Niroj Kurdish Cuisine – The Only Kurdish Restaurant in Southern California

Kurdish cuisine in Agoura Hills, California (Conejo Valley). I am sure there are two things giving you pause in that sentence. Kurdish food in Agoura Hills? Probably not the first thing that would come to your mind when you think of Agoura. Or maybe you are just thinking, what is Kurdish cuisine? Kurdish food was born in the mountains between Mesopotamia and Persia. The Kurds, an ancient people, can be found in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Armenia and Georgia. The diversity in the food varies according to country where the Kurdish live, but in essence, it is Middle Eastern cuisine. There are aspects of Arab, Turkish, Armenian, Syria and Persian cuisine but Kurdish cuisine uses more fresh herbs, subtle spices and lots of vegetables. Niroj, pronounced "nirough" and meaning "new day", is located just off the 101 freeway at Reyes Adobe. Tucked in the back of a strip mall, next to a cleaners, dental office, hair salan, nail salan, Irish restaurant and a Kosher pizza place, a Kurdish restaurant is not what you would expect. Niroj is the only Kurdish restaurant in Southern California and the only Kurish fine dining in the entire Western part of USA. Opened February 2013, Niroj is the creation of Luqman Barwari, a Kurd originally from Iran. Barwari came to the US at the age of eighteen and worked as a molecular biologist for many years. He established his family in the Conejo Valley and when he was laid off from his job in the sciences, he began studying Kurdish cuisine. From 2006 to 2011, Barwari would go to the Kurdish area in the Southeast region of Turkey and immerse himself in the cuisine.