History
of Most Famous and Most Popular Iranian Dish, Chelo-Kebab
Summary: Iranian
chelo-kebab was, for the first time, prepared according to a
Caucasian recipe at the time and by the order of Naser-e-Din
Shah Qajar (1821-1900's).
The first chelo-kebab
restaurant, Nayeb, was inaugurated in Tehran in the
traditional bazaar
124 years ago.
Haj Hassan
Shamshiri chelo-kebab restaurant, one of the most famous, was
opened at the eastern wing of Sabzeh-meydan square, in downtown
Tehran, when Reza Shah was in power (1925-1941).
In 1352
(1973-74) a meal of chelo-kebab barg (made of mutton fillet and
grilled on skewer) served together with butter, grilled tomato,
raw onion, and sumac would have cost IR 60 for those who were at
work and could not go home for lunch. Sometimes when a number of
colleagues were on leave, others had the chance to order jujeh-kebab
(roast chicken) which
would have cost IR
120.
Tenfold in Thirty
Two Years
Thirty two years earlier in 1320 (1941-42), the Iranian daily
Ettela'at wrote that Tehran restaurants would charge IR 5 for a
meal of chelo-kebab including an extra large kebab barg, butter,
330 grams of rice, onion and bread as much as demanded. At the
same time a meal of chelo-kebab kubideh (made of minced meat)
cost IR 4.
Fifty Years
Earlier E'etemado-saltaneh, Naser-e-Din Shah's minister of
publications and head
of translation
office, used to order a highly qualitative take-out chelo-kebab
in Nayeb estaurant, which had just opened in the Tehran bazaar
and furnished with dining tables and chairs as in European
restaurants, for IR 3 to 5. Also in 1295 (1916-17), Abdullah
Bahrami, the deputy general of the Tehran police used to pay
maximum IR 4 to 5 for each meal of chelo-kebab that he ordered
for his respected and unrespected (the criminals who confessed
to their crimes but promised to cooperate with the police)
guests.
Twenty five
years have passed since the time when a meal of chelo-kebab cost
IR 60.
Now it would
cost something between IR 7,000 and 40,000 while the 25-rial
kebab kubideh would now cost IR 4,500 to 15,000. Considering the
fact that the average income of the veterans in Iran is within a
range of IR 250,000 to 600,000, and that chelo-kebab used to be
a very popular and the most common national dish, now one can
say that it has turned into a
luxurious one.
A Dish Loved by
All During his tour of Russia, Caucasus and European countries,
Naser-e-Din Shah enjoyed three things: the elegant clothing of
the Russian Kazak, the Saint Petersburg's and Muscovite
ballerinas' pants, and finally Caucasian chelo-kebab which was
different from Iranian kebab mainly prepared from chops of veal,
mutton and hunted birds and grilled on skewers. The Caucasian
chelo-kebab is what is now known as kebab barg, sultani and
luleh or kubideh.
Not Before Qajar Era
In their writings about Iran, the European explorers who visited
Iran
during Safavi era (1500-1736), though mentioned a lot about
different kinds of chelos (cooked and drained rice) and polos
(cooked rice), stews, pickles, and jams, but wrote nothing about
chelo-kebab in the
sense that we talk about it today. Most probably the recipe of
chelo-kebab has been given to the Iranian people either by the
Caucasian people or by the Iranians visiting the region, or as
written by Mirza Mohammad Reza Mo'tamed-ul-Ketab Shams Larijani,
an author of Qajar era, has been demanded by Naser-e-Din Shah
himself from the Caucasians and soon learned by Iranians all
over the country. Being
an Asian dish, chelo-kebab was well received in Iran and now has
turned into the most delicious Iranian dish.
