(How to Survive) Cooking in Iran

What an adventure! If you are ever in Iran (and if you are not Iranian) you must try to cook at least one meal. I don't understand how these women can cook at all! It is a miracle! Let's use lasagna as an example:

• First, I would go to the super market (which Persians will claim has everything you can think of). At the super market, I will walk down the 6 isles and buy lasagna noodles and tomato paste (spaghetti sauce hasn't made it to Iran yet). This will take about 30mins from the time I walk in the door to the time I walk out.  Note: this is one of the only places in Iran where I have seen people calmly waiting in a single file line.

(Not my Picture)



• Next, I head to the dairy shop down the street where I will search for mozzarella cheese which is called paneer-e-pizza here and if I am extremely lucky I will find rincotta cheese, but chances are I will have to substitute for some other kind of creamy goat cheese. Forget about the Parmesan. This will take about another 30mins of shopping and purchasing plus 10mins to get to the store and park.
 
• Then I head up the street to the produce store where I find mushrooms, carrots, parsley, tomatoes, and onions. Luckily this produce store is laid out pretty well and since all the produce is easily visible it will only take 15mins to find and purchase everything unless one of the items is not so fresh, in which case I will add another 5 mins to search for fresh items and another 10mins for travel and parking.

(Not my picture)

• Next to the produce store is the butchers shop where I will fight flys and leaking blood to find ground beef. It's likely that I will have to choose a peice of beef and then have it ground there while I wait.  Once the butcher hands my selected fresh ground meat to me I will need to smell it and inspect it to make sure it's fresh. This can take anywhere from 20mins to an hour depending on how busy the butcher is and if he has any pre-ground beef or if you will need to choose steak meat to be ground for you. Note: this probably sounds unsanitary to my friends who have never traveled outside the U.S.  Only in the U.S. and large cities outside the U.S. do they have boneless, skinless, chicken breast that has been washed and places in nice little packages of sterile plastic for you to purchase and take home.  Really, I am not joking. Go buy meat in Italy and yuo will experience the same thing I described above.

(Not my Picture)

• Add another 20 mins to get home and we have a grand total of 150-160 mins. That's around 2 and a half hours ladies and gents! And that was only for the lasagna; I didn't get any bread, side items, dessert, or drinks!

I forgot to mention that most of these stores will be only slightly air conditioned or open air stores with no air conditioning at all.  It is currently 110 degrees outside. How do these women ever find time to shop? No wonder Mader-joon has two freezers full of meat, spices, and dairy products!

If Mohammad and I were ever to move to Iran (and not live in Tehran, where they have modern grocery stores similar to the ones in the U.S.) I think we would have to invest in at least two large outdoor freezers like the one my grandmother used to have in her garage. That way, I would only have to go out daily for things that expire like, veggies, fruit, and bread. We don't know how good we have it in the U.S. God bless America!