A Superb Special Meal Featuring the Foods of Central Asia.

Metro Detroit native Anna Ansari comes to dinner at Miss Kim

In the spirit of what I wrote up top, Iran has also been in the news in tragic and terrible ways over recent weeks. My heart goes out to everyone in Ann Arbor with friends and relatives there who have been cut off without internet for days. And also to the demonstrators in Iran who had the courage to risk everything to stand up for democracy.

At the same time, the magic of millennia of remarkably rich culture and cooking continues on as it has for years. The evening of Tuesday, February 3, here in the relative safety of Washtenaw County, there’s a chance to enjoy this special meal as Anna Ansari brings the foods of her Iranian American heritage and her years of deep study of the cooking and culture of the various countries of Central Asia, Iran included, to Miss Kim to cook from her new book, Silk Roads: A Flavor Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing. Kristen Yee, writing in the October issue of the Asian Review of Books, compared Anna’s extensive research and flowing prose to the work of the great Paula Wolfert. Of the book, food writer Adeena Sussman says, “Packed with history, humor, and delicious food, this travelogue-memoir-cookbook checks every box.”

We did a great book event with Anna at the Roadhouse back in October, and honestly, it’s almost worth coming to the evening at Miss Kim just to hear her amazing life story alone. She was raised here in Metro Detroit with a father who had immigrated from Iran and a mother who grew up in Monroe.

Honestly—it’s not a typical cookbook dinner [or] book, but a homecoming of sorts with deep Michigan/Detroit roots. I’m a Michigander whose mother’s family has been in-state since before Michigan was an actual state and whose father moved here from Iran in 1964 and, among other things, marched with MLK Jr. in Detroit and established an international medical community in Monroe, Michigan. Michigan is in the book almost as much as “Central Asia.”

Anna’s father’s Iranian family is Azeri—members of the Azerbaijani minority that lives primarily in the northwest corner of the country. In Iran, Azeri’s have long suffered persecution, with efforts to erode the strength of their culture, much as has happened in so many nationalist settings. Ironically, growing up in Michigan, where few people know what an Azeri actually is, Anna nevertheless experienced early life biases as a child of an immigrant group, and an unfamiliar one at that, here in Michigan. “I remember not being invited to sleepovers because other kids’ parents in our Detroit suburb didn’t like where my father came from. I didn’t understand prejudice and fear then as I do now, but I did understand that my family was ‘different.’”

Although few Americans are aware of it, Iran, like nearly every other modern nation-state, is actually a diverse, multi-ethnic country. Roughly 60% of the population is Persian, but there are Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and others who make up the other 40%. The Spinach Chigirtma dish on the menu two weeks from Tuesday is from the Azerith tradition. British food writer, Rachel Khoo, says of this recipe, “it perfectly captures what [Anna’s] book does best. It takes a humble ingredient we think we know, and shows us its glorious, cross-cultural life. Spinach might seem everyday, but did you know its name traces back to ancient Persia? This leafy green has been blowing minds (and feeding empires) for centuries, and this dish is a delicious tribute.” It also, I think, gives you a taste of the care and complexity that’s gone into the book.

Anna’s dad, a surgeon, traveled extensively when she was growing up. In one of my favorite stories from the book event at the Roadhouse last fall, she shared how her father had tried to bring a rare melon back to his family from a work trip to Uzbekistan—be sure to ask Anna to tell the tale in case it doesn’t come up in the course of the evening’s conversation. Here’s what is on the menu for the event:

Morkovcha – a Korean-style carrot salad
Qurutob – bread salad in the style of Tajikistan
Beet Borani – Iranian yogurt dip with flatbreads
Spinach Chigirtma – Azeri-style spinach and eggs
Pork Mtsvadi – BBQ pork skewers in the style of Georgia
Ziran Doufu – cumin-scented tofu in the style of the Uyghur community of central Asia
Iranian Saffron-Laced Basmati Rice and Crispy Potato Gazmakh –  the classic dish of the Azeri community in Iran and of Anna’s family
Tres Leches – rice pudding

The book, the meal, the energy of the event, Anna’s family stories, her cultural studies, and Ji Hye’s cooking will, I guarantee, come together to make something super special happen! Don’t miss it! Anna lives in London now, so … this is not an everyday experience!

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