Yea, I love Persian food too. We have a couple OK restaurants here in NYC but I think the better ones are in Southern California, which has a larger community. I use to have this Persian friend out here who moved to the US in the 80s to be an engineer or something. Anyways, he told me that his Grandmother once found a diamond for a couple bucks at a flea market in Tehran that she ended up selling for like 100k. Anyway, that store has no bearing on anything really, but I found it amusing. Nearly all the Persians I have met were very educated people, not isolated to the degrees they held, something that ran a bit deeper...
I mentioned Kiarostami being one of, if not my very favorite director, I should also add that Asghar Farhadi makes really wonderful, thought provoking films, with a voice that has echo's of Kiarostami's work. It's rare to find an American director like that these days.