The Irvine Food Tour with Commissioner Melissa Fox Returns! Join Us for a Spectacular Persian Dinner at House of Kabob!

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“I don’t know anyone who has had Persian food and didn’t like it. Seriously.” ― Rick Steves, Guidebook Author and TV host.

Food is an expression of culture and a central focus of family life.  Here in Irvine, our cultural diversity is expressed in many forms, including restaurants.  I would like to share my love of Irvine’s many cultures and cuisines with you. That’s why I’ve launched the Irvine Food Tour with Commissioner Melissa Fox.

Food Tour HOK 2-8-16 (2) (1) (1)-page-0Please join us as we continue our Irvine Food Tour, showcasing and sharing our wonderful cultural diversity in Irvine as expressed in scores of amazing local restaurants and markets featuring cuisines as diverse as Irvine’s population!

As always, there’s going to be great food and great conversation!

Our next Irvine Food Tour destination is House of Kabob on Monday, February 8 at 6:00 p.m., for a spectacular dinner of Persian food.

House of Kabob is an award-winning restaurant that offers a casual yet refined dining experience through a meticulous fusion of flavorful food, pleasant ambience, and congenial hospitality.  The restaurant’s goal is to provide authentic Persian/Mediterranean cuisine coupled with impeccable service. Every dish is prepared fresh daily with only the finest ingredients.

The Los Angeles Times has raved that “House of Kabob cooks with self-assurance, its name a declaration of the restaurant’s dominion over all things skewered. Kabobs do indeed fare well, gobbets of beef, lamb or chicken charred in a primal, pleasing way. The koobideh kebab — ground beef formed into a torpedo — is the juicy ideal of what a kebab can be, the meat made almost silken amid the flames.  Combination kebabs offer a complete experience. The zafarani kebab trio provides a taste of everything: a boneless chicken kebab, a koobideh kebab and two lamb chops. Each kebab plate is served with a heap of basmati rice and orbs of charbroiled tomato, their skins blistered and scarred like the craggy surface of some comet-battered planet.”

Our expert host will be owner Jozef Besharati, who has more than 30 years of experience in culinary creations, event planning, and hotel management.  Mr. Besharati’s experience first began when he attended Le Vieux Bois in Geneva, Switzerland, which is known to be one of the top culinary schools in Europe.  After six rigorous years of training, he proceeded to work at Geneva’s acclaimed AAA Five Star Hotel du Rhone. After nearly 10 years of advancing his knowledge of management and culinary expertise where he worked under some of the most well-known chefs in Europe, Mr. Besharati moved to Irvine, California, where he spent the next 15 years working as the Catering and Banquet Manager at the AAA Five Star Le Meridian Hotel and later the AAA Five Star Sutton Place Hotel.

Seating is limited, so please reserve your spot as soon as possible by calling me at 949-683-8855 or emailing me at melissa@melissafoxlaw.com.

There are vegetarian and kid-friendly options.  Each diner will purchase their own items from the menu.

See you there!

What: Irvine Food Tour with Commissioner Melissa Fox

When: Monday, February 8, 2016, at 6:00 p.m.

Where: House of Kabob, 92 Corporate Park, Irvine, CA 92606

If you have any questions, please contact me at 949-683-8855 or melissa@melissafoxlaw.com.

See you there!

Please note:  Commissioner Melissa Fox’s Irvine Food Tour is the creation of Melissa Fox and Dr. Catherine Liu, based on their love of Irvine’s many cultures and cuisines and their desire to share Irvine’s many wonderful cultures and cuisines with you, and is not an official activity or event of the City of Irvine

Happy Korean American Day!

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Today commemorates the 113th  year of Korean immigration to the United States.

Korean War veterans (2)On January 13, 1903, a group of 102 Koreans arrived in Honolulu from Japan aboard the steamship RMS Gaelic to work in the Hawaiian sugar cane fields. This date is traditionally regarded as marking the first Korean immigration to the United States and celebrated as Korean American Day, although several individual Koreans had immigrated to the United States earlier, including Philip Jaisohn (Seo Jae-pil), a journalist and medical doctor and a noted champion for Korea’s independence and democracy, who in 1890 became the first Korean to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.

From these humble beginnings, a large and vibrant Korean American community has grown, now numbering nearly 2 million people of Korean descent in the United States, including nearly half a million people in California, and more than 13,000 Korean Americans living in Irvine.

melissa-koreanfestival-02 (2)Irvine is proud to celebrate our thriving Korean American community. Each year Irvine holds our annual Irvine Korean Cultural Festival, designed to share Korean culture with the entire community by showcasing its customs, heritage, arts and cuisine.

Our city has adopted the South Korean city of Seocho-gu as one of Irvine’s four “Sister Cities,” and has begun planning for the construction of a traditional Korean garden in Col. Bill Barber Park next to Irvine City Hall.

As the proud daughter of a Korean War veteran, and as a proud resident of Irvine, I feel a deep appreciation for the vital contributions that Korean Americans have made to our city, our state, and our country.

I am proud to live in a city that celebrates and treasures our tremendous diversity, including our vital Korean American community, and I join my Korean American friends and neighbors in celebrating Korean American contributions to our shared American heritage and way of life.

Happy Korean American Day!