In Australia the generic ‘soup of the day’ is pumpkin soup; in Iran it is barley soup and we were offered it with great regularity amid cries of amazement and surprise from our group. Like pumpkin soup, it came with a variety of different ingredients, probably depending on the fancy of each particular chef and, like the ubiquitous kebabs, with a varying degree of palatability. It was invariably improved with the addition of yoghurt. The yoghurt was almost universally good. It came plain, with finely chopped shallots, with grated cucumber or with cucumber and dill, which was by far my favourite.

The best kebabs we ate were the ones served at a memorable dinner in a large yurt which, I was given to understand, was run by some Nomads. Our bus was not able to navigate the road to the yurt so we all piled into a minibus for the last part of the journey.

Dining Nomad Style

We all sat, sans shoes, on cushions on carpeted platforms and some of the group shared a hookah, much to everyone’s amusement. We had a lot to laugh about that night, from the antics of the hookah smokers, the hole in Herself’s sock to the golfballs which one of the group distributed to any children lucky enough to catch his eye. He seemed to have a never-ending supply of these balls which would have puzzled any customs officer who searched his suitcase. Wherever we went there were children holding white balls and we all knew that the phantom golfer had been at it again.

The kebabs had obviously been cooked over charcoal and were tender and succulent, something which was missing from a lot of the hotel-produced kebabs and they had that lovely smoky taste of barbecued meat.

Dining Nomad Style - replete

One very memorable meal was Abgusht which was a sort of stew and soup combined in which the liquid had to be drained off and the rest mashed into a sort of paste. It was delicious and I have posted a recipe which I will try out as soon as I can acquire the rose petals.

By the way - I have found a very good Australian internet site which sells an amazing variety of exotic spices and I intend to explore it thoroughly and try their wares. Click here for Herbies spices. For anyone else wanting to experiment with Iranian cooking it looks like a good place to start - they stock pomegranate molasses and barberries.

Our most unmemorable meal was at a hotel where we were to stay for a couple of nights. We arrived late and were directed to the restaurant on the 13th floor. Unfortunately, the buttons on the lift only went from 1 – 3 and we had to summons the assistant manager to be told that the No.3 button would take us to the restaurant. Having arrived there we found that the buffet was at the dessert stage. This didn’t bother me as I generally prefer to start with dessert but for those who ordered from the menu I was told later that they had to wait almost two hours to get their meal and that was only after intervention from our tour organisers. Needless to say we didn’t attempt to eat at the hotel restaurant again.

… and one of the best and most surprising lunches was at Kashan, on our second last day, when we were in transit to Tehran. We were presented with a superb buffet lunch served by an English woman who, with her Iranian husband, own the Delpazir Restaurant. (Ph. 0361-448868). Highly recommended!