October pop-up dinners helping raise money for trip to Israel.
It’s been a while since you’ve seen Farzad Mashhood’s name in the paper.
Up until a little more than a year ago, Mashhood was covering county government for the American-Statesman, but he left to pursue a master’s degree in community and regional planning at the University of Texas.
He’s loving life in academia, but being stuck at home reading left him a little restless. Mashhood, whose parents are from Iran, grew up in Southern California eating all kinds of Persian food.
Traditional dishes such as fesenjoon and ásh aren’t so easy to come by in Austin; so earlier this year, he started making big batches of both — fesenjoon is a thick stew made with chicken, walnuts and pomegranate syrup; and ásh is a barley stew — for his friends and fellow Persians in town.
Throughout the month of October, he’s hosting mini popup dinners with his friend Daniel Heron. They are planning a trip to Israel in May to participate in the Baha’i pilgrimage to Haifa. These dinners and to-go orders are a way to help raise money to get them there.
They are calling the event Oshtober. Buy tickets ($15 per person for fesenjoon, ásh, tea and dates) and find out more at farzadskitchen.com. This month’s dinners are scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 14, 20 and 28 at a residence in North Austin. To get a behind-the-scenes look at their process, check out the Instagram at @farzadskitchen.