Brain Cutlets

On December 31, 1988, we went for a New Year’s Eve drive with my parents. My husband, David, knew a lovely spot tucked away in the California coastal redwood forests, Butano State Park. We took a picnic breakfast with us, including some leftovers from the night before, bheja na katles—brain cutlets, one of the high points of Parsi cuisine. I’d imagined them impossibly difficult to make, but thanks to my mother’s tutorial, I found them quite easy, if a little fiddly. My father pronoun