For my final blog I decided
to write about the portion of the Iranian Diaspora that has made West Los
Angeles its home. From Santa Monica to
Westwood there is such a large concentration of Iranian businesses and residents
that in some books they refer to this area as Tehrangeles. The area has become
so prominent that you can even google it by that name. To gauge the effects of this influx of
Iranians into the area I decided to take a couple of my American friends to a
typical Iranian activity in the area. I
chose Darya, one of my favourite Persian restaurants, for our trip. Darya is located at 12130 Santa Monica Blvd,
and provides a wonderful blend of authentic Persian cuisine with western style
decoration and ambiance. In my opinion Darya has the best Persian food I have
ever tasted (with the exception of my mother’s cooking) but also it is the
least ostentatious and unnecessarily over decorated of the local Persian
restaurants. The majority of Persian owned stores and restaurants (much like
Persian homes) are overly ornamented with marble columns, gold paint, and
decorative mirrors. Although I must
admit Darya does include some of these it does it in a more gentle way so that
it does not assault the senses, which makes the dinning experience more enjoyable.
My friends were hesitant at
first because the food looked so different from anything they had tried
before. The white drink that looks like
milk is in fact a yogurt drink and therefore salty – quite a shock if you’re
expecting a sweet milk drink. The sauces have very exotic ingredients such as
okra and eggplant and my own favourite dish has a dark brown muddy colour and
is made from a blend of walnuts and pomegranate juice. Once we got past the initial culture shock my
friends were very much at home with a lamb shank and rice dish and a kabob and
rice combination. In fact they have now
become devotees of Iranian food and want to take their families to introduce
them to these exotic dishes.
In class we discussed the topic of
race as an axis of difference. In recent years the Iranians as a race have seen
a great deal of discrimination beginning with the hostage crisis at the start
of the Iranian revolution in 1979. Each
time there is any terrorist activity any where in the world the blame is placed
on the Iran and, whether rightly or wrongly, all Iranians have to suffer the
consequence of prejudice and hatred.
These days the world has accepted the fact that the Iranians outside of
Iran left that country because they do not agree with that country’s policies
and behaviour. In the 1980s very often
Iranians in this country were ostracized and even attacked just on the basis of
their skin colour. When asked about
their nationality, many Iranians would pretend to be Greek or Italian.
However, there are several racial/ cultural
signifiers, which can make it easy to identify someone from a particular racial
group. For example there are certain hairstyle or clothing choices that are
very distinct among the Persians. The
women tend to over dress for every occasion, wearing several designer brands at
the same time and an over use of very large and prominent types of
jewellery. Many go through plastic
surgery procedures at a very young age and it is not unusual to see teenage
girls and boys with nose jobs and chin implants. Chemically straightened hair and fancy hairstyles
are also quite common. Of course, these features are also found in other ethnic
groups however they become very common in the Persian community. Another way of
identifying someone from this group is their accent and diction. The Persian
alphabet does not have the letter “w” therefore every time this letter appears
in a word it is replaced by the letter “v” making the accent easy to detect.
While the Persians tend to cluster together it is not the result of urban
segregation and is more a choice based on location and title.
These days there is a greater
tolerance towards Iranians and the Americans understand that the deeds of a few
should not be made the reason for condemning others. Now this acceptance is showing itself as
people look at Persian works of art with appreciation and, in the case of my
friends, they try the food with an open mind and agree that it would be a shame
not to add these dishes to the growing eclectic menu that is available to the
American population.
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