I love this newsletter edition about Iranian foodshops, but because arguing about food is so pleasurable I am gonna make some additions/corrections/suggestions: https://vittles.substack.com/p/vittles-310-persian-supermarkets?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cta

1/ I love the editor's withdrawal of apology about ketchup on Iranian pizza. If I could find Iranian-style ketchup, I swear I would put it on EVERYTHING, but alas....

2/ A few restaurants are mentioned here, but probably the best, and best value, is not. Kish has the best kababs, the best deezy, and the best khoreshes. And their dishes are SO HUGE that one order will cover your lunch the next day too.

3/ A 100 yards down from Kish is an Iranian grocery store which is absolutely AMAZING. It has a very good butcher shop and really fantastic imported Iranian stuff. It also caters to the Arabs in the neighbourhood and people there speak Arabic so, it is fantastic.

4/ That said, Bahar (mentioned here) once sold me the best fresh white qare-qorut I have had in my life and so there is that.

5/ a few things about pomegranat molasses: Turkish, Lebanese and Iranian molasses are NOT interchangeable. The Iranian version is much more sour. So if using, beware.

6/ Same goes for sumac. The colour and flavour of sumac is actually slightly different between the Iranian version and those used by Turks and Arabs of Mashriq.

7/ Sorry about the pedantry, but the green in ghormeh sabzi is not green onions; it is chives (or better yet, Chinese chives if you can find them).

8/ Advieh can have loads of different recipes (each family has their own) but most also include powdered dried limes and powdered rose petals.

9/ Again, apologies about the pedantry, but the dried limes are limoo Omani (not Ammani). That is because they were first dried on the Persian/Arabian Gulfs and Gulf of Oman.

10/ Finally, fenugreek is the herb that makes Iranian ghormez sabzi taste the way it does. But go easy. Too much fenugreek makes for a very bitter ghormeh sabzi, and any amount of it will make your sweat smell.