Robb Walsh's 100 Favorite Houston Dishes: #89 Kubideh and Zereshk Polo at Kasra Persian Grill on Westheimer

Over the course of the next few months, I'm counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in the comments.

#89 Kubideh and Zereshk Polo at Kasra Persian Grill

Kasra Persian Grill on Westheimer serves the best Persian food in town. The hummus is insanely garlicky, and the taftoon bread is always hot out of the oven. For lunch, I like the kubideh, a tube of charbroiled ground beef on a stick that might be considered an improvement on the hamburger. The ground meat is seasoned with grated onion, garlic, turmeric and lemon juice. It tastes terrific wrapped in taftoon bread with hummus and some of the fresh herbs they bring to the table -- or eaten with the exotic barberry rice called zereshk polo. Barberries are an Iranian dried fruit; they taste like lemony raisins. At dinner, I like to get the Sultani platter, which includes one kubideh and the filet mignon skewer called barg over top of the barberry rice.

The list to date:
#100: Green Chile Chicken Kebabs at Chatkhara Grill
#99: The All-Day Burrito at Cherry Top Bakery
#98: "You Buy We Fry" Trout Basket at Hank's Fish Market
#97: Chicharron de Barriga at La Michoacana Meat Market # 10
#96: Pakistani Breakfast at Kings Chicken
#95: Fried Mojarra at Taqueria Jesus Maria
#94: Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cake Ball at Coffee Groundz
#93:Cheeseburger at Leonard's Famous Burgers
#92: Lasagna at Doyle's on 34th St.
#91: Cochinita Pibil at Tacos La Bala 5800 Bellaire
#90: Fajita Tacos at Taqueria El Charro