24
Apr
I love Persian food. Have done so from when I first met my lovely friend Alidad (many, many years ago) and tasted his mother’s cooking — she is a wonderful cook. However, unless you are lucky enough to have Persian friends who will invite you to share their home-cooked food, you will not be able to appreciate how amazing and rich this cuisine is.
Most Persian restaurants only serve kebabs, and if they have khoreshts (Persian stews) on the menu, they will not be so good. What is more annoying, Persian restaurants hardly ever serve tadigh, the wonderful rice crust which you see in the picture above and which is achieved by first soaking the rice, then parboiling and draining it before letting it cook (or to be more accurate steam as there is no water in the pot) for an hour or so over a very low heat. And if they have tadigh, they may well serve it microwaved which was what I got recently at Galleria, a well-known Iranian restaurant in London. Definitely not a place I will be returning to.
But for the first time ever, I ate excellent Persian food in a restaurant, Shabestan in the Radisson Blu hotel in Dubai. Everything we ordered was perfect: the bread, the rice (we asked for different versions), the fesenjan, the ghormeh shabzi, and the kebabs. Even the desserts. In fact, the food was so good that I completely forgot about photographing the dishes until I was well into my meal and here is the result of my greed below. You can still see a little of what was on the plate.
Next week, I will be in Tehran and I will check on what kind of food restaurants serve there. Will report back in due course. Stay tuned!!
Tagged : Alidad, fesenjan, persian food, shabestan, tadigh 
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There is 8 comments on this post
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April 24, 2010 at 4:37 pm
I want to come with you to Teheran, Anissa (I wish, or magari, as we’d say in Italian). Come to our place for tahdig anytime! xoxoxo
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April 25, 2010 at 12:02 am
thanks shayma. definitely will when i am your side of the world. is the right spelling tahdig and not tadigh? and i wish you could be with me in tehran. xxx
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April 25, 2010 at 12:30 am
I do have a Persian friend who makes this dish for my husband and I when we are invited for dinner. And she is so sweet, one time she gave me a big bag of the barberries that they use in their cooking and I was able to make many rice dishes with it for my friends.
I am all too happy to try different dishes. I want to taste and learn how to make them again and again.
A good recipe and some friends to share it make the meal most memorable.
I look forward to hearing what you find in Tehran.
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April 29, 2010 at 9:36 am
I discovered a good Persian restaurant in Cricklewood recently…Persia II which is probably a good thing after my terrible cross dressing date at the previous Persian restaurant
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April 29, 2010 at 1:58 pm
i loved that blog you wrote. wasn’t it about a failed date with a persian guy a few months back? must try the restaurant in Cricklewood although am not sure how far it is.
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April 29, 2010 at 3:39 pm
I imagine it is the same as it is with Turkish food. I am an American-Turk, born & raised in the US. Outside of my mother’s cooking, Turkish food in restaurants in the US are terrible. In fact, these days, even in Turkey the food suffers.
Authentic middle eastern food is getting tougher & tougher to find.
http://www.tablestreamz.com — where you can add your food related. twitter stream.
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May 3, 2010 at 4:11 pm
i love persian food we never fed of this cuisine al though my cooking is tipycal iranian but my origin is not from there .the rice crust is the most wanted dish in my small family zafferon and berryies is endless in my kitchen.i can do libaneese cooking but we prefer persian cuse is lighter and no or less garlic . and u can control fat and at the same time it is sill delicious .yummy
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May 3, 2010 at 6:42 pm
it is a great cuisine.