It is almost impossible to walk in sidewalks in Iran and don’t smell the deliciousness of tasty Iranian food from restaurants, cafes and houses. Iranians care so much about their food and maybe that’s the reason Iranian food is so delicious. You may wonder when you hear some recipes, but we guarantee it tastes amazing and you’ll never forget it.
Iran is a vast country with variety of cultures and by this reason, you can find all kinds of different tasty dishes in this country. You can find caviar and smoked fish with rice in the costal of Caspian sea, falafel, samosas and hot shrimp in the south. Different delicious deserts like the famous doogh and gosfil of Isfahan, faloode and Iranian traditional ice cream and many other delicious foods, deserts and salads. Among all dishes the most famous dish is Chelo Kabab, something you should taste at least once in a lifetime. Iran is the land of Kebabs! You can find all kind of kebab with good quality in this country.
Kebab is cooked with ground lamb or beef with grated onions and depending on which kind you are cooking you have to add different ingredients or use a special part of lamb. Kebab koobideh is the signature of all kind of kebabs in Iran and the most popular among all, between Iranians or even international tourists. When you use the word “chelo” it means that the kebab have to come with rice. The most popular spice added to kebab is sumac which makes the kebab much more delicious. If it is your first time trying kebab, we highly recommend you to try in grand bazaars with all the perfect vibes and crowd.
Chelo kebab barg is a type of kebab which is made with fillets of lamb shank, before cooking it, the chef has to marinate the beef with onions, saffron, olive oil and mild spices for hours.
Shishlik is one of the most popular types of kebabs. It is made with lam ribs, marinated with saffron, onions and lemon. Shishlik is in six pieces and you can eat it with rice or without it.
It is the north of Iran’s traditional kebab, fillet of lamb is used to cook this kebab. Fillets are marinated in a mixture of crushed walnuts, garlic, chopped parsley and grenadine for hours and then cooked on fire. Because the use of pomegranate, it has a sour taste.
Kebab Vaziri is a combination of one skewer of jooje kebab and one koobideh, So if you love chicken and meat at the same time and willing to taste something new and different it is recommended.
This one is different! If you like chicken more than meat, jooje kebab is strongly recommended. In this kind of kebab different kinds of chicken is used and it into two groups: boneless and with bone . Boneless jooje is cooked with chicken breast.
Unlike in Europe or America, Iranians don’t eat dessert after their meal, it’s an optional choice. But the desserts are mostly sweet and each city has got a special desert of it’s own.
The history of ice cream began around 500 BC. People poured syrups over snow and ate. The ice was mixed with things such as saffron, grape syrup and fruits. Now, thousands years later, we are going to introduce the most famous and popular Iranian dessert for you, “Bastani Sonnati” (Traditional Persian ice cream).
The ice cream is consisted of milk, egg, pistachio, saffron, sugar and rose water and it is served with a special bread, although you can eat it without the bread too.
Faloodeh, is the signature of Shiraz! The original name of this dessert was “Paloode” which changed after Arabs attacked Iran, because there isn’t the phoneme /p/ in Arabic.
The dessert is consisted of thin vermicelli-sized noodles made from starch and syrup made from rose water and sugar. Faloodeh can be served with Lemon juice, different sorbets, the most popular is black mulberry, and sometimes pistachios.
You can buy this delicious dessert in ice cream stores and enjoy it with different flavors like saffron, honey or anything else you wish.
Now it’s time for my favorite dessert! The signature of Isfahan, Doogh and Gusfil. The dessert may sound a little weird because doogh, is an Iranian drink served with food and has got a salty taste and Gusfil is sorted in sweeties! But do me a favor and take the risk and taste this amazing dessert, then you can figure out why I’m so in love with it!
Doogh is a yoghurt based drink mixed with salt and can be served with different dry greens such as dill, mint, pennyroyal, damask roses and etc. And Gusfil is a kind of sweetie which in Isfahan is served with doogh on the side and the mixture of this two different tastes, may give you a vision how heaven can taste like!
Reference: Wikipedia