Pomegranates and Roses
My Persian Family Recipes
by Ariana Bundy
Persians and their eating habits have long been recorded in history. The Greeks who lived among them and sometimes fought with the Persians, noticed the original frugality before having established a world empire in the sixth century BCE (Achaemenid Empire), and then their overindulgence and opulence, where the "King's Table," represented the lavishness and the reach of the Persian power. Later on Athenaeus, in his Deiphosophists, recorded some Persian dishes in the third century CE. Middle Persian literature and an Arabic cookbook from the Abbasid period also provide lots of Persian food names and recipes, some of which entered the new Islamic ocumene. With the coming of the Turkic tribes, new ideas and ways of making food were incorporated into the Persian cuisine. In turn the Persians influenced Indian food, first and foremost after the fifteenth century during the "brain drain" of artists, intellectuals and apparently cooks to the Mogul court (Persian terms: naan, panir, murgh, kurma, aloo, etc.).
Of course Persians and others had been influenced by the ancient Mesopotamians themselves, from whom we get such words as tinuru "oven," hence Persian tanur, Indian tandoor, etc. But the West has also influenced Persian cuisine with the introduction of potatoes, tomatoes (Goj-ye Farangi / Frankish plums); strawberries (Tut-e Farangi/Frankish Berries), among others. If one is to use Jalal Al-e Ahmad's Plagued by the West, for food, it is pizza, hamburger, sandwich and pasta that have now plagued Iran. Nowadays the common foods sold outside the home in cities and villages are mainly these Western foods along with the favorite national dish, Chelo-Kabab. Iranians, in response to this Westoxication, have unleashed the most devastating counter-attack since the third century CE, when three Roman emperors were defeated, killed and held captive by the Sasanians. The great response has been in creating the "Persian Macaroni" (Bundy's book on page 159), but overcooking the pasta to death (al dente does not register much in Persian cooking). My Italian friends are simply "shocked and awed" when seeing what the Persians have done to their national dish!
Going back to our subject, I tend to judge Persian cookbooks based on their presentation (i.e., aesthetics), clarity of cooking direction, and diversity of foods presented. It is true that there are now a number of beautifully presented Persian cookbooks, although I rarely see them on shelves of bookstores (those few that remain, before Amazon finishes them off). Bundy's cookbook, however, stands out for several reasons. Aesthetics sensibility is important and Bundy's book certainly is wonderfully put together, where simplicity does translate into beauty and one feels closer to the presentation of Iran and not the Westernized Persian cookbooks. Attention to simple details of cutlery, presentation of basics of Persian cooking makes looking at the book a joy. Amidst the recipes, we also read about her family life, often being connected to favorite recipes of family members along with tips on Persian or Iran.
The book has nine chapters covering things such as fruit, nuts and pulses, vegetables, grains, diary, meat, fish, herbs, and spices. As for cooking directions, she nicely explains how to prepare the food for even the novice. Bundy gives a good direction on how to prepare all of the dishes, with the needed ingredients on the side and a couple of paragraphs in a narrative form on how to make the dish. More importantly, she has provided some very rare and savory regional dishes that is not found in Tehran, which provides us a glimpse less undiscovered cuisines of Iran. For example, I counted three dishes from Ghazvin, a town she has familial loyalties to (Ghymeh Nessar; Dolmag/j Amoo Darvish; Chekhertmeh), but there are dishes from the north (Gilan and Mazandaran); northwest (Omeletteh Ashpal / Kutum roe Omelette); south (Ghaliyeh Mahi & Meygu); and those belonging to or being products of ethnic and religious groups, such as Armenian Tass-Kabob or the Jewish Gondi Jewish. But more savory and rarity are "Young Almond and Lamb Ragout" (Khoreshteh Chaghaleh Badoom) are "Aubergine Conserve scented with Rose Water" (Morabayeh Bademjoon) among others.
There are only few things on which I would disagree with Ariana Bundy. For example the idea of Unani, as mentioned in her book, is indeed an old notion, but ultimately Zoroastrian Iran has taken it over the idea from the Greeks. The notion that "Islam" invaded Persia (religion does not invade, but a people or tribe) is problematic. Eshgeneh (correctly, Eshkeneh, a Turkish word) is not named after the Arsacids as she contents, as there is rarely a memory of them left in Iran's subaltern culture and this is perhaps apocryphal. But these are minor issues which do not diminish the great book that Ariana Bundy has written. It is a joy to see and read this wonderful work on Persian cooking with flashbacks to her families' past and some secret recipes of family and a nation which is usually seen through her politics and not her cultural achievements.
Touraj Daryaee
A delightful review! Thank you Mr. Daryaee, a breath of fresh air to hear from an expert historian on any topic. Well, in terms of who invaded whom she may have been accused of racism had she said when Arabs invaded Persia. It is little we can say about our history accurately that would not get us in hot water one way or another these days.
Now I have to go and get the book.