Nashville's Tastiest Street

A co-worker recently passed along the March/April 2008 Good magazine (I'd never heard of it either). Normally my co-workers would know better than to give me left-leaning journals of, well, unabashed leftism, but the current Good is the "Food Issue." In this case, food trumped politics ...

Good's Adam Matthews compiled a list of America's top seven "tastiest streets," and Nashville's Nolensville Road was listed among 'em -- alongside noted culinary thoroughfares like Roosevelt Ave. in Queens, Broadway in Chicago, and West Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. To wit:

"What Nolensville Road lacks in charm and walkability, it compensates for with a thorough culinary road map to the New South -- count on Mexican, Middle Eastern, and African cuisines. You'll need a vehicle and a few visits to master the terrain, but it's worth it. Move beyond the Middle Eastern food of the Levant at the ornate Persian restaurant Parisa's, which specializes in khoresht, stews that pair meat with fruits. Of those, fessenjoon (chicken braised with crushed walnuts and pomengranate) is easily the best. For lighter fare, the nearby Istanbul Café's brick oven turns out admirable versions of the Turkish pizza called lahmacun: a thin disk of dough topped with minced beef or lamb and baked crisp in the oven.

"About a dozen or so blocks down Nolensville, pop by La Hacienda Marisqueria and scarf down the superior fish tacos, underpinned by cooling cabbage and doused with crema. The nearby Abay Ethiopian offers spongy injera bread to sop up its combination platter, a wise choice for indecisive diners. Head several storefronts back up Nolensville to sample the indigenous cuisine. Norman Couser's Country Cooking's venerable meat-and-three has occupied three different locations since 1955. For the last two decades, it has sat across the street from the Nashville Zoo. Opt for the fried chicken as a protein and choose three sides. Just don't feed the animals."

One of the best aspects of Nashville's recent influx of immigrants - and, yes, there are good things that come with a growing immigrant population - is the number of quality ethnic restaurants in the city and in surrounding counties. Nolensville Road is the main street of ethnic eating in Nashville. A feller could eat lunch or dinner at a different Nolensville Road ethnic eatery every day, and you couldn't get through 'em all in a month ... hell, two months. We so lucky.