Travel to Iran yields a stunning variety of culinary delights. Going to restaurant can be a part of you travel you can go to restaurant with Tehran tour or you can rent a car in Tehran or rent a car in Iran and go to best restaurant .tour tourist in Iran take you to good restaurant
Between the familiar kebab and the decidedly outré grilled lamb’s testicles, there’s a vast spectrum of foods: caviar, pickle, and smoked fish in the north; samosas, falafel and hot and sour shrimp in the south; noodles, flatbread and rosewater-scented ice cream across the country
Take a look at Iran’s place on the map and it’s easy to understand why the scope of native foods is so wide. Once the center of the Persian Empire, Iran neighbors the former Soviet Union countries, as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Arab states and Turkey. Although Iran is part of the Middle East, it has close ties to Europe, the Far East and Africa, owing to its central place on the Silk Road trade route.
What’s more, the ancient warrior-king of Greece, Alexander the Great, conquered the Persian Empire back in the 4th century, and later it was invaded by Arabs, Turks, Mongols and Uzbeks. While Iranians already had a well-developed food identity before these invasions, they assimilated what the outsiders brought in. Think Russian-style borscht with cumin and cilantro and Chinese noodles in a soup of beans, herbs and sour fermented whey
Many coveted ingredients are native to Iran, including pistachios, almonds, walnuts, saffron, mint, oranges, pomegranates and grapes. Iran has a variable climate with four distinct seasons, and unlike other parts of the Middle East, where the dry terrain limited what food could be grown, the ancient Persians transformed vast stretches of arid land into fertile oases via underground aquifers that drew melted snow water into the desert. A bright, sensuous, fruit-and-herb filled cuisine was born
A core curriculum of classic Persian favorites can be found on most Persian-American restaurant menus. Here are 10 to try. Noosh-e jan! (Yes, that’s Farsi for “bon appétit.”)
Fesenjan (Pomegranate Walnut Stew)
This iconic stew, an essential part of every Persian wedding menu, pairs
tart pomegranate with chicken or duck. Ground walnuts, pomegranate
paste and onions are slowly simmered to make a thick sauce. Sometimes
saffron and cinnamon are added, and maybe a pinch of sugar to balance
the acid. Fesenjan has a long pedigree. At the ruins of Persepolis, the
ancient ritual capital of the Persian Empire, archaeologists found
inscribed stone tablets from as far back as 515 B.C., which listed
pantry staples of the early Iranians. They included walnuts, poultry and
pomegranate preserves, the key ingredients in fesenjan.
Bademjan (Eggplant And Tomato Stew)
This stew has the shimmering red-gold color of tomatoes cooked with
turmeric, with a sheen of oil on top, a prized characteristic in Persian
cooking that shows a stew has been cooked long enough for the oils to
rise up. Slightly tart, with the tang of tomatoes, lemon juice, and
sometimes the juice of unripe grapes, its tanginess is kept in check by
the eggplant, which is first fried on its own until golden-brown, then
cooked with onions, lamb and the tomatoes and seasoning. Like all
Persian stews, bademjan is thick and meant to be eaten over rice with a
fork
A simple rice dish, Baghali Polo is made with saffron, green dill and fava beans. (Photo: Louisa Shafia)
In Iranian cooking, rice can be prepared simply with butter and saffron, known as chelo. But just as often, it’s cooked with other ingredients and called polo.
Polo can be made with herbs, vegetables, beans, nuts, dried fruit, meat
and even noodles, and acts as the centerpiece of the meal. This polo is
particularly good in the spring, when fava beans are young and tender
and dill is in season. The dish is flecked with green dill and favas,
and is often cooked with very tender chunks of lamb. Alternately, it may
be served alongside lamb on the bone. The rice should have a mild
saffron flavor, with the saffron mixed into the rice just before serving
Iranians love sour flavors. Like cranberries, barberries have a vibrant
red color, but they’re even more sour. This classic rice dish is studded
with the red berries, which are dried and then rehydrated before
cooking. The rice is cooked with plenty of butter, which helps to soften
the intensity of the berries. Quince, rhubarb, green plums, sour
oranges, lemons, limes, dried limes, sour cherries, tamarind, sumac and
pomegranate are all used in Persian cooking to make food more tart
Made from herbs, kidney beans and lamb, deep green gormeh sabzi satisfies two Persian flavor obsessions: it’s sour and full of herbs. The stew is seasoned with dried limes, limoo omani
in Farsi. These limes are extra intense and sour, with a bittersweet
taste that gives the stew a unique flavor. The other constant in gormeh
sabzi is fenugreek leaves, a taste unfamiliar to most westerners. Other
herbs include parsley, coriander and scallions
A richly textured soup full of noodles, beans, herbs and leafy greens
like spinach and beet leaves. It’s topped with mint oil, crunchy fried
onions and sour kashk, a fermented whey product eaten in the
Middle East that tastes akin to sour yogurt. The noodles, which made
their way to Iran from China, are thought to represent the many paths of
life, and this soup is traditionally served when someone sets off on a
long journey. Because of its auspicious ingredients, it’s also part of
the menu for Norooz, the Persian new year, which occurs at the spring
equinox in March
Tahdig is the soul food of Persian cooking. It’s the crisp, golden layer
of fried rice at the bottom of the rice pot, and it tastes like a
combination of popcorn and potato chips, but with the delicate flavor of
basmati ice. (Tahdig is usually not printed on the menu, so you may
have to ask for it.) At Iranian family gatherings, there are always
plenty of leftovers, but the one dish that disappears completely is
tahdig. It’s eaten as a side dish, and it’s forgivable to pick it up and
eat it with your fingers
A traditional wedding staple: jeweled rice. (Photo: Sara Remington, The New Persian Kitchen)
Dotted with brightly colored dried fruit and nuts, like little jewels,
this is a sweet-and-savory dish that shows off some of the native
ingredients of Iran, including pistachios, almonds, candied orange peel,
barberries, carrots and saffron. It’s cooked with a little sugar to
balance the sourness of the barberries. Jeweled rice is served for
special occasions, particularly at weddings, because the sweet elements
symbolize a sweet life. It’s traditionally served with chicken, which
contrasts nicely with the sweetness
Kebabs have more variety than you might think. First, there’s koobideh, ground meat seasoned with minced onion, salt and pepper. It sounds simple, but the taste is sublime. There is kebab-e barg, thinly sliced lamb or beef, flavored with lemon juice and onion and basted with saffron and butter. Chicken kebab, known as joojeh,
is traditionally made from a whole chicken, bones and all, for more
flavor (although in American restaurants it’s often made from skinless
chicken breast), marinated in lemon and onion, and basted with saffron
and butter. If you’re lucky, you’ll find jigar, lamb liver kebab, garnished with fresh basil leaves and a wedge of lemon
No Persian meal is complete without a dish of sabzi khordan, or
edible herbs. The plate can include mint, tarragon, basil and cilantro,
alongside scallions, radishes, walnuts, feta cheese and Iranian nan
(flatbread). Simply tear off a piece of flatbread, tuck a bit of the
herbs and cheese and other garnishes inside, and fold it up like a
rustic sandwich. The plate stays on the table throughout the meal, and
the herbs are a crunchy palate cleanser between bites of stew and rice.
Fresh and dried green herbs are eaten daily in Iran. The Zoroastrian new
year Norooz celebrates rebirth and renewal, and the Norooz menu
includes several dishes made with green herbs representing new life,
including rice with herbs, an herb omelet and the herb platter