Drift Reality

When it comes to Iranian restaurants, I’m a discriminating bastard because the quality of my Mom’s cooking is such that it has completely ruined me from enjoying anything but the best Iranian food. So when I go to an Iranian restaurant and I say that the food is “decent,” it should be taKarl to mean that the food is out of this world, it’s just that in comparison to my Mom’s cooking, anything short of perfection is average.

Anyway, there are basically two Iranian restaurants in San Diego: Sadaf and Bandar. Of the two, Sadaf has better food. Recently, I was pleasantly surprised to find the Caspian Corner, a small Iranian restaurant/cafe in University Heights, located at 4646 Park Blvd (619-298-2801).

It is a family-run restaurant that caters to a more new-age/vegan/tree-hugging group. This means the Kebob Kubideh that I know and love is absent from their menu. On the other hand, they have delicious Lubia Polo and Ghormeh Sabze, at mind-bogglingly low prices. The ambience is intimate and cozy and you will feel like you are eating in someone’s house. The family who owns the restaurant are extremely warm and friendly and you are destined to have an enjoyable experience if you go there. They also have an extensive menu of various teas from around the world.

It already is one of my favorite places in San Diego. If only they would make Kebob and get rid of the hippies, it would be my single-most favorite place in San Diego.

When I think about sushi, I want to imagine the following: a wide array of flavors on my taste buds, the feeling of wasabi wafting through my sinuses, and cute Japanese girls. At Ichiban, I can get all these things at ridiculously cheap rates. On Tuesday, they have a half-price special from 3:30 until 9:30. I go there every Tuesday, and eat sixteen rolls there, and take sixteen roles home with me to eat for dinner. The sushi is very fresh, the rice somehow manages to retain its fluffiness, and the girls are cute and have Japanese accents which is also very cute. Ichiban is the Bronx Pizza of sushi places in San Diego. There really is no reason to go anywhere else.

The Arirang house, located at 4681 Convoy St. in Claremont is one of my favorite Korean restaurants in San Diego. I’ve been there three or four times and the reason is it reminds me the most of actual barbecue places in Korea.

It is not Westernized, if you order two or more barbecue platters, you can sit at a table where you barbecue it yourself, the side dishes are fresh, and the Kun Mandu is probably the best I’ve had in this country. To top it all off, the service is top rate.

It doesn’t have the frills of a lot of the other Korean places but the ambiance is unmistakably Korean, for better or for worse. I’ve always thought that ambience takes a far back seat to the quality of food (not a concept that my dates have always agreed with) so this place is right down my alley. It is the Darband of Korean food - plain surroundings/damn good food.

The Kalbi is delicious and the Kim-Chi is fresh. They have about four or five different types of Soju, which never hurts. To top it all off, there is an adjoining neure-bang where you can work off the barbecue by singing Michael Bolton while drinking a Cass.

We headed down 5th avenue and my ears perked up as I heard the slippery melodies of Iranian music wafting through the air. I turned and saw the Sadaf Restaurant (619-338-0008, 828 5th Ave). An attractive hostess and angry looking bouncer greeted us at the entrance. We paid the $7.00 cover charge and walked into the Gas Lamp district’s only Persian nightclub.

There was a DJ who was spinning Persian pop-music and a dance floor that was packed, mostly with Persian women. As we sat at the bar and ordered drinks, I allowed myself to become hypnotized by their seductive gyrations. The place had a hip, upscale appearance and was filled with Persians of all ages as well as young, well-dressed yuppies.

I approached the manager, a man by the name of Amir, and told him that I had spoken with him on the phone earlier in the week. He widened his eyes and bellowed, “Oh yes,” and then promptly turned and scampered off. I sat back down at the bar and turned to my left, where an attractive young lady with extremely short hair had sat down next to me.

“Hello. How are you?” I asked politely.

She smiled and answered, “Fine thank you.”

“Are you Persian?”

“No, my boyfriend works here.”

Well, so much for that idea, but we did have a friendly chat in which she told me that the place gets really packed on Saturday nights, and that the food is fantastic. After a few moments she left and told me that, “They are going to start playing a lot of American pop-music soon so I’m leaving. There is another club that plays Arabic music down the road.” With that, she left and I once again turned towards the dance floor.

After studying the rhythmical twists of the hands in the dancers, I decided that I was ready to test out my skills on the dance floor. I approached a trio of heavyset women and began dancing with them. They looked at one another as if to say, “well, at least we have something to laugh about later.” Then, they went and sat down. It was then that I made the executive decision that it was time to go home.