Amohosein Iranian Restaurant: Food, Beverage, and Stories by Uncle

And so it’s come to this.

Tika (Yogurt marinated beef) with rice ❤

(I didn’t mean for that to come out negatively; “come to this” sounds more dramatic =)) ) Baguio finally has its first ever eating place that highlights food and beverage from Iran.

While on shut in mode and a should I stay or should I go (out) type of indecision, to get the best of both worlds, Race and I ride around nearby like T. Alonzo, Magsaysay, etc. Passing by New Lucban Road, I saw a sign (♪ ♫) that read: Soon to open  Iranian resto.

UPDATE 02/05/2020: Amohosein’s hole in the wall is now managed by Uncle Hosein’s wife’s fam so they only offer Filipino dishes. If you’re still looking for Iranian/Middle Eastern dishes, you can find Uncle Hosein at King Shawarma. He is the chef at this Lourdes Grotto food stop.

Days pass and walking home from one of the many eateries in the university belt, we came upon the Iranian restaurant on their first open sesame day. Though most of the dishes were already sold out by the time we returned for dinner and also due to foreign sounding items with no description or photo on their menu, it took us awhile to pick what to eat, we were still able to get a good selection: The (last serving of) olovieh sandwich, mirza ghasemi with extra nan, chelow kabab with rice, and a glass of labanup.

Olovieh sandwich =)

The olovieh sandwich was reminiscent of egg salad on bread for its straight from the ref temperature spread on nan. It’s actually mashed potato with peas and some other ingredients and spices I couldn’t really distinguish, but it was tasty and filling.

Mirza ghasemi is roasted eggplant much like poqui poqui with more spices mixed in that gave it a yellowish tinge. We got an extra nan to eat it with, to balance the intense roast-y flavors. Also, it was fun to watch Chef make the leavened bread, putting the dough on top of a thingamajig that looked like a pillow before plopping it into his oven. =D

Mirza ghasemi

Chelo is minced beef in English. This plate was sort of dry considering it didn’t have any sauce on it whatsoever. We did ask for garlic sauce, and though we’re told that it’s not normally a part of the Iranian spread, they had it. (They do have a yogurt and cucumber dip for times like these, but they forgot to give us some this visit and we didn’t know it exists then.)

Chelo kebab (minced beef) with rice

We washed everything we had on our table down with the interesting Laban Up. It’s a yogurt drink, basically, and for its creamy white look with bits of mint, my brain assumed would taste sweet, but noooo. It was salty. Hear my brain go, whoa! =b Not salty like the way I like salty things to be but salt flavored. An acquired taste to some, methinks, but definitely, better than the weird drink I had at another resto. Definitely, a strange taste, that gave me a feeling of wanting to drink more but also wanting to stop and never have it again. *heehaha

Nan taftan

A week later, and I’m still lazy to go out. I asked Race to bring some Amo Hosein food stuff and he came home bearing spring rolls (a lot like our lumpia), chicken barberry, and tika – beef marinated in yogurt, and shiraz salad. The salad, a simple cucumber and tomato mix with lemon juice for dressing, was an utterly refreshing accompaniment to our dindin.

Shirazi salad, chicken bar berry with rice, spring roll tika with rice (“,)

The chicken bar berry was like a super light curry dotted with barberry, a pomegranate seeds looking spice that gave a hint of sourness to my spoonfuls. With the tika, I found my favorite Iranian viand. It is juicy beef with a flavorful rice that made me think of Hainanese rice. A little dollop of yogurt+cucumber dip (mast-o-khiar) here and there and we finished off our (second) less than P300 meal and we were mega stuffed. ^^,

At the Iranian eatery

So this is what good food does to me. It lights a fire under me to write a feature post for the blog. =) It crossed my mind, however, that I need a better shot of my beloved tika (In the take away box, the succulent chunks of meat were hiding under all the rice), so the lunch venue the next day was Amo Hosein’s.

Having the eatery to ourselves, we got to chat with Chef Hosein. He related to us what “amo” meant in Iranian. Unlike here, where it means boss, it means simply, uncle. Say hello to Uncle Hosein, my foodie friends!

Labanup drink

Race had another salty yogurt beverage. (All right, all right, I also drank some. *hee) We got the falafel sandwich (so we could see Uncle making nan again), my new fave tika, and the chicken version of the yogurt marinated meats.

While we ate the chicken rice meal that reminded me of shish taouk and the made-in-an-instant tasty falafel sandwich, Uncle, in thick accented English, regaled us with the origin stories of some of their offerings.

Falafel sandwich ^^,

Dating back hundreds of years, he says, chelo, Iran’s national dish, was born because a king in the olden times wanted to midnight snack. The royal cook was called in and instructed to have something to satisfy the king’s hunger in 15 minutes or it’s off with his head. #harsh Having nothing but a small piece of meat and spices, the chef went a-mincing and a-grilling. The chelo was so good, the king had it for other mealtimes besides midnight snacks from then on.

Yogurt marinated chicken with rice

There once was a poor mirza (which means scholar or bookkeeper) 250 years ago, documenting inventory at a company, who only had money for eggplant. He roasted these, tossed in some spices and brought this to work for his lunch everyday. One day, the company owner’s pregnant wife came for a visit and smelled the aroma of the Iranian poqui poqui. The mirza gave her some to taste and she loved it so much she asked about its name and how it was made. The mirza was stumped about what to call it and it was the company owner who dubbed it, mirza ghazemi – “invented by mirza”. \m/

X marks Amohosein Food & Beverages: Iranian, Arabic and Filipino Cuisine for good food in Baguio.

Parts Unknown‘s most recent episode, the tribute to Chef Anthony Bourdain comes to mind. “(It’s so important to Tony’s mission to remember that) To eat the food of the world, you don’t have to have a lot of frequent flier miles, you don’t have to have a lot of money.” (*sniff Chef Tony Bourdain, we miss you.) Because at Amo Hosein’s Iranian restaurant, Uncle Chef Hosein brings Iran to us, to everyone in fair food trip city, Baguio City. (“,) (Just in time, I’d say, just when I don’t feel like going out and going far much these days.)

Food: 

Service: 

Ambiance:  Carinderia digs by the side of the road. No biggie really, it’s clean and we’re here for the food. *hihi

Price:  Three satisfying mealtimes for less than P300.

Uncle Hosein’s Eatery serving halal Iranian, Arabic and Filipino cuisine =D

Amohosein Food & Beverage Iranian Restaurant

New Lucban Road (coming down from the staircase beside STI College, it’s one of the eateries across the street)

Baguio City

www.facebook.com/Amohosein-Restaurant-767789233561239/

(See location on Google Maps: STI to Amo/Uncle Hosein’s place: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/STI+College+Baguio/16.4213395,120.5974104/@16.4212035,120.5965967,216m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m9!4m8!1m5!1m1!1s0x3391a15fdc44ef01:0x8ba55fba4506f531!2m2!1d120.5972034!2d16.4210252!1m0!3e2 )

UPDATE 02/05/2020: Amohosein’s hole in the wall is now managed by Uncle Hosein’s wife’s fam so they only offer Filipino dishes. If you’re still looking for Iranian/Middle Eastern dishes, you can find Uncle Hosein at King Shawarma. He is the chef at this Lourdes Grotto food stop.