Hakhamanesh

Posted by Degan on March 29th, 2011

Note: This post has been imported from EthnicEats.ca

I’d been wanting to try Kash Cool restaurant in North Van for ages and ages and so when we found ourselves at the North Shore auto mall for a test drive, I plugged it into the GPS and we made our way over there for dinner. We found the place all right but over the “Kash Cool” sign was a banner with “Hakhamanesh” on it (also “dance party!”) indicating that they had changed hands recently. Luckily for us, there is still a Persian restaurant on the premises and Hakhamanesh is still delicious. In fact, I’m not sure how much has changed. The photos I’ve seen and even the menu seem quite similar to the new restaurant.

Ever since talking to a friend about Iranian dishes, I’ve wanted to try the Fesenjan – Persian stew with chicken and walnuts and pomegranates – but our host warned me away from it as I don’t care for sweets and we ended up with Bademjan – an eggplant and meat stew. We also ordered the platter for two, which included roasted tomatoes, chicken, filet steak and ground beef kabobs, saffron rice, lavash bread, mast o khiar(a yogurt dip) and an eggplant dip. I’m really not sure what we were thinking.

When the dips and bread came we dove on them like mad dogs (turns out we were hungry) but then the rice came – presumably enough to accompany with both the platter and the stew – but it was on a platter! Buttery, scented rice piled high on a an enormous dish. The kebabs came on another platter. If I had a button on my pants I would have undone it, but we persevered with our feast.

Not having alcohol on the menu we also ordered some doogh – a watered down yogurt drink with mint, and salt. I had the homemade, plain version and Matt went for the commercial, bottled gaseous one. Both were interesting and added a depth to the flavour of the meal but it seems it would serve in similar cases to the lassi, as a refreshing drink in hot weather.

Everything was so fragrant and beautifully spiced and the kabob meat – thoughtfully already pulled off the skewers – was tender and juicy. We couldn’t stop exclaiming over the deliciousness of it, and Unfortunately the meat in the bademjan was not tender at all so we ate around it, scooping up sauce and eggplant and yellow beans.

We noticed that they had (non-narcotic, non-nicotine) water pipes on the menu which sounded intriguing but we were so stuffed that anything else was out of the question – although in hindsight I imagine that the smoke acts as a digestif.

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Hakhamanesh
222 Pemberton Ave, North Vancouver