Friday, November 6, 2015

Iran - the Food

Its Friday, its time to go back to Iran!

This Friday, next Friday and then again for one more week, I will take you back to Iran where I spent the most wonderful vacation ever back in October this year. Todays post is all about fooooood :) 

The first thing you notice when you go to Iran is that you will not find any tables anywhere. There are carpets all over the houses, but not tables. I loved that! When its time to eat people just take a tablecloth (stupid to call it tablecloth in this context), put it on the carpet and sit down all around the tablecloth. 



We had the most amazing food in Iran! Already prior to our arrival our friend told everyone that we are vegan (everyone means everyone who invited us to dinner - we had dinner in a different house almost every night) so whereever we went, we got delicious vegan food. For every meal people eat a very thin kind of bread. When its good, its very soft and delicous, when its a little old, its completly dry and hard and not that good ;) 

We also had salad for every meal. Mostly just made with cucumber and tomatoe but sometimes also with onion, cabbage, carrots and lettuce. For most meals we also had olives in all different varities and figs (soooo good! We brought a whole lot home with us). A meal is usually taking quite some time and its very nice just to sit and snack on bread, salad, olives and figs :)



We also had rice basically every day. There is this thing with rice in Iran - when cooking it, they put some potatoe slices on the bottom of the pot and leave them there, while the rice is cooking so that they get somehow burned and very crunchy. When eating, everyone is fighting about this crust since its perceived as the most delicious part of the meal :)



Another thing I found very intersting was that the herbs (thyme, rosmary, basil, etc.) where not used for cooking and they were not part of the salad but they were just put on a plate and eaten in between two bites. Like a whole stem of thyme or rosmary! It was somehow strange to me but also very good! And so healthy!



Concerning the dishes we had, we had loads of eggplant and zuccini, mushrooms in all varieties, beans and lentils, okra, some greens I didnt know (and I dont think you can find them in Germany) and most of this in a kind of tomatoe-curry sauce. We had rice with safron, fried raisins, bread filled with mashed potatoes, small spicy bell peppers, falafel etc. etc. etc. seriously it was gerat! In Germany when someone invites you for dinner and you say that you are vegan, many people will find it very difficult to cook something for you and they will maybe complain that you are a complicated guest. In Iran it was not at all like this! Everyone was happy to cook something vegan for us and they also found it easy to cook (they mainly made dishes that are usually eaten with meat but they left out the meat - easy :)), sometimes they were surprised how good a dish tasted when using e.g. mushrooms instead of meat and two of our friends actually are vegetarians now! They felt so good after two weeks of eating vegan only with us that they decided to stop eating meat!



Next to all the great food we had for lunch and dinner, we also had endless tea breaks. Whereever we went, we haf some tea and some dates or figs. I loved those small breaks, where we just sat down on a carpet, the little one just next to us (she loved that we were always sitting on the floor!) and relaxed for a few moments, drank tea and talked about this and that. When we went somewhere by car and there was a place with a beautiful view, we stopped, got the carpet from the trunk, sat down and had a glass of tea while enjoying the view. It was just wonderful! 
We also had loads of fruits. Since we travelled in Kurdistan it was easy and cheap to get fruit everywhere. Kurdistan is the region of Iran where all the veggies and fruits for the entire country are grown - like the apples, I worte about in my last post about Iran.


I hope you all had a wonderful week so far and I wish you a most amazing weekend! 
Sending much love!

20 comments:

  1. It looks so delicious. :) Really interesting...thx for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks so good, what part of Iran did you go to?

    - Liz Lizo
    www.LizLizo.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. fantastic pictures! everything looks so tasty:)
    http://fifefantasinails.blogspot.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Very cute simple look! The jeans are great. Let me know if you want to follow each other :) Thanks a lot for your last comment! I always appreciate your thoughts on my posts a lot : ) Xx Larissa cenestquedelachance.blogspot.de on Patchwork Jeans
    Publish | Delete | Spam
    Larissa"


    This is your comment on my blog where you ask me to follow for follow. When I come on your blog and ask you to return favor,you are come immediately, calling East European whore who collect followers for free clothes.Why you then come to East European blog at all.Telling me we are different and I have been threat you. You really need professional help and stay away from me, stop sending me emails and anomim. comments.If someone who told you that if you don't follow back is considering as threat you need help.Your blog is reported and your comments are reported, soon you will be on another blog where bloggers talk about cyber bulling and this East European whore talk about your experience with you.Poor are your kids with that mothers as you are.

    Kindly,
    East EU whore Maja

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh wow, THIS is really dont understand. Anyway, I still liked your look :)

      Delete
  5. The food looks so delicious! I would be happy eating salads, rice, and olives for most meals.Have a great weekend!

    Danielle
    www.spring2spring.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. So fun to learn about their food it looks amazing. It's so nice for them to make vegan food for you.

    Amy Ann
    Straight A Style

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am in heaven on your blog...... that food looks DIVINE! Take me there!!

    www.bohemianmuses.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ohh, das sieht richtig lecker aus!

    Liebste Grüße ♥
    Mai von Sparkle & Sand

    ReplyDelete
  9. I kind of want to try eating without a table now, it sounds fun and a lot less formal. The food looks so amazing, I love how they incorporate so many fresh veggies into the meals, easy to leave out the meat!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Aw that's such an interesting post, good to know more about worldwide cuisines! I love these pics and I want to try some Iranian food! Thanks for sharing, have a nice weekend!
    xx
    cvetybaby.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh, it looks amazing ! :)
    please follow my blog : THE COLORFUL THOUGHTS


    ReplyDelete
  12. Great post! Reading about other countries' food traditions is one of the most exciting reads of all!

    http://againstandforward.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  13. Very lovely! Hope you have agreat Monday!

    xoxo;
    STYLEFORMANKIND.COM
    Facebook
    Bloglovin

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh Gosh, I love this post so much, cos I'm really interested in food all around the globe. It looks so delicious and I think it's so nice of them to cook all vegan for you:) I really like the idea of sitting on the floor and eat together - I think it can create somehow a deeper bond between everyone:) And I always loved the fact, that in those parts of world and also in arabic countries they serve a lot of different snacks/meals in seperate bowls - it looks like a feast, but usually it's so healthy and simple, love it:) Have a graet evening, hugs:)))

    ReplyDelete
  15. Liebe Larissa, ich komme zwar gerade vom Abendessen, aber jetzt ist mir das Wasser im Mund zusammengelaufen! Wow, habt Ihr lecker gegessen! Und das mit dem Kartoffeln unten am Topfboden des Reistopfs habe ich noch nie gehört, aber ich kann mir vorstellen, dass man sich um diese Kartoffeln streitet :) Wie gastfreundlich die Iraner doch sind und ich freue mich gleich mit Euch, dass Ihr so wunderbar und lecker bewirtet worden seid. Danke für die schönen Fotos und geschilderten Eindrücke und einen guten Start in die neue Woche.
    Liebe Grüße von Rena
    www.dressedwithsoul.com

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for leaving a comment!
I am always happy to hear about your opinion, advices and whatever else comes to your mind when visiting my blog :)