Parwana
Afghan Restaurant
124b Henley Beach Road
Torrensville South Australia 5031
W shortly to be available
E not available
T 8443 9001
OPEN Tuesday to Thursday 11.30am — 10.00pm, Friday to Sunday 11.30am till late
FOOD At Galaxy Guides we have a three–month rule. Three months wait for a new restaurant, three months wait for change of chef, and ownership or restaurant manager, so reviewing a restaurant that has been open for just a month is well and truly breaking the rules. So why? Every now and again you stumble across an establishment that is really good, and virtually unknown and just can’t resist the temptation to help them on their way, make sure they are busy enough to stay in business. Parwana (Butterfly) was a tip of from a reader who rightly sensed there was something really magical about this tiny restaurant.
Basically a small shop front the air is fragrant with aromatic spice, a few simple pretty artifacts decorate the walls, coloured candle holders bunched above the front table are prettily reflected in their immaculately clean windows tastefully ornamented with their lovely butterfly logo. In front of a decorative wooden screen that roughly hides the kitchen sitting on a small inlaid table is a gorgeous large emerald green crazed glazed vase filled with vibrant hot pink snap dragons and there is another big vase of flowers at their tiny counter. The overall effect is charming and gives lie to those busy expensive restaurants too miserly to reward their customers with lovely fresh flowers and other small touches that add to the complete dining experience.
Many of us know so little about Afghanistan and associate it with war and sadness and deprivation but Afghanistan was once a centre for trade and learning, the food basket of its region, richly embellished by the influence of sitting at the epicenter of the silk route. This gave them access to ingredients that further sophisticated and embroidered their cuisine. Parwana should not be compared to Adelaide’s uncomplicated Afghani kebab houses because it is something quite different and whilst we are happy to be proved wrong we believe it is the only Afghan restaurant of this type in Adelaide. Whilst Parwana does offer kebab, the work in the other food is obvious in the cutting and chopping and rolling of dumplings. The food at Parwana is much more sophisticated and their other dishes show a different aspect of Afghani cuisine.
We ordered their single soup, aush $7 and all of their appetizers; bolani $6, ashak $7 and mantu $7. At first glance when the food arrived we were filled with disappointment wrongly thinking because everything was garnished in the same manner with paprika and yoghurt that the similarity would continue through to the end of each dish. Wrong! Only one of us enjoyed the soup with its soggy noodles and bland flavours and we would probably not order that again, but the bolani, the wafer thin crispy leek filled bread and yoghurt dip was divine, uncomplicated delicious perfection. The mantu were the tiny pasty shaped pastries one finds from the sea border of China travelling right through the Middle East to Spain where after many different incarnations it becomes the empanada. Delicately filled with properly seasoned and cooked onion, meaning no sourness from undercooked machine chopped onion, they had both crispy and soft spots from being fried in a pan and were finished with an aromatic sauce that blended perfectly with the other ingredients and textures. The ashak were wrapped in thin silken wonton style pastry redolent with aromatic spice and praise the lord a little fresh tomato instead of the vile cheap tinned tomato one could probably expect in this price range. They were scrumptious.
From the mains and sides we ordered Chopan Kebab $17, Narenge Palaw, $14, Banjan Boranee $8 and one of our number also order Dogh $3, the salty minty yoghurt drink often served with this food. The Chopan kebab was just what is said, with a mount of grilled lamb pieces almost hidden under the naan, a garnish of marinated red onion and the usual tomato, cucumber iceberg salad. It was good but paled against the subtle aromatics and the beauty of the Narenge Palaw, fragrant with its glistening glacéd orange rind, the slivered blanched and peeled (yes peeled) pistachios, almond slithers and a subliminal hint of cardamom wafting through the buttery perfectly cooked rice. Gorgeous! But, we need to make clear for those carnivores who expect a plate of meat, not that you should expect to get it for $14, in a culture where an animal is usually more value alive than dead it is the rice that is the main component of this dish and the chicken, just a few tender succulent smallish pieces (hidden under the rice) are the secondary component of the dish. We love eggplant but with the exception of one or two reliable offerings have almost stopped ordering it in restaurants because it is usually so vile. The banjan boranee was perfect. Skinned, salted cooked till soft but not mushy in a fresh tomato sauce it was wonderful. For those who might complain at $8 for this small side you have clearly never cooked eggplant, which diminishes in size as it is cooked. For the quality of dish it is a bargain.
We ordered three desserts Falooda $7, basically the Middle Eastern Ice cream sundae with layered jelly, ice cream, rosewater syrup, ladoo $6 the overly sweet besan balls embellished with pistachio, almond and cardamom not exactly to our taste and gulab jamun $6. The gulab jamun were four perfectly balled, perfectly wonderful little balls with just the right amount of sweetness, swimming a delicately cardamom flavoured syrup scattered with more peeled blanched and slivered pistachio. I’ve been dreaming about them ever since.
To sum up Parwana is a find. This is a tiny family run restaurant. They are new to the game of restaurants and food does not arrive in a hurry, but the rewards are great with freshly cooked food with wonderful individual flavours. Recalling my own humble start in the hospitality industry, in the very similar circumstances of a suburban shop front, it was possible to remember those wonderful individuals who patiently (sometimes not so patiently) waited for their food to arrive and allowed me the time to learn the trade, and the many who remain as customers and friends to this day.
Son in law Sayed Ashna runs front of house with charm and genuine enthusiasm for the food of his mother–in–law Farida Ayubi. Farida is assisted by daughters Fatima who makes the desserts, Zahara and occasionally Zelaikah (Sayed’s wife). Farida weaves something magical in her kitchen. The Ayubi’s have been in Australia since 1986 and Sayed since 2000. Parwana is a celebration of migration, another family whom we are sure, like the Singh’s of Jasmin fame will become a celebrated food family!
WINE unlicensed but accept BYO, they have a range of teas, a couple of yoghurt drinks and serveral soft drinks.
