"Persian food" news and stories

A rose is a rose, even when it's part of an intensely flavored sorbet with fresh strawberries. This time, it's in a syrup made from rose water, plain water and sugar that blogger Dayna McIssac incorporated into her frosty, fruity dessert. This Epicurious recipe for rose water syrup will help get you started.

Middle Eastern desserts are often flavored with the sweetly floral rose water. You can make your own, which involves simmering rose petals in a covered pot on the stove (I leave this to other, more industrious souls), or you can buy it premade (find a source here). Rose water is also featured in this Persian ice cream recipe from a fellow Slashfood contributors.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool for a shot at having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

• Top chefs in New York agree: Creekstone Farms beef rocks. Here's why.
• Check out the new Times feature Power Ingredients, a "benign culinary imperialism" designed to shake things up.
• Wondering what makes uptown Chinese food uptown? One visit to (midtown) Chin Chin and you'll know.
• Iranian Jews are preparing for Passover in Beverly Hills -- with some fabulous recipes. Persian charoset, anyone?
• Speaking of Passover, something to consider making this year: olive oil matzo.

• Mark Bittman writes about the current woes of everything fishy, and how the consumer can deal with depleted stocks and troublesome farming practices without going nuts ... and then goes Minimalist with sustainable seafood recipes.
• And if that's not enough, experts weigh in on the seafood conundrum.
• Local fruit exchanges in California allow neighbors to share their bounty and let no lemon, plum or persimmon go to waste.

You know how gray is the new black, Rachael is the new Emeril, and skinny jeans are the new boot-cut jeans? Now Persian food is the new Indian food.

Indian food -- samosas, naan, fragrant basmati rice, and rich, thick curries -- might be soon be replaced as my ethnic "go-to" with the foods of Persia.

I am no stranger to Persian cuisine. A long time ago, in a geeky galaxy far away, I was training for work in Chicago. Bored with TGI Friday's (we were in the suburbs of Chicago), my teammates and I ventured into the city and ended up at Reza's. Now some Persian food purists may turn their noses up to Rezas's, but at the time, I was wholly taken by the new-to-me cuisine: pomegranates and walnuts and strangely shaped meats on sticks. I was rapidly falling head over heels in love with spices and flavors that were familiar, yet different in the way they were combined with each other.