The World Cup is just a week away now. And while the usual matchday accompaniments are likely to be more of the fried, chipped and sausage-shaped, there is inspiration to be found in the England fixtures.
Take Iran, for example, our first match of Qatar 2022. The city has a handful of fine establishments in which to soak in the Persian culinary culture ahead of bellowing at their national team on the pitch. So, earlier this week, I grabbed a table at Darbar in the shadow of Strangeways, a little way up Cheetham Hill Road.
There are not many places like it. Up the steep steps to the first floor, above the African Beauty salon is where you find it, kind of suspended behind some patio windows. Inside is more unusual still.
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The decor is heavy on the ‘ski lodge’, with an impressively vaulted ceiling, all walls clad in wood panelling, and wonderful Persian artefacts hanging from the walls. Some of which - the long-handled axes, for example - look like they could be a bit on the deadly side, in the wrong hands. But there’s also a handsome old tea urn too, and a tapestry runs the length of the ceiling.
Some warm bread soon arrives on the table, and a bowl of mirza (£6.50) - smoked aubergine, blitzed tomato, egg and garlic. It’s all scooped up quickly with the bread and, with the daughter in tow, so is a plate of the crispiest fried halloumi ever to grace a dining table (£6.50). She would not hold with a poorly fried piece of cheese. She has been taught well in that regard.
Luckily, what with the football fan’s general love of the post-match ‘bab, this is where Darbar comes into its element. The Naser Shah kebab (£17.50p) would feed two, coming as it does with a skewer of the very softest diced lamb fillet and a kobideh, a minced lamb kofte-style kebab.
But somehow, this isn’t the best part. It’s the rice. Accompanying this festival of skewered beasts is rice perfection itself. Most important to Middle Eastern rice is perfecting the ‘tahdig’. Literally translated, it’s ‘bottom of the pot’ and it’s not to be underestimated.
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It’s the layer of rice in the pot that crisps at the bottom as the fluffy stuff in the middle steams, and will cause fights over dinner tables from Beirut to Kabul. No such concerns here, because everyone gets their own mount of beautifully steamed pilaf with a perfect layer of crisp rice on top.
Better still, you get an extra perfect square of it, in case you still feel hard done by. When rice upstages a kebab, it’s something to shout about. The kebab dishes can also come served as an ‘abadi’, the grilled meat slid off the skewer and into a clay pot with a sharp but soothing tomato sauce, with charred chilis and tomatoes scorched on the grill.
You could stop there. The kebabs (and the rice) get full marks all day long, as does the shirazi salad, the tomato, cucumber and onion chopped uniformly, and drenched with so much dried mint and lemon that it could wake the dead.
So come for the kebabs. But ignore the Persian stews at your peril. There are whole lamb shanks stewed forever (£15.50), served with baghal polo rice, full of broad beans and almost as much fresh dill as there are grains of basmati. It’s almost a salad, and comes with a cute packet of butter to slather at will. Which you will.
But the Gheymen Bademjan (£12.50) is the winner, a lamb stew with aubergine which has given up trying to maintain any kind of shape at all, sharp dried lime, lentils and saffron. With more of that tahdig rice too.
Those with a larger appetite could try the mixed grill for two (£35) but just make sure there’s three of you if you order it. There’s been a terrible mistake on the menu. So, if immersing yourself in the culture of the opponent is your thing when it comes to the World Cup, Darbar is the place.
Next week, I’ll be heading for some deep fried lasagne (yes, that’s deep fried lasagne) and Chicago-style pan pizza ahead of our fixture with the USA. Prayers for my arteries greatly received.
Darbar, 135 Cheetham Hill Rd, Cheetham Hill, Manchester M8 8LY
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