The Soul Food of Nasrin Karimi

February 01, 2021

The Soul Food of Nasrin Karimi

It has taken me weeks to write this piece even though this was one of the most memorable meals of my life. As someone who isn’t a professional food writer, I end up writing only if I feel that I have a perspective or context or realisation that I want to share. Or if I have discovered something really new and fresh. But my meal with Nasrin Karimi had no such angle. I have nothing revelatory or insightful to share. So what do I really write? Because to just sit and list what we ate would fail to do justice to the afternoon we had, the experience we shared, the food we ate. An authentic Iranian meal cooked with so much heart and so much love, you could taste the honesty in every dish, a meal that is soulful not in some cliche PR way but a meal that really did touch the soul, leaving you grateful for the privilege of having eaten it.

Pomegranate purée with walnut/Torshi Bandari (mixed vegetable pickle)

Nasrin doesn’t actually live in Bangalore which made the whole meal feel even more special and serendipitous. She moved from Iran just after the Revolution to study in Queen Mary College in Chennai in 1980 and then moved to Tirupati for her post graduation. After a few fascinating years as a young Iranian woman in a temple town in pre-liberalisation India (with enough anecdotes to fill a book) she moved to Chennai for her PHD where she has lived ever since. Immersed in the life and culture of Tamil Nadu, she barely cooked, happy with the local food, always eating at restaurants and searching for the perfect idli in Chennai’s tiffin centres.

The only comparable hummus I’ve had was in Berlin

Finally at age 38, she felt the call of her home in Shiraz in the heart of Iran, with its poets and gardens, and most of all the food, the scent of dill and the fragrance of saffron, juicy pomegranate salads and freshly baked bread dipped into a khoresh (stew) of split peas, while a kobbideh kebab grills on the skewer, waiting to melt in the mouth.

The tahdig with the extraordinary crust

And so finally as she entered her forties, she began to cook Persian food. First for her friends and then as a caterer and finally as the proprietor of the much loved Shiraz Art Cafe, a legendary Chennai establishment. With the help of her brother Dariush, she cooked Persian food for people ranging from backpackers in Mahabalipuram to the Ambani residence.

The traditional saffron tea

When she decided to shut the cafe during the pandemic and pivot to a cloud kitchen, she moved to Bangalore for a few months to (understandably) enjoy our weather. She did limited portions of food for delivery during her stay here which I happened to order once and then again and again until it became a weekly ritual. I think she enjoyed my passion for food and with typical generosity she would always send extra dishes for me to try. We eventually met at my friend Azmat’s restaurant Sarposh over a discussion on the commonalities between Persian and Kashmiri food. We were taken in by Nasrin and Dariush’s warmth and friendliness, entertained by great Raconteurs with a twinkle in their eyes and easy laughter.

Orange peel rice, dill rice and lentil rice with raisins

Nasrin invited us for a meal before heading back because she wanted to cook a proper meal instead of a few dishes. What followed was really one of the greatest meals I’ve ever had. Nasrin cooked up a storm, a veritable feast, dish after dish that transported us to a lazy spring afternoon in Shiraz. Salads and dips and the best hummus you’ll ever have. Kobbideh kebabs that blew my mind, soft and melt in the mouth like a galouti but with more body and texture, like the distant cousin of a Sheekh. Fragrant rice dishes with orange peel, or cooked with raisin and lentils.

Lamb Shanks, Shiraz prawns, Aubergine, Lentils, Chicken and more!

The food was exquisite but it wasn’t all. Along with the food came the stories and jokes and anecdotes. It was more than a meal. It was more than someone letting you into their lives. It was someone letting you into their heart. And it’s moments like this that make me feel grateful. That make me feel blessed!