A Return to Persian Dining

I’ve been around the block with all kinds of rice: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Indian; but I must say that Persian rice is some kind of wonderful with its fluffy long grains seasoned with saffron and occasionally mixed with dried fruits. It’s a combination that makes my tongue swoon and my taste buds go weak at the knees.



I had that reaction all over again during dinner this week at Shamshiri Grill in Westwood when I ordered the Zereshk Polo, which came with Basmati rice with barberries and saffron. Zereshk is Persian for barberries, although I got the dish with braised lamb shanks instead of chicken.



Barberries are sour tasting, red-colored berries. Their addition to the saffron rice brighten its buttery flavor with a tartness that was music to my mouth, and eating it in spoonfuls with the lush braised lamb made every bite a symphony of tastes and textures—rich and tender lamb, delicate rice, and tangy berries. It was comfort food that filled my empty stomach and smoothed away the rough edges of an extra long workday. And isn't that why we eat, to feed ourselves body and soul.


Shamshiri Grill
1712 Westwood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
(310) 474-1410
www.shamshiri.com


For more about the barberry, check-out Botanical.com and Wikipedia for starters.

Persian State of Mind

I've been thinking about Persian food ever since a post about Azerbaian Pilaf with Pomegranate Meatballs on the food blog, "Toast". Lucky for me, I live in LA where there are Persian restaurants a plenty. So one evening, my friend S and her husband D helped me get my Persian fix at Javan in West Los Angeles.

Our meal began with lots and lots of lavosh eated with slices of raw onions, butter, and sumac. That was only the beginning of the feast of plenty that characterized the evening. Food round one was 2 appetizers: eggplant topped with yogurt and mint or Kashk O'Bademjan and yogurt with cucumber and herbs or Must O'Kheyar. Although I generally dislike most "fruit-on-the-bottom" yogurt, I'm a fan of plain yogurt, especially in Greek, Middle Eastern, and Indian cusines—I like yogurt, but I don't like it sweet. In this case, the yogurt was thick and creamy, a nice dip for the bread.

The sheer amount of food they serve at Javan is thrilling—big dishes, piled high and spilling over with rice and meat. When our entrées came out, we were shuffling and shifting plates to fit everything on the table. I had a combination of 2 kinds of lamb stews cooked in a tomato sauce, Gheymahont and Badenjanont (below, top right). The lamb fell off the shank, fork tender and moist; and the tangy sauce helped to balance the meat's richness. S ordered chicken with sautéed walnuts in a pomegrante sauce, Fesenjannt (below, bottom right)—a luxurious dish. The pomegrante sauce was concentrated and complex. It had a deep, mellow spiciness that reminded me of certain Malaysian curries that are slow simmered until the flavors meld and deepened. D got the Zereshk Polo (below, bottom left), a baked chicken dish served with sour currant and saffron rice. The chicken was the well-prepared, but the real delight was the rice. The currants sparkled in the rice like red jewels and added a taste that was equally lively on the palate as they were bright to the eyes.




We didn't finish our dinners, but that didn't stop us from getting desert—Baghlava and Persian ice cream. Both sweets were flavored with rose, but the baghlava was the more satisfying of the two deserts. It was sweet without being cloy and the pastry was tender and flakey. Unfortunately, the ice cream tasted like it had been in the freezer too long. It came frozen hard on a plate and when it did thaw a bit, it softed to a gummy, gluey texture—not ideal for ice cream.



Overall, the food was good and the large servings made it a good value. I need to remember to eat Persian food more often.


Javan Restaurant
11500 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 207 - 5555
www.javanrestaurant.com