Feeding a Battalion
or a Regiment
Naser-e-Din Shah had 87 wives, four of whom in
permanent and the
rest in temporary marital conditions, as well as 300 slave girls
who together
with the female and
male servants formed a battalion or, better to say, a
1000-strong regiment. Writing about Naser-e-Din Shah, Doust-Ali
Khan Mo'ayer-ul-Mamalek, a descendent of the Shah, narrates that
on Fridays whenever he wished to pilgrim the holy shrine of
Hazrat Abdul-Azim in Shar-e Rey, then a village in the south of
Tehran, his servants used to rush to the village one day earlier
and order 1,000 to 2,000 kebab kubideh. Kebab was a dish not in
the court menu but loved by his wives.
Thus, whenever
they planned to go there, they did not want to lose the chance
to have kebab served with basil, onion, and spring onion on
copper platters.
Political Chelo-Kebab,
First Punishment, Then Reception
In 1324
(1945-46), the price of the imported sugar cubes from Russia
went up due to the breakout of the war between that country and
Japan and also the slump in imports to Iran. The tyrant governor
of Tehran, Ala'e-doleh, considered the merchants and brokers
such as Seyyed
Hashem Qandi and
Esmaeil Khan who had deals with Russia, as the ones responsible
for the
price hikes.
Summoning them, Ala'e-doleh asked them to lower the price of
sugar cubes.
However, they did
not accept and consequently were lashed extensively. While being
lashed, the son of the merchant Hashem Qandi arrived and asked
the governor to lash him instead of his father. He accepted and
ordered his subjects to whip the son who received more than 500
lashes before a servant arrived and announced that chelo-kebab
was ready to be served.
Ala'e-doleh left the
area while inviting the three punished men to join him. He said
that at the time of lashing they had to receive lashes and at
the time of lunch they had to have lunch. "Now the time is
for chelo-kebab. Help yourselves and enjoy it."
Oldest Chelo-Kebab
Restaurant in Tehran
Nayeb Chelo-Kebab
Restaurant was the oldest one established in the Tehran bazaar
120 years ago. Since its establishment till some 15 years ago
when was closed down, to please the customers, Nayeb waiters
used to serve the extra-filled plate of pyramid-shaped hot rice
crowned with the
melting butter while kebabs on skewers were served by a waiter
who used to go from one table to another and provide customers
with extra kebabs as soon as they ran out of them and as long as
rice was still left in their plates. First, the customers used
to sit on bunches but later they were served at tables. The
restaurant did not mind how many kebabs a
customer would eat
and used charge everybody the same, a generous manner that was
characteristic of Iranians at that time, because of which it
managed to run a brisk siness.
Talking about
the generosity and kindness of Mr. Nayeb, a gentleman who was
the boss boy of a stingy merchant when a young boy, said that he
used to go to the Nayeb restaurant in the bazaar every day to
buy chelo-kebab for his boss who never thought that he was
hungry too and that he wished to have lunch too. But Mr. Nayeb, realizing that the boy was
hungry, used to
treat him with bread and kebab before he prepared the chelo-kebab
for the merchant and kept mentioning to his workers that
he was only a child and that the smell of kebab made his
mouth watery.
E'temad-ul-Saltaneh,
in his notes, mentions of a shop in the bazaar which like
Europeans served food at tables in 1292 lunar Hijra, a reference
most probably to the Nayeb restaurant as the first chelo-kebab
restaurant in Tehran. However, chelo-kebab restaurants were most
likely first established in the northwestern
city of Tabriz which
borders with Caucasia. Nowadays, chelo-kebab is a national
Iranian food in Tehran and other cities.
The reputation
of the Nayeb restaurant was passed on from one generation to
another and now there are tens of chelo-kebab restaurants in
Tehran and
other cities that are
named after the original one. But the most famous of them in
Tehran are the ones located in downtown near Shamsul-Amareh, and
in Sa'adat-abad ,
Aban, and Vali-e-Asr streets, the owners of whom are most
probably the descendent of the founder of the original one in
the bazaar.
