I’m currently addicted to the juicy, gamy lamb koobideh at Shamshiri. Pairs perfectly with the cilantro and chive yogurt dip from Trader Joe’s.
Any other places that do a good version of lamb koobideh?
Also, any other lamb dishes of note in the Westwood/Tehrangeles area? Bonus points if they do a good baghali polo, too.
Doesn’t Attari do a lamb stew on Friday for lunch? Quantities are limited, so I’ve never made it on time to get it. 
Yes! Been meaning to try that – thanks for the reminder.
Off-topic but curious what makes it “gamy”?
Not sure about the Westwood Shamshiri, but the Northridge Shamshiri does a stewed lamb shank (actually 2) on Wednesdays and Fridays. Served with rice and grilled veggies for $15.95. It’s plenty enough for 2-3 meals.
The meat has a flavor, unlike most commodity meats. If you’ve ever had wild venison or rabbit, you would recognize where the description comes from. Most venison sold in restaurants is pasture raised, which makes it much milder than a wild deer.
Goat and lamb are for some reason gamier than other domesticated meat, maybe because it’s such a small portion of the market here, thus less commodification of breeds and pasturage.
For me, “gamy” meat is meat that has a weird, funky, but appealing (in small/moderate quantities) tang.
That’s just lamb, fam. It’s lamby.
Unless it’s mutton, then it’s mad lamby.
Agree. Lamb tastes like lamb. Just like pork doesn’t taste like beef or lamb, lamb doesn’t taste like anything else. I’ve had commercially raised and home-raised. I’ve never had ‘wild’ lamb which would likely taste gamy.
What’s wild lamb? Like rams? Or are those goats? I think this is a good place to drop my last lamb kabob with pops…
lamb/beef lula kabob (we don’t call it kubideh obviously)… lamb on right
Ha! 
I have noticed lamb bought from Middle Eastern markets is gamier than something you would get at Whole Foods. Err… Amazon.
a lot of them use mutton, that’s why
Rad.
I have no idea as I’ve never had it. But I’ve never had lamb that was gamy cause it’s not “game.” I did once have a lamb rib at Babbo in NYC that was so ho-hum it could have been beef. Having local, grass raised lamb shoulder chops for dinner tonight. Mmm.
Meat doesn’t literally have to be wild game to taste gamy. That word also describes the distinctively earthy taste of lamb, which is reminiscent of game meat. It has to do with the chemical composition of the fat IIRC.
Wow, I’ve never heard of that. Do you have some kind of citation regarding it? I also have never considered lamb “earthy” much less “distinctively.” And I was in my mid20s before I ever ate it. Now I’m SEVEN OH(NO). 
So I didn’t grow up eating it.
I realize this is not scientific but if you google ‘Lamb gamey’ you get about 226,000 hits. Rightly or wrongly it is generally regarded this way. YMMV and all that.
Oh, gosh, yes. I’m sure. But it’s not. As I wrote, I grew up not eating it because Mother thought of lamb as mutton. Then I moved to SF and so luckily first stayed in a hotel right across from a place with fantastic lamb. That was 1976 I so wish I could ‘post’ a bit of our wonderful lamb chops tonight.
Yeah, a ram would be an adult male wild sheep. Lambs are baby sheep. …So a “wild lamb” would be if you found a pack of wild sheep and shot the little baby one…,
Yep. I know that.
