Narsai David, the KCBS radio food expert, is proud to be an
Assyrian American, and so is Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, even
though they're often met with furrowed brows from others who
don't know what Assyria was, and questions about whether they're
Muslim or not.  Assyria, an ancient kingdom that stretched
across Mesopotamia (today's northern Iraq), was a land of early
Christians, who in recent years have fled their homes and
religious persecution by militant Islamic groups seeking to
force them to convert to Islam.  It made for heady dinner
conversation at the 10th annual Narsai's Taste of the
Mediterranean, a $400-a-ticket benefit for the Assyrian Aid
Society of America that drew more than 300 guests from the Bay
Area, Central Valley and Los Angeles to the Ritz-Carlton hotel
in San Francisco this month.  More than $1.2 million raised
during the past decade has gone to efforts by the
nongovernmental organization with special U.N. status to promote
Assyrian language and culture with new schools, dorms and te