Shiraz

Since having been on a news assignment in Iran in 2004, I've been hankering for authentic Persian food. Was delighted to find the opening of Banoo and Shiraz in Singapore over the last 12 months, and over this past weekend decided to do a face-off between them.

Shiraz lost.

I really wanted Shiraz to work out, too. The bar was so pretty and the bartendar friendly, chatty and attentive.

But once our group of 6 got seated, we had to get on the verge of waging nuclear war to get 1) missing napkins and cutlery, 2) menus, and 3) our food orders taken and 4) our bill with the correct items listed.

Wanting to try everything, we opted for the mixed mezze (dips) platter. While even in horrifically expensive places like London this means sharing-size portions for the table with baskets of pita bread, this particular platter that came back was more reminiscent of mini tapas. We parsed out a teaspoon of each dip, feeling like Oliver Twists.

The meat platters thankfully were of a generous size and the beef, and chicken on the bone, was appropriately spiced and succulent. But by then we were deep into the skirmish for cutlery and ice water and in an increasingly unsettled mood.

Shouldnt S$70 a head, even with wine, buy you a more comfortable dining experience? Or, after the belly dancer and ornate furnishings, did they run out of budget for waitstaff training?

Im kind of consfused with this place as I have been to the Middle East and neighbouring Iran a few times. There is a very big difference between Iranian and Arabic culture and food in the same sense that Japanese is different from Chinese culture and food.

I beg for someone to prove me wrong but these guys have copied the menu off some Lebanese restaurant and added a few Iranian modifications and come up with an Iranian restaurant.

Belly dancing is not Iranian, these are an Islamic country with hijab (Islamic headscalf), you can barely see their ankles!

Their music is all Arabic tunes, as heard all over Arabia, Dubai, Bahrain, Lebanon...

Mezza is so not Iranian, hummus and all that stuff is Lebanese!

They dont know what to put for desserts, they just want to sell so they have stuck Tiramisu and creame caramel: Is that Iranian?
The Baklava which they cannot even spell is Arabic...ggrrrhh!

The positive side of things:
Mains were very tasty, very large portions but overpriced, my plate had two lamb kebabs, rice and cost over $40, but hey let me disregard the price... we shared it. That was the positive.

Service: Would have been nice if they had napkis on the table, would have been appreciated if we didnt ask for cutlery, would really like it if I didnt need a chiro after sitting on uncomfortable seating.

Belly dancer...she's a local and fare enough she tried hard but it was momentarily as we were not interested, again so not Iranian.

Try Banoo on Mohamed Sultan Road for Iranian
Try Sanobar on One Fullerton for Lebanese
Try anywhere else.

My recommendation is for CQ to re-evaluate their standard...

Come Back So Soon, ah?

Having self-appointed myself to determine the best Persian food in Singapore and with a Caucasian friend from Lebanon leaving after a two month sojourn in the region, I decided to re-visit glitzy Shiraz even though my previous visit was only a week ago.

Bellydancing to Draw in the Gawking Crowd

Bellydancing has nothing to do with Persian cuisine or culture, of course, but sitting al fresco this time the speakers blared, the sylphlike figure appeared, bosom and torso appropriately exposed, writhing rhythmically to the tantalising contemporary Arabic beat, stopping a passing group of what appeared to be third world tourists dead in their tracks, who gawked without emotion, flashing camera lights. Two numbers later, show over, crowd dispersed. There was no enthusiastic hand-clapping and wolf-whistling accompanying and egging the dancer on, as would have happened in a Middle Eastern environment. To her credit, the solo dancer, who was obviously a local competent bellydancing student, wore a well taught permanent smile throughout. I tried my solo effort to bring the crowd in without any success but the wait staff should all have followed my lead at least, since aren’t they importing this corrupting influence on Persian culture to create the ambiance, to draw in the crowd, to create business? May be I got it all wrong; may be all those fleshy gyrations were meant to entice the diners to consume more kebabs!

My recommendation to management would be to provide soothing live traditional santoor music (if they can find a player in Singapore) instead of the incongruous bellydancing that from this one night observation did not bring in one additional customer but merely provided free momentary entertainment for the passing crowd.

At Least the Food was Authentic and More Alluring

Ghormeh Sabzi with lamb ($24) is as classic a Persian dish as it gets. Common ingredients normally comprise boneless stewing lamb or beef, onion, dried/fresh limes, black-eye beans or kidney beans, potato, spring onions, spinach, parsley, coriander, chives, fenugreek, etc. Once again as with most Persian stews, there’re a lot of ingredients. If you’re vegetarian inclined, you can consume the whole dish sans meat as a complete meal. Served with saffroned chelow (steamed rice, cooked as only the Persians know how) it was wonderful. The slightly sourish nature of the stew combined with the “sweetness” of rice was perfect though the uninitiated palate may need to get used to the influence of the fenugreek.

Sabzi Polow with fish fillet ($28) comprised two distinct parts – polow (rice) and grilled fish fillet. Parsley, dill, coriander, fenugreek and spring onion ends were the herbs used to infuse the polow with its wonderful aromatic flavour. I didn’t try the fish fillet but was given the thumbs up by both my dining companions.

Once again my pièce de résistance was the chelow kebab, this time choosing Kebab Soltani with lamb ($43), which combined Kebab Barg (fillet) and Kebab Kubideh (ground meat). I don’t understand the huge jump in price from $28 for the Kubideh to $43 for the Soltani just because one of the two kebabs served was the fillet instead of ground meat! The kebabs were juicy, tender and succulent as per my previous visit. In fact partaking both kebabs side by side, alternating one with the other, magnified the contrasting flavours. One could not but acknowledge the Kubideh, being mixed and marinated with ingredients had the edge from the flavour point of view over the pure lamb fillet which only had the benefit of being marinated.

The accompanying Tah Cheen, previously explained in earlier review, was delectable. I asked for more and also for my much loved Tah-Diq, the bottom of the pot golden brown crusty chelow/polow. We got a plateful of each at no charge – most obliging service. The Tah-Diq was nice and crunchy, not too hard. However, I still would have preferred had they used potato slices at the bottom of the pot. But then how many of their clientele would have asked for it since it’s not on the menu? So next time I’ll have to sweet talk the maǐtre d' into getting the chef, who’s a genuine Iranian, by the way, into doing this just for me earlier in the day!

The complimentary starter was the substantial Paneer/Panir Sabzi, previously reviewed. My Lebanese companion loved the feta cheese so much we ordered an extra serving (only $5)!

I tried the Doogh ($5) yoghurt drink. Normally it would have been carbonated mineral water with yoghurt, plus dried mint, salt and even pennyroyal. I couldn’t see any mint but it was pleasantly light and the ice cubes no doubt made it even lighter as the drink progresses. It was definitely not as heavy as the typical Indian or Turkish lassi, so was a good accompaniment to the meal.

The only disappointing thing was that the Persian tea did not come served with rock sugar but with sugar cubes that melt easily in the mouth. Rock sugar is readily available in Singapore and there’s no reason having to compromise the traditional way of sipping Persian tea with a piece of rock sugar in one’s mouth.