2 RESTAURANTS UPHOLD THE PERSIAN TRADITION

Apart from Chinese, the most influential cuisine in Asia is Persian. In ancient times it affected even the Finnish tribes of western Siberia, from whom the Russians later learned to make the Persian sort of ravioli they call pelmeni. The Moslems who conquered Iran in the 7th Century eagerly took to the haute cuisine of the Persian imperial court and spread it far and wide, and as a result Persian dishes are found all the way from Spain ( escabeche, or pickled cooked fish, is one) to India. In fact, the Punjabi style of Indian cooking, which is the sort we usually see in restaurants, is so Persianized that four out of five words on a menu may be Persian.

It is not a spicy cuisine, though, but rather a sort of wholesome, elegantly rustic one. It is fond of herbs--a simple plate of raw herbs is considered a salad by itself--and of onions, which Iranians also like to eat raw. They tell you eating raw onions is good for you (it is, though whether it’s good for your social life is another question).

However, one thing that Iran appears never to have had is a restaurant tradition. As a result, most of the Persian restaurants that have opened in California only serve snack food, various kinds of shish kebab along with rice and some salads and condiments. These can be extraordinarily good, but we rarely get to try what everybody agrees is the strongest suit of the Persian kitchen, its subtle and exotic stews. Unlike their neighbors in India, Turkey and the Arab world, the Iranians love to stew meat with fruit, and nothing is more typical of Iranian home cooking, at least when there’s company, than lamb with apricots or duck with pomegranate.

In the shish kebab department the best Iranian restaurant in Orange County seems to be a little place in Orange called Darya. (Do not confuse it with another Iranian restaurant about two blocks to the south, which has the identical menu but significantly hedges its bets by serving Italian food as well.) Darya is a remarkably busy, successful place, and it has an advantage in being right next door to a Persian delicatessen that stocks not only the usual Near Eastern stuff a restaurant might need but mysteries like rocket seed, pussy willow water and kashk.

Here’s what there is: tender, even rather soft, pieces of boneless chicken; tiny lamb chops on a skewer, full of gamy lamb flavor; beef kebab, either ground beef (koobideh) or a broad, thin strip of tender filet (chelo kebab barg). The beef is the winner, I think, full of beef flavor and aromatic from being marinated in onion juice. Chelo kebab soltani includes both varieties, a long skewer of the ground beef along with the filet.

Darya is mostly patronized by Iranians, and it has a lot of authentic Persian features. Ground sumac berry, a sour spice that’s good with chelo kebab, is on every table in the sort of dispenser usually used for Parmesan. When they bring you a basket of bread--fresh unleavened bread, rather like a flour tortilla--they also bring a quartered onion. Above all, the rice that comes with your entree is delicious, positively perfumy with rice aroma. That’s good, because there’s a lot of it.

Among the side orders, two stand out. Bourani is a warm pureed eggplant dip with yogurt and fried onions in it. It’s extremely rich, and you’re better off splitting an order with somebody. Panir and sabzi is a plate of herbs (basil, mint, tarragon, leek greens) along with radishes, walnuts and a sheep’s-milk cheese rather like a mild feta. You eat it taco-fashion in unleavened bread and feel very wholesome doing so. Kebabs run $4.50 to $7.95, side dishes $1.25 to $2.

Shiraz is a far fancier place than Darya, complete with a fireplace and a wine list. Coast Highway in Newport Beach may not be the best place to run a Persian restaurant, though, because this menu is rather Americanized. Steaks, seafood and burgers are available, and one Iranian dish gets flamed with Grand Marnier. Furthermore, the dinner prices are about triple Darya’s. Entrees are $14.50-$22 (for Persian dishes; there are seafood items down to $11) and appetizers $3.75-$4.50, though at lunch the entrees are only $3 to $9.50.

And unfortunately, in the areas where Darya shines, Shiraz pales. The chelo kebab is less tender, the rice is less flavorful and the bourani is a much less interesting version, relatively bland and soupy with yogurt. And things are rather slow. You can go out of your mind waiting for dinner.

You do get a wider sample of Persian cooking. There are two duck dishes at dinner, including an interesting though not stunning one called fesenjan, flavored with sour pomegranate juice and minced walnut. At lunch you can get kenje-ye-polo (rather good--stewed lamb with dill, fried onions and peas), ash-e-sabzi (a warming soup of barley, lentils and spinach) and a substantial sort of potato omelet. The days are gone, though, when Shiraz was Orange County’s only Persian restaurant. It had better look to its laurels.

DARYA 1840 N. Tustin Ave., Orange

(714) 921-2773

Open for lunch and dinner daily. No credit cards.

SHIRAZ 800 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach

(714) 548-7948

Open for lunch and dinner daily. All major credit cards accepted.