So it was especially jarring to me when the vacation rental in London our friends and I had booked over the Internet turned out to be different than promised. The converted church looked just as it had in the photos; that was not the surprise. It was just that our “Vacation Rental By Owner” was more of a “Vacation Rental With Owners.” Our friends and I had already chosen which rooms we were going to take. Harriet, our host, took us on our tour of the space, and I wondered why there seemed to be one less room than I remembered.

“Where is the light blue room with the fuchsia settee?” (That was the one I had been eyeing.)

“Oh, I didn’t think you would need that space,” Harriet said, not missing a beat as she unlocked a door. “Won’t all the [five] children just stay in one room together? No worries, let me just remove my belongings from there.”

That was surprise No. 1.

“My partner and I will just stay in the choir loft,” she said. “Don’t mind us; just pretend we are not here.”

But it was impossible to pretend when, while attempting to stretch out in the living room that was below the open loft, we’d hear Harriet and Lee’s exaggerated whispers. When we’d return late at night, which should not have been anyone’s business but ours, Harriet would loudly toss and turn and sigh, irritated from being woken up at night. We felt more like houseguests in a stranger’s home than tenants, free to come and go as we pleased.

Further surprises came along. One early morning, we were awoken by loud sounds downstairs. There were at least a dozen people busily moving furniture, laying out lamps and doing hair and makeup.

Harriet eyed us. “You should probably eat your breakfast quickly so that the film crew can start working.” (Film crew?) “Isn’t it exciting?” she said breathlessly. “Mandy Moore is filming her movie here! I hope you have a full day planned so that you won’t interrupt the filming.”

Mandy Moore? Filming? Wait a second– what about the naps our exhausted kids were counting on having? And was our rent subsidizing Mandy Moore’s film? I snuck a peek at the blond-wigged woman whose face was being made up for what seemed like hours. That was not Mandy Moore.

Another day, our breakfast was again interrupted by an unexpected visit. “Sorry about that, ” Harriet said. “These people are probably going to buy the house.”

“Is it for sale?” I asked.

“Yes, but I don’t know too much of the details. The owners are in charge of that.” Turns out, Harriet and Lee were not even owners, but staff of the owners … if even that.

As a seeker of routines, I felt very unsettled. While I exulted in the randomness of our daytime explorations, I needed to come home to the familiar, where I could kick back. I needed some comfort.

Around the corner from our over-occupied vacation rental was the main drag, where you could get everything but English food. There were Thai, Brazilian, Caribbean and Persian restaurants. We tried them all (it was hard to cook in the kitchen, since Harriet and Lee seemed always to be there), but our favorite was the Persian place. We went there for at least half of our dinners that week. The door opened to the view of an open wood-fired oven where lavash and nan were freshly baked. We gorged on kebabs and the classical khoresht, or stews, that are typical of Persian cuisine. To cope with the unending surprises in what was supposed to be our home away from home, we found comfort by eating the same meals over and over.

I didn’t tire of those exquisite dishes, and since that time have been waiting for the opportunity to explore cooking Persian food. I am particularly enamored by the dish known as fesenjan. It is a dish of chicken or duck stewed in a sauce composed of the unusual ingredients of pomegranate molasses and ground walnuts, served with fluffy basmati rice. The flavors are rich and exotic to the uninitiated. But they remind me of home.

Fesenjan (Persian Chicken in Walnut and Pomegranate Sauce)

This dish combines the creamy richness of the slow-cooked ground walnut sauce with a sour-sweet undercurrent of pomegranate molasses. It’s savored on special occasions. I’ll be making it again on Nowruz, the Persian New Year, which is celebrated on the first day of spring, which falls this year on March 20. Recipe adapted from Whats4eats.com.

Serves 6 to 8.

* Pomegranate molasses, sometimes called pomegranate syrup, is available in most Middle Eastern and health food stores. It has the color and consistency of molasses but is simply reduced pomegranate juice, without added sugar. If it is unavailable, you can substitute 2 cups of fresh pomegranate juice, and use only 1/2 cup of stock or water.

* Pomegranate molasses, sometimes called pomegranate syrup, is available in most Middle Eastern and health food stores. It has the color and consistency of molasses but is simply reduced pomegranate juice, without added sugar. If it is unavailable, you can substitute 2 cups of fresh pomegranate juice, and use only 1/2 cup of stock or water.

On one of those last-minute, fleeting trips Alan made to visit us in San Francisco, he whipped up some callaloo. Those of you from the West Indies may salivate at the thought of this green vegetable stew, which is hard to describe to outsiders. It’s the kind of dish that you eat when your granny makes it for you, but for many young people, it seems like too much work. But it is a taste of home, and worth the effort. Alan, creative and infinitely resourceful, was able to find all the ingredients he needed at, of all places, our local Chinese grocery. The central ingredient is taro leaves, also called dasheen, massive jungly appearing yet surprisingly delicate greens.

“Bhaji,” the local word for spinach, is also sometimes used. The leafy greens are cooked with okra, coconut milk, peppers and a secret blend of spices, and sometimes salt pork and/or crab, to make a stew both creamy and spicy, comforting and complex. I am making it sound easy, and Alan made it look so. I know that Alan, who normally zips around at lightning speed, enters almost a meditative state when cooking. He spent hours picking through the Dungeness crab legs he bought for his luxurious and much appreciated version of this classic dish, which has humbler origins among Trinidad’s African slaves.

Callaloo is part of what is known as “Creole food” in Trinidad, among other foods served by the descendants of those African slaves, including macaroni pie and pelau (rice with pigeon peas). It’s eaten alongside these other foods, served with rice.

Callaloo

Callaloo, despite its humble origins, is as smooth as a French bisque. True callaloo uses taro leaves, which are carried by many Asian markets. If unavailable, whole leaf spinach makes a good substitute. The salt pork and crab add depth of flavor but can be omitted to make a vegan version of this stew.