Iran - Andrew Burke [59]
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HABITS & CUSTOMS
In most Iranian homes and many hotels, breakfast is a simple affair, consisting of endless tea served with leftover (ie rather crisp) lavash, feta-style cheese and jam – often carrot-flavoured, which is better than it sounds. Most hotels usually throw in an egg. Lunch is the main meal of the day for Iranians and is generally eaten with mountains of rice between noon and 2pm. Dinner is from about 7pm onwards. Most restaurants, except those in hotels, close earlier on Friday. On religious holidays, almost everywhere selling food will shut, markets and bazaars included, for the morning at least. During Ramazan the majority of eateries will be closed from dawn until dusk. Some won’t open at all during the month and many of those that open after dusk are full with pre-booked parties and then close early. However, because travellers don’t have to fast, most hotel and bus terminal restaurants stay open throughout Ramazan, albeit hidden discreetly behind heavy blinds (and thus might look shut). Eating, drinking or smoking in public is bad form during Ramazan.
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Fancy trying some food in an Iranian restaurant before leaving home (or upon your return)? Check the growing list at www.farsieats.com.
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While your mother would probably have a heart attack if you sat down to lunch on her Persian rug, eating on the floor, or on a takht (a sort of day bed), is normal here. Remember to always remove your shoes before sitting around the plastic sheet that acts as the ‘Iranian table’. Cutlery normally consists of a fork and spoon. If you need to eat with your hands, avoid putting your left hand into a communal dish; the left hand is used for something else altogether. Once the meal has arrived, conversation often dies as diners work through their meal in silence. Tea and conversation flow freely after dinner.
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EAT YOUR WORDS
You’ve read about Iranian food, now it’s time to eat it. To make that easier, we’ve included the dishes you’ll commonly see while on the road plus some of our favourites. It’s worth asking for dishes specifically as menus are typically all in Farsi and are not necessarily comprehensive anyway. This being Iran, even if a restaurant doesn’t have what you want, you’ll probably be directed (maybe even escorted) to your food of choice. For pronunciation guidelines, Click here; for more Farsi food phraseology, get Lonely Planet’s Farsi Phrasebook.
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Iranians: World Champions of Picnic Andrew Burke
It’s official. After an admittedly unscientific survey conducted during years of travel and more than 15 months in Iran, Mark and I have concluded that Iranians are in fact the world champions of picnicking. The evidence is overwhelming. Almost every Iranian vehicle with more than two wheels has a plastic basket in the boot filled with most or all of the following: a carpet or woven plastic sheet for sitting on, plastic ‘Iranian table’ for eating from, a thermos of hot water, tea, sugar, cutlery, a qalyan (water pipe), tobacco, lighter fluid, coals and a portable grill. And they are just the basics. Iranians who really take their picnicking seriously might add a large, collapsible tent and/or beach umbrella to the mix, plus a football, skipping rope and camera to record the fun.
So where do these picnics happen? The answer is anywhere a car can go (not much further, though, as no-one wants to carry all that gear too far). You’ll often see picnickers camped out in places non-Iranians find, well, odd. Like beside motorways. Or even on the median strip of a motorway. For me, my oddest Iranian picnicking experience was on board a car ferry to Kish Island, when high winds and rough seas saw dozens of families haul out their tents to set up camp on the passenger deck. Tea was only minutes behind.