Iranian food varies considerably from the Middle Eastern norm, but you’ll soon discover that the main dish on most menus is kebabs. This lack of variety can be tiresome, but it’s an extra reason to say ‘yes’ if you’re invited to eat in someone’s home, a real Iranian experience – invitations flow freely.
Almost every meal in Iran is accompanied by nun (bread) or berenj (rice) or both. Bread is dirt cheap and comes in four main varieties: thin lavash is great fresh but quickly turns cardboard; crisp, salty Barbary is more like Turkish bread; wonderful sangak is long, thick and baked on a bed of stones; and Tafton is crisp with a ribbed surface. Boiled rice is called chelow, and dishes include chelow zereshk (chicken and rice) and the ubiquitous chelow kebab.
A standard Iranian meal starts with a prefabricated green salad, radioactive-pink dressing and soup (sup), usually pearl barley. It’s often served with kebab, though unlike the greasy doner kebabs so often inhaled after alcohol in the West, Iranian kebabs are tasty, healthy and cooked over hot charcoals. The cheapest, standard version is kubide (ground) kebab, made of minced meat. Makhsus (special) kebabs use better quality lamb, kebab brag (literally, ‘leaf kebab’) is thinner and more variable in quality, fille kebab uses lamb fillet while juje kabab are chunks of marinated chicken. Kebabs are usually sprinkled with spicy somaq (sumac) and accompanied by raw onion and, for a small extra fee, a bowl of delicious mast (yogurt).
If you’re sick of kebab, keep an eye out for zereshk polo ba morq (chicken on rice made tangy with barberry fruit), ghorme sabzi (stewed beans, greens and mince); Koresh (any kind of meaty stew with vegetables); bademjun (aborigine served in various styles); and the divine fesenjun (a sauce of pomegranate juice, walnuts, aborigine and cardamom served over roast chicken, duck or goose). In Western Iran chelow mahi (fried fish on rice) is quite common in season. Many teahouses specialize in the underrated dizi (or abgusht), a cheap and delicious soup-stew combination that involves an age-old eating process.
Fast food is widely available, and usually consists of falafel, sausage or hamburger meat loaded into a fresh roll and topped with tomato and pickles – usually about IRR 5000 to IRR 8000 with a soft drink (0.5 to 8 USD). Pizza (IRR 25,000 to IRR 75,000) is also common. Vegetarianism as a concept is foreign to most Iranians. Solace can be found in the falafels, samosas and potatoes sold in street stalls, and in the wonderful mirza ghasemi (mashed aborigine, squash, garlic and egg);the various kuku dishes – thick omelet’s with mixed herbs, aborigine or cauliflower; and the common ash (a filling thick soup).
Self-catering is also an option: nuts, fruits, and vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes and pickles are commonly available and cheap.
Esteghlal hotel - rooms
Chelo Kabab
Beryani - Isfahan
halim bademjan
The most popular Restaurant in Iran
Nayeb Chain Restaurant - Tehran
Hani Chain Restaurant - Tehran
Sharafol Eslam Restaurant - Tehran
Alighapoo Traditional Restaurant - Tehran
Shahrzad Restaurant - Isfahan
Saraye Honarmandan Restaurant - Isfahan
Saraye Honarmandan Restaurant - Isfahan
Bisheh Restaurant (Beryani) - Isfahan
Darvish Restaurant - Shiraz
Iranian Sweets
Sweets are an important Iranian institution. Most cities or provinces have their own particular type of sweet, usually available from shops in the bazaar. Probably the best known is gaz, a type of nougat with pistachio, from Esfahan. In Shiraz try Faloodeh, koloche masqati, a combination biscuit and jelly sweet; in Kerman and Bam kolompeh (date cookies) are unbeatable; in Qom you can’t miss the tins of sohun, a delicious pistachio brittle. Yazd also is one of the most faumus cities for sweets between Iranian and forigners. You can try Pashmak, Baghlava, Haji Badoomi, Loz, Ghottab and masghati.
