Blog 13: Eating Our Way Through Iran

Blog 13: Eating Our Way Through Iran ~ “Nushe John”

We are surprised to find that Iranian cuisine is an intriguing mixture of sweet and sour, but not Chinese style. While the idea of lamb lung and liver or testicles, lamb neck, or noodle-like ice cream, or pomegranate, walnuts. olives and chicken, or turkey combined with wheat cereal, or ice cream with saffron seems uninspiring and even somewhat disgusting some of it was surprisingly good.  However, it was difficult for me to deviate from ordering barbecued lamb chops

lamb chops

that I quickly became addicted to, especially when combined with large quantities of buttery, moist, fluffy rice, never sticky, and steamed until a crunchy carmelized layer has formed.

Fasenjon and Steamed Rice with Carmelized Layer

 We seemed always to be eating on this trip as our large breakfast was followed by a large lunch that was really a dinner followed by another large dinner.

Breakfast included a white feta-like cheese and delicious yogurt, “real” and very tasty tomatoes and skinned cucumbers. 

All of us started breakfast by pilling our plates with these lovely tomatoes and cucumbers. Fresh fruits such as watermelon, lemon, kiwi, moist dates, melon and walnuts were always available.  

One traditional morning meal that Amin frequently ate was called Hamlin. It was a combination of turkey, wheat, and sugar that tasted like a mixture of turkey gravy and 
porridge. I didn’t see any of the rest of us having this for breakfast.  












Coffee was usually Nescafe powdered but since we had brought our own Starbucks we did not feel deprived. Tea served in a glass  is an integral part of Iranian hospitality. 

John having breakfast reading New York Times 

Lunch and Dinner
Lunch and dinner had much the same choices on the menu. Meals started with barley or vegetable soup followed by a range of salads and coleslaws and then usually a chicken or lamb meat dish or stew.  Rice spiced with saffron was always served in huge quantities.   Sometimes rice is served with a golden crisp layer of fried rice (from the bottom of the rice pot) that tastes like popcorn and potato chips. Other rice was dotted with dried fruit and nuts, barberries, or candied orange peals. It is cooked with a little sugar to balance the sourness of the barberries. 

Rice with barberries on top 

Chicken, Lamb, Stewed Tomatos

Lamb and chicken kebabs were consistently on the menu but of course no pork. 


Occasionally we had shrimp or some fish (sturgeon) from the Caspian Sea but mostly the meals consisted of pounded meats in some sort of stew. 

Once Skip and I tried steak that turned out to taste like shoe leather so we didn’t try that again. 

Lamb Shank

Amin with 3 servings of fasenjon

Fesenjon 

Zanny really loved an iconic stew called fasenjon an essential part of every Iranian wedding menu. It is a mixture of chopped up chicken or duck, walnuts and a pomegranate sauce. Clearly this was Amin's favorite too as he finished off what we had not eaten.


















Zanny bought a large jar of pomegranate paste in the bazaar and plans to serve this dish at home.

Amin always explained what we were eating especially as it was hard to tell what was in the stews.

Amin crushes dizzy 

One traditional dish called dizzi was made of ground up lamb meat, tomatoes, beans and potatoes. Amin showed us how it was crushed into a paste in a small bowl with pestle and had broken up bread added to it. 

Another traditional dish called bariani was made of lamb lungs and liver. John really liked this dish but I thought it looked like cow dung and while I made myself take a small bite that was as far as I could go. 

Many other dishes included mixed vegetables,  chopped lamb ad tomato stews (abjusht), and lemon and eggplant stews (khoresh Fesenja) cooked long enough to have a sheen of oil on top. These Persian stews are meant to be eaten over rice with a fork. Of course my  favorite food was always lamb chops (shish lick). With all the fresh vegetables and fruits I felt this was healthy eating.

Humous

Only at one restaurant did we come across ketchup. Despite the embargo it seems this item has made it to an Iranian restaurant.

Drinks

Of course there was no wine served and occasionally Skip tried some non-alcoholic beer but mostly we drank water and sugar-free coke. Several times we stopped for tea or a fresh fruit drink. 

mellon smoothies

We all loved the fresh melon and pomegranate smoothie drinks.  We talked about making these drinks back in Seattle. 

Pizza Restaurant

 About 8 days into the trip we all got tired of the same cuisine and asked to be taken to a nonIranian restaurant. Amin thought we would be excited about having pizza and took us to  a rather bizarre Gaudian restaurant where we ordered too much pizza. To Amin’s surprise we took the pizza home and John was still nibbling on it for snacks 2 days later. 

Lavash

Breads
We were served 3-4 kinds of fresh breads at different meals, including thin flat bread with holes in it (lavash) that looks like a bath mat (and tastes like that when stale) and a white oval white loaf with crispy crust. 

More Lavish

We see this baked on the streets and Zanny bought some to share like candy. Often we would put feta cheese, basil, cilantro, tarragon and mint in the middle of these pita-like breads and eat them like a sandwich. Delicious. My favorite Iranian meal.

Mint and basil 

Deserts

 Deserts consisted of crème Carmel, some sugary porridge like dish, saffron or rose scented ice cream and some jello product. Every time I looked at the jello I thought of my recent colonoscopy so couldn't quite eat that.  The saffron ice cream was a clear favorite but often by the time we got to desert everyone had eaten too much.  Other ingredients native to Iran that we snacked on included pistachios, walnuts, dates and almonds.

Saffron Ice-cream and creme carmel

Dates