was on pita type bread, which I love and the mushroom pizza had the perfect sauce to bread to mushroom ratio. We had apple juice with our meals and we thought we were really full, until we realized that we wanted tea. What else is new?

The afternoon tea menu at Nocochi is available from 2:30 to 6 p.m., while breakfast is available 8 to 11:30 a.m. I got the chai spice tea with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and vanilla bean. Keeg got Earl Grey Cremé with bergamot, cornflower and vanilla.

The tea was brought out loose in individual tea pots and let me tell you, it was so good. It had started raining that day while we were walking and by the time we had gotten to Nocochi, we were pretty drenched. The tea (and the lunch) made everything better. After one cup, we switched tea pots and the Earl Grey Cremé was just as good as the Chai Spice.

While we were there, the patiserrie received shipments with Vivel written on the boxes and Farsi written underneath. I was so intrigued, that when I got home, I did a bit of research and found out that Vivel is the company that Bagherzadeh owns which makes the pastries and supplies them to her boutiques, with Nocochi being the only one in the Western hemisphere. They have 4 stores in the United Arab Emirates and also franchise stores in Dammam and Khobar Saudi Arabia.

Nocochi is unique in that it is the only store I believe that operates under a different name than Vivel and has Swiss chef Jean-Daniel, who brings with him 25 years of experience in the hotel and restaurant industry.

Nocochi Cafe Patisserie
2156 Mackay Street
Corner of Sherbrooke and Mackay
(514) 989-7514