The reputation
of the Nayeb chelo-kebab restaurants has crossed the borders and
now tens of them have been founded in other countries. In the
downtown of Los Angeles, for example, there is a Nayeb chelo-kebab
restaurant, which according to an Iranian who has recently been
there, offers pseudo-chelo-kebab. When asked what he meant by
pseudo-chelo-kebab, he said that chelo-kebab is a dish prepared
with aromatic Iranian rice and fresh mutton fillet. When
prepared with beef, it would be better to name
it steak and rice rather than chelo-kebab, something
similar to but not real chelo-kebab.
Kebab Shops
Till 1330-35
(1951-57), one kebab kubideh would have cost IR 3.5 in Tehran
and other cities while two of them together with bread and
grilled tomato
would make a full
meal costing about IR 8 and you could buy a lemonade or water
milk for 2-4 rials. Thus you could have a perfect lunch for IR
10-12.
At that time when stocks still used to feed on natural pasture,
meat seemed to be more delicious and aromatic and the aroma of
kebab could be
smelled from a far
distance and make passerby feel hungry. Kebabs used to be
wrapped in different kinds of Iranian breads such as taftoon,
sangak
and lavash (the dough
of all of which are spread out in the shape of an almost
23-inch-diameter circle or a 12 x 30-inch rectangle) topped with
basil in summer and with a big-size onion in winter.
People used to
say that if a young boy under the age of puberty smells kebab,
he must immediately be provided with some or otherwise he would
lose his state of manhood for ever.
Nowadays, after so many years that kebab shops have
served people with kebabs in the traditional way, and after the
opening of so many modern restaurants and deli, hamburger,
pizza, and fried chicken shops, the business of the kebab shops
is not brilliant and no longer elegant people go to their shops
to sit amidst the smell and smoke of kebab to have kebab.
However, the
kebab shops in Hazrat-e Abdul-Azim bazaar managed to enjoy their
reputation for few more decades. Also the kebab shops in Sarband
and
Darband villages of
Shemiran, north of Tehran as well as certain shops in smaller
cities such as the ones in and around the northeastern city of
Mashad and the one in Shiraz opposite the historic site of
Hafezieh where it serves a lot of people who consider going to
the restaurant as a national and traditional obligation, were
famous and could attract a lot
of customers. Most of the kebab and chelo-kebab
restaurants had interesting names such as Salamat (health),
Keramat (dignity), or Nezafat (cleanliness) entailed with the
name of the city of Tabriz, with the aim to attract more
customers.
A short period
of time after the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran in
1979 and after a period of bankruptcy, a number of big and
modern kebab
shops were opened in
the uptown and renewed the tradition of serving kebab and bread
grilled right on the spot. These shops which named themselves
as kebab-khaneh
(kebab houses), were quite different from those in the old time
filled with smoke and smell of kebab. Soon their business
flourished so that they are now among the most crowded
restaurants in the city. Many of them have also special ovens
for baking Iranian bread and presenting fresh bread to their
customers.
Famous Chelo-Kebab
Restaurants in Tehran Presently, there are hundreds of chelo-kebab
restaurants in Tehran the most famous of which are Nayeb in
Sa'adat-abad district (there are several Nayeb restaurants in
other parts of the city including the ones in Aban,
Vali-Asr and Vozara streets), Shater-Abbas, Madayen,
Alborz, Yaas (two of
them belonging to Naseri Bros.), Royal Vanak, Lux-e Talaei,
Apadana, Orkideh, Javan, and Tabriz. Sahra restaurant (in Sahra
Hotel in
Ayatollah
Taleghani St., opposite the former American embassy) has also
the reputation for presenting delicious chelo-kebab.
However, it is unfortunate that chelo-kebab has not been
registered as an international food although it is definitely
much better and more delicious than many other dishes belonging
to other nations.
