Food, drink, film and other random thoughts from The Lone Star State.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

What's Persian & Italian?

Right, its a riddle. What is Persian & Italian, quiet & unassuming, and highly addictive. You might think Persian Guy (Hi, Jim :) While that might be true, in this case I am talking about ...


Giovanni's
18484 Preston Road
Dallas, TX 75252
Phone: 972-596-8610



Why Persian and Italian? The Italian family who owned Giovanni's sold to a Persian family, a smart Persian family who thought it better to keep their existing patron-base while adding on a sizeable Persian population in far North Dallas and Plano. Half of the menu is classic northern Italian, the other half is Persian staples.

Buried deep in a quiet strip mall on Preston near 190, it shines as the best Persian in Dallas (so far). The family of the Persian I dated in Houston owned, at that time, one of the only Persian restaurants. I became quite the consumer of their fare since we ate there almost everyday. Bademjan, the richly complex eggplant stew, served with Chelo, the highly-addictive saffron-buttered rice, was and is my favorite dish from Iran. So, I tried it at Giovanni's. I hope noone else heard me make those G-d-I-Love-This squeals, its embarassing when I do that out loud. What sets Giovanni's apart is the use of whole dried limes, a less tomatoy base and a cinnamon that is both sweet and savory.

Service is top-notch; items come quickly and quietly, items completely demolished (which will be everything) are quietly and quickly removed. They know their Persian dishes, every ingredient, and they can speak to the special techniques they use to build the layers of complexity.

A tiny bit more expensive ($10-20 per entree) than other Persian eateries but a more sophisticated environment and solid quality.

You know its good when hear more Farsi than English; you will hear more Farsi here.

Special thanks to Lauren, who lived in Iran, for introducing us to this unique and delicious place.


8 Comments:

Blogger NeiLDC said...

oh i havent been to a Persian bar anyway, but i have been to a nepalese resto...

5:24 AM

 
Blogger Jim said...

Havent tried Napalese yet, but always the willing experimenter :)

10:51 AM

 
Blogger The Persian said...

Ask what is Persian & Sicilian and you have ME! (We naturally differentiate ourselves from Mainland Italy due to the existence of Greek, Spanish and North African blood in our veins)

Sounds like an amazing place!

:)

11:15 AM

 
Blogger Jim said...

See, I learned something new about you, Jim (and about Sicilians)! :)

11:58 AM

 
Blogger A Bear in the Woods said...

I've not tried Persian fare yet, other than PG's, but I dig North African and Egyptian. It's probably a lot of the same 'gredient's , you think?
--

7:51 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Farsi or Persian ? (CHN)
http://heritage.chn.ir/en/Article/?id=88 [in English]
By Pejman Akbarzadeh.

Persian or Farsi? (PersianDirect)
http://www.persiandirect.com/articles/2004/july/id_00001.htm
By Ali Moslehi Moslehabadi

"FARSI", recently appeared language! (CAIS-SOAS)
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Languages/persian_not_farsi.htm
By Prof. Ehsan Yarshater.

Persian, not farsi (Iran Heritage)
http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/language-letter9.htm
By Fereshteh Davaran.

"FARSI" or "PERSIAN"? What Is the English Name of Our Language? (Payvand)
http://www.payvand.com/news/03/dec/1083.html [in English]
By Pejman Akbarzadeh.

IRAN or PERSIA? FARSI or PERSIAN? (Iran Heritage)
http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/iranorpersia1.htm [in English]
By Pejman Akbarzadeh.

"FARSI" or "PERSIAN"? (Payvand)
http://www.payvand.com/news/05/dec/1063.html [in English]
By Pejman Akbarzadeh.

The announcement of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_announcement_of_the_Academy_of_Persian_Language_and_Literature [in English]

Persian or Farsi? (Iranian)
http://www.iranian.com/Features/Dec97/Persian/
By Kamran Talattof.

"FARSI", recently appeared language! (PersianDirect)
http://www.persiandirect.com/articles/2004/july/id_00003.htm
By Prof. Ehsan Yarshater.

Technical Terminology
http://students.washington.edu/irina/persianword/tt.htm

Similar articles in Persian:
http://www.persian-language.org/Group/Article.asp?ID=173 [ in Persian]
http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/iranorpersian.jpg [in Persian]
http://www.sharghnewspaper.com/821108/litera.htm#s22653 [in Persian]
http://www.sharghnewspaper.com/841010/html/societ.htm#s349176 [in Persian]

4:31 PM

 
Blogger Jim said...

Daniel, I'm not so familiar with Egyptian or Northern African fare(no examples of it here that I am aware of), my guess is there would be some overlap.

5:06 PM

 
Blogger Jim said...

Interesting, anon.

But I have to tell you, as long as my friends from Iran call their language Farsi, I will too. The rest is obviously academic.

5:09 PM

 

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