Persian Cuisine

Persian cuisine is one of the world's oldest and most refined culinary traditions, subtle, fragrant and beautifully balanced, prizing the delicate interplay of sweet and sour, herbs and spices. Its foundation is rice, cooked to fluffy perfection and coloured with saffron, crowned by the prized crisp golden crust called tahdig. Alongside come slow-cooked stews, or khoresh, such as the herb-rich ghormeh sabzi and the walnut-and-pomegranate fesenjan, succulent grilled kebabs, and an abundance of fresh herbs, yoghurt, nuts, dried fruit and rosewater.

What you actually see

• Saffron rice and tahdig - the fragrant rice and its prized crisp crust.
• The khoresh stews - ghormeh sabzi, fesenjan and other slow stews.
• The kebabs - the succulent grilled meats over rice.
• The herbs and sweets - the fresh herb platters and rosewater sweets.

When to go

Year-round; a home-cooked Persian meal is the finest experience, but restaurants and traditional teahouses serve authentic food, and the bazaars offer sweets, dried fruit, nuts and spices. Tea, poured strong and taken with sugar, is central to hospitality.

Honest expectations

Persian food is subtle and slow-cooked rather than fiery or heavily spiced, so its appeal is delicacy, fragrance and balance rather than bold heat, and the herb stews can look unassuming while tasting sublime. Restaurant menus can be kebab-heavy; home cooking reveals the true range. It is genuinely one of the world's great cuisines, refined, ancient and deeply hospitable.

Nearby

Tehran, Isfahan and every city have their restaurants and teahouses.