In
Abroad
Javad Farifteh, Ahmad
Shah's (the last king of Qajar dynasty deposed in 1925) special
chef immigrated to Paris some 70 years ago and established the
well-known Farifteh chelo-kebab restaurant there. Also, Ahmad
Khan, an Iranian resident of Germany, set up a restaurant when
Nazis were in power and once, it is said, Hitler, the Nazi
leader, accompanied by his twoaides went to the restaurant and
tried the Iranianchelo-kebab. Inrecentyears, you simply find
tens of chelo-kebab restaurants in every European and American
city and there are so many of them here and there that it is not
simply possible to give an exact statistic of
them.
Nayeb Restaurant
Nayeb restaurant is
owned and managed by Dr. Hossein Yazdan-Manesh, a Ph.D. graduate
in sociology from France. He administers his restaurant in the
best way possible and with an excellent taste.
Dr. Yazdan-Manesh believes that administering a
well-known and honorable restaurant is nothing less than having
the title of a doctorate in sociology and that many educated
people may run such businesses successfully.
Nayeb is known as one of the best restaurants in Tehran and the
way its personnel treat their customers would certainly please
them. Dr. Yazdan-Manesh is surely successful in his business.
Chelo-Kebab Pahlavani (Extra Large) In recent years, preparing
extra large barg and kubideh kebabs which are sometimes three
times bigger than ordinary ones, have become common but they are
usually too big to be eaten by one person. It is said that at
the time of the Constitution Movement in Iran (1900's) the owner
of a chelo-kebab restaurant in Tabriz listening to a speech in
favor of the movement asked the speaker what constitutionalism
meant and what would happen if Iran enjoyed a constitutional
government. The speaker who himself was not very much aware of
the details said that constitutionalism meant cheap chelo-kebab
available for all. If Iran adopted constitutionalism, then you
would get a kebab this large (at this moment the speaker showed
the length of his fingertip to elbow) and with this diameter
(then he pointed to his muscular and athletic arm). The man
became very happy and said that he sincerely would accept
constitutionalism and
that he would tell others about it too.
Hajj Hassan Shamshiri
The owner of the most famous Iranian chelo-kebab Restaurant was
Hajj Hassan Shamshiri whose restaurant was located in the
eastern wing of Sabzeh-Meydan square in downtown at the time of
Reza Shah. Later, he moved to a four-storey building, the first
floor of which was the kitchen. The second floor was for the
reception of local shopkeepers and single men while the third
floor was for the families and high-level customers and in each
floor there were lots of full-length mirrors.
Mr. Shamshiri used to supervise the third and fourth floors of the
restaurant. As of
11.00 a.m., the aroma of kebab and the high-quality cooked rice
as well as fresh butter used to fill the air in and around the
restaurant and make every passerby hesitant about not going
inside. Shamshiri used to offer double-deck chelo-kebab, hat is,
he used to crown a pyramid-shaped pile of cooked rice with two
kebabs in a plate. Mr.
Shamshiri was a staunch advocate of the oil industry
nationalization movement and a sincere follower of Dr. Mosadegh
(the then prime minister who
nationalized oil industry) and in the winter of 1330 (winter of
1951-52) paid the very large sum of IR 1,000,000 to buy national
bonds as an effort to support the nationalization plan. Several
months after the 1953 coup against Dr. Mosadeqh, he was arrested
on charges of struggling against
the coup government of Zahedi and was exiled to the Kharg island
in the Persian Gulf. His co-prisoner in Kharg, the late Karim
Keshavarz wrote in his diary that Mr. shamshiri had promised to
treat his co-prisoners with high-quality Shamshiri kebab barg
and kubideh but that unfortunately no such chance became
available.
Shamshiri's reputation of
his chelo-kebab was such that an Iranian author wrote a novel
about it in which he described it as the most pleasant dish
adored by both Iranians and Westerners.
Even now, some chelo-kebab restaurants carry the name in
an effort to convince the customers that their chelo-kebab is of
high-quality, while some others claim that they have hired the
Shamshiri's chef. However, the fact is that he died almost 30
years ago and that his chefs are either too old to work or have
passed away already. The only probability is that his chefs'
trainees may be now engaged in some of the restaurants.
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