Home > Notebook > And How Is The Food in Iran

Iranian cuisine as presented in Iranian restaurants and fastfood is boring. Homecooking is supposed to be way better. Iranians mysteriously do not like spices and everything is rather bland. With every meal (with exception of sandwich or pizza} you get bread (even when you order rice or if rice is part of the meal), half of raw onion and piece of lime.

There is no street food and garden or terace restaurants. Eating always takes place inside. And while finding sandwich parlour is quite easy, restaurants are well hidden. Underground or on the first floor, up or down few staircases and around three corners. And to make it more difficult they open only for the lunch and dinner. Mehdi from Esfaham explained that Iranians do not eat on the streets because they would be obliged to offer their food to passers-by.

Few good or important things I ate in Iran over that month follows.

Fesenjun in Esfahan

Fesenjun is potentionally amazing dish. Chicken with rice with barberries with sweet thick sauce made from walnuts and pomegranates. If it was sprinkled with fresh coriander it would be perfect. Even without that it was the best thing I ate in Iran, though.

Ash

Traditional thick soup with noodles and barley and vegetables. Not bad but compared to Moroccan harira I am not going to cook it back home. In Iran it usually comes with goat yoghurt which I hate.

Zereshk polo ba morq

Most common Iranian dish that is not kebap. Chicken dipped in a red sauce without taste and with rice with barberries. No miracle but I would choose it over kebap anytime.

Khoresht

Goulash of sorts. Meat and universal brown sauce and pieces of vegetable (usually aubergine). Not spiced at all and prototype of bland food. I wonder if the chefs used at least a salt (seriously doubt it).

Gheimeh

Lentils and meat, sprinkled with miniature french fries. The chef apparently knew how to cook (restaurant at the Kohan Kashan hotel in Yazd) but essentially it is quite boring dish. But in Iran it was one of the high points.

Fereni

Cooled KRUPICOVA KASE mixed with rose water with hot caramel poured over. Amazing thing and it confirms that Iranians know how to make sweet things. All are quite pop, nothing bizare as in Southeast Asia.

Faludeh (palude)

Yellow vermicelli with icecream and rose water or lime juice or very occasionally sweet mint water. Interesting, refeshing, had more that just once. One variant substitutes icecream for pure ice and noodles are very short and translucent.

Sandwich, hamburger, pizza

Sandwich with falafel or sausis (sausage) and sliced tomato and pickled cucumber in rubber-like white bread. Spaghetti sandwich was quite interesting, only the execution shouldd have been better. Hamburger is very popular too. The only diference from sandwich is the shape of bread and meat. Hamburgers and sandwiches tend to be served wrapped in paper or celophane and reach table in plastic basket.

The biggest hit of all is pizza, though. It is more expensive than sandwich or hamburger and sometimes quite good. It is not pizza though. It more like thin quiche. Base is thicker and there is never that red tomato thing on it. Once or twice it was total catastrophe – pizza was not baked in the oven but fried on the metal plate for frying hamburgers.