In this week's Tasting Notes newsletter, Bill Addison savors the kolompeh from Simi Valley's ZoZo Baking.
Fariba Nafissi had been an executive at IKEA in Burbank for almost 20 years when she received one of life’s most jarring wake-up calls. She’d planned a trip to visit Iran, her home country, with her cousin Shahroo, who’d gone ahead a couple of weeks early. Before Nafissi arrived, Shahroo died in her sleep. Nafissi was soon asking questions about what gave her life the most meaning.
Baking was part of the answer. Nafissi grew up in Kerman, a city in the southeast of Iran on the edge of the Lut desert. Dates are a major local crop; she remembers her father having a bowl of yogurt with dates as part of his lunch every day. One of the region’s distinctive treats is kolompeh, a soft, golden cookie filled with dates, nuts and spices. Bakers use special stamps to create patterns in the dough. Four years ago Nafissi began selling kolompeh on Etsy.
Nafissi creates familiar American flavor combinations — apple-cinnamon, blueberry-almond, strawberry, a seasonal cranberry number she’s been tinkering with recently — but her traditional kolompeh is by far the most wonderful. Yogurt and egg yolk make the dough tender; the edges are delicate and crumbly. She uses no other sweetener beyond the dates.
Nafissi’s store is charming, and the trek from central Los Angeles to Simi Valley includes some beautiful mountain vistas along the highways. It’s also easy to order kolompeh and other pastries from her online site. I’d never tried a kolompeh before last week but they’re now my go-to food gift this season.I reviewed one of the most expensive and outrageous restaurants in Los Angeles this week:in the SLS Beverly Hills.
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