Standing in the kitchen preparing stir fry veggies and fried noodles for dinner, I giggled to myself as I watched Abi slice a piece of sourdough bread for himself. Homemade Chinese food with a slice of bread. Makes me smile every time. Life’s bread. I swear it’s in the Persian gene pool.
Life’s Bread
If you have a little piece of bread, then you need a little piece of cheese. And if you end up with a little extra cheese, well then of course you need another bite of bread. And on it goes. It’s the saga of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Please tell me you know that story.
Persian Bread
I’m guessing one can find a loaf of french bread or something similar to Wonder Bread in Iran, but I suspect you’d have to really look for it. Persian bread is flat and long, or round and somewhat bumpy. Those are scientific terms by the way.
Persian bread is served with every meal. Breakfast is most often bread, butter, cheese, honey and tea. Freshly baked bread on the breakfast table is a treat like no other. Warm bread with butter and honey dripping off the edges – it doesn’t get much better.
A Bakery on Every Block
And much like in any European city, you can find a nanvaee – bread bakery – on every block. While in Tehran, our nephew brought us freshly baked bread nearly every morning.
Bread in Shiraz
While on our 5-day road trip across Iran, Abi and I happened upon a street bakery in Shiraz. We waited for the bread to find its way out of the oven and into our eagerly awaiting hands so we could tear off a piece, wrap it around a chunk of Feta Cheese and inhale. Man it was good!
Bread in Isfahan
In Isfahan, within the grounds of the Chehel Sotoun Palace, sat these two strong women baking what else? Life’s bread. The strength of these women to be able to sit there for hours rolling out and baking bread was humbling to see.
Oh, the Pastries!
To say we ate well while in Iran is an understatement. I probably gained at least 5 – 8 lbs. between the amazing food and the pastries – oh, the pastries – and the bread. It’s a good thing we walked across Spain after leaving Iran.
See the basket of bread? What else do you see – a name brand product?! Sanctions? Right.
Life’s bread, bought fresh each day, sometimes twice a day. It’s that good!
This is our 5th post in our Putting a Face on Iran series.
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Bread is one of things I really missed when we travelled in Asia, I have been gorging on it since we’ve been in the UK. It sounds like you definitely got your share of delicious dough in Iran, those long loaves look spectacular!
Amy recently posted…Cat Sitting in London
They were pretty great, Amy! I hate way too much while in Iran, but it was SO good!
As much as I love bread this looks like heaven.
Gaelyn recently posted…Native American Heritage Days 2015
Oh yes, it is indeed bread heaven! I ate way too much of it – along with all the pastries. It’s a good thing we took a walk across Spain after spending 3 weeks in Iran!
I love bread and enjoy the many varieties of bread that we have here in the UK, I had flat bread in Egypt and in Turkey, served with a variety of dips. One of my favourites is naan bread with curry sauce and off course a freshly baked French baguette with butter or cheese is just gorgeous. Bread is a meal in itself, I enjoyed the video on Iranian bread it looks delicious freshly baked in those big and hot ovens. I am now feeling very hungry in particularly since looking at the picture of that meal cooked by Aby’s sister, it looks divine.
Gilda Baxter recently posted…Climbing Mount Snowdon – The Hardest Hike of my Life
I know, sometimes I read a blogger’s post about a dining experience and it makes me SO hungry! We pretty much love all bread, but our favorite thing – I think – is to be in Paris and buy a freshly baked baguette and just immediately eat it!