What do Iranians Eat and Drink?

Part Two

The Main Meals

The main meals are lunch, dinner, and breakfast. Sometimes the Iranians make snacks based on tea or fruit. Especially with regard to fruit, they do not have the habit of eating it in basic meals, but they are used to nibbling dried fruit and nuts, especially during the evening snack: nuts, almonds, raisins, pistachios, dates, and figs. Fruit is also a food that plays an important role in this country, and beyond the normal use is sometimes used to season meat and rice.

Breakfast

During breakfast, it is possible to taste yogurt which, as mentioned previously, is the main food of this culture or Iranians usually take tea. Various types of this drink are widespread, among which some are with the addition of dried fruit. They replace the tea with milk (mostly cow milk but in some villages, it’s also goat’s and donkey’s, although they are less used.) Sometimes everything is accompanied by bread, butter, jam, broad beans, cheese and eggs that can be boiled or fried. In recent years, even biscuits and rusks, which are the result of the fast life and colonizing markets, have become part of the Iranian eating habits. In poorer families sometimes a cereal soup is prepared: this custom is typical of less well-off families as it represents a very nutritious dish, but at the same time very economical.

Lunch or Dinner

As main meals, rice (Berènj), especially the type of “dom’siàh” (black tail) is mostly served. This type of rice, growing in the Caspian Sea region, has a long, thin grain and is mainly steamed. In many typical dishes, rice is paired with meat, fish or vegetables. Also, legumes play a fundamental role; in fact, after rice, they are the most used ingredient either alone or in single vegetarian dishes. Among the unique dishes, we find “Borani“: spinach and garlic with yogurt, “kukù“: vegetable and vegetable omelets, “aash/ āsh”: vegetable soup, in addition with the legumes. The Iranians make unique dishes also based on meat, such as “Khoresh“.

The most used meat (Gusht in Persian) is that of lamb but also the beef, veal or chicken can be found on the typical Iranian table. These meats are cooked in most cases on the spit and on the grill, but they can also be fried. Iranians are also lovers of offal such as liver and brain of beef and lamb. fish that is mainly consumed is that which comes from the Mediterranean Sea such as trout, swordfish, and salmon. As for the intake of dairy products, in addition to the aforementioned cheese, a very common dish is “ghee“, or clarified butter of buffalo milk.