A Taste of Iran: Paramount

In case you were wondering, I’m getting a little tired of eating out so yesterday I compromised by getting takeout from Paramount.  Paramount serves middle eastern cuisine.  There might be better choices in Toronto for Persian food but I’ll probably need to discover more about their cuisine before I’ll truly know the difference.

I debated between ordering tabbouleh and the fattoush salad but finally settled on the salad.  Aside for the parsley and crispy pita pieces in the salad, the thing that really makes this salad different is the dressing.  Any other dressing on this salad would make it seem fairly ordinary.  I don’t know what is in the dressing but I’m pretty sure there is a good dose of garlic.

I then ordered the beef and cheese manakeesh.  It’s an Arabic style pizza.  The crust is really thin.  The beef seems to have been cooked with some sweeter spices, maybe cinnamon or nutmeg or something along those lines.  It’s a nice flavour change.

I ordered one skewer of kafta which is ground beef and spices that gets formed and cooked on a skewer.  It was served with some “mixed pickles” and a little shredded lettuce.  They also gave me two large pitas and a small container of hummus.  I assume those came with the kafta.

Finally, I ordered some dessert.  Most of their desserts are sold by weight so I asked for a small container of baklawa.  This is very similar to Greek baklava but here it is served in small bite size portions in various shapes. 

There are a number of other things on the menu that I rarely or never eat, like the stuffed grape leaves or the okra.  I'll have to try them next time. :)