Sugar Sanctions in Iran
Friday, 15 June 2007 by Anth
After a months research, I have come to the opinion that if the US and the UN want to really tighten the screws on Iran they should look at sugar sanctions. In a country where alcohol and promiscuity is outlawed people overindulge in what they can - sugar. Iranians love sweet stuff, given that it is hot here and there is a lot of desert they particularly like cold sweet stuff. Rose water is the key ingredient to much of the desserts here, you can drink it, soak cake/biscuits in it and pretty much add it to anything with sugar.
Iranians also like to eat carrots and cucumbers as fruits. Two curious combinations of this is the very popular carrot juice with rose water (or vanilla) ice cream, or thin flat bread (lavash) with carrot jam and cream. In one small take away joint, one man was so intent on imbibing his carrot and ice cream juice as quickly as possible that he managed to spill much of it on his pants and had to leave immediately.
A more classic example of Iranian sweets is plain cake soaked in sugar and rose water syrup so that the cake is moist, syrupy and delicious. Another is the nice take on neopolitan icecream with a 3 flavoured ice cream (made from rice flour) slice with chocolate, vanilla and banana, a hint of rose water throughout and pistachios.
There are of course a range of regional specialities, in Shiraz we ate paludeh which is a vanilla ice cream made from rice flour (so that it is a little sticky) with grated fruit soaked in rose water and a lemon syrup sauce.
Click here to read about imitation beer in Iran
Iranians also like to eat carrots and cucumbers as fruits. Two curious combinations of this is the very popular carrot juice with rose water (or vanilla) ice cream, or thin flat bread (lavash) with carrot jam and cream. In one small take away joint, one man was so intent on imbibing his carrot and ice cream juice as quickly as possible that he managed to spill much of it on his pants and had to leave immediately.
A more classic example of Iranian sweets is plain cake soaked in sugar and rose water syrup so that the cake is moist, syrupy and delicious. Another is the nice take on neopolitan icecream with a 3 flavoured ice cream (made from rice flour) slice with chocolate, vanilla and banana, a hint of rose water throughout and pistachios.
There are of course a range of regional specialities, in Shiraz we ate paludeh which is a vanilla ice cream made from rice flour (so that it is a little sticky) with grated fruit soaked in rose water and a lemon syrup sauce. In Esfahan it is obligatory to try "gazd" which is lovely, soft (the heat helps) pistachio nougat (although Iranians are very disdainful of hot gazd apparently one should put it in the freezer first).
The staple and ever present quick fix available to the masses is the soft serve. Generally sold in dual vanilla/chocolate or rose flavour, it is consumed almost daily. We have observed though, that the height of the standard soft serve varies by city. Tehran has the stubbiest, most ungenerous soft serves in the country. Esfahan on the other hand has the tallest soft serves I have ever seen - apologies for no photo evidence - but we are talking 15 cm high of ice cream.
The staple and ever present quick fix available to the masses is the soft serve. Generally sold in dual vanilla/chocolate or rose flavour, it is consumed almost daily. We have observed though, that the height of the standard soft serve varies by city. Tehran has the stubbiest, most ungenerous soft serves in the country. Esfahan on the other hand has the tallest soft serves I have ever seen - apologies for no photo evidence - but we are talking 15 cm high of ice cream.
Click here to read about imitation beer in Iran
hmmm, yum!
jealous
I love rose water
cool post, good pics
I feel your contribution can help elevate our blog more to our aspirations of being a truly global food blog....we just need some people in africa and south america
great post! made me hungry.
the sticky, slurpy things photographed look like my favourite texture