EXPLORING THE ART OF PERSIAN CUISINE IN A NEW BOOK BY NAOMI DUGUID.
NAOMI DUGUID EXPLORES RICH CULINARY LEGACY OF IRAN
At its height, the First Persian Empire ( 550330 BC) was the largest known to the ancient world. Also known as the Achaemenid Empire, modernday Iran was at its heart. It grew to encompass Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean in the west, and northern India and Central Asia in the east.
The empire left its mark both near and far, with a culinary heritage that can be felt today in the kitchens of Iran and its immediate neighbours, as well as in the cuisines of Europe, India, North Africa, and Pakistan.
Ice cream, bitter oranges (narenj), saffron, and a wealth of rice dishes (pulao) — it’s this rich and varied legacy that Torontobased writer Naomi Duguid explores in her latest food travelogue, Taste of Persia: A Cook’s Travels through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan (Artisan Books, 2016).
“I think about Persian cuisine as one of the founding, established cuisines because it’s early civilization. That’s when you have cities and empires — you have the development of cuisine that’s more than just catch as catch can, and it’s shared in a large group of people,” Duguid says.
Duguid identifies common elements in the cuisines of the Caucasus, Iran, and Kurdistan: the abundant use of fresh herbs; a plethora of stuffed vegetables and dumplings; walnut- based sauces, marinades and spreads; staple flatbreads; rice dishes; and cheese and yogurt.
Borders have shifted over time, and with the resulting mixing of people and cultures, Duguid says it would be impossible to pinpoint a definitive source for any particular dish or technique. She stresses that just because she learned a dish somewhere, doesn’t mean that it is endemic to that region.
“Gastro-nationalism is people claiming (foods) and feeling that they’re part of their identity. And of course especially in newly independent countries that issue becomes even more important. Everyone’s trying to get their space and establish a national identity. This is contended territory,” she says.
“I i magined somebody of Armenian ancestry ( reading the book and) saying, ‘ Wait a minute! That’s ours.’ I ran into it when I was there — people talking in those terms. But generally I don’t say, ‘Armenian something’ or ‘ Georgian something’ because there is this issue.”
The origins of Taste of Persia lie in Duguid’s questioning of the way people in the West look at those living under totalitarian regimes. Through contextualizing Persian foodways, and its ties to the Caucasus, and Kurdistan, she highlights the contribution and connections, but also the people.
“Writing about a place that’s being treated as a pariah was a really big deal for me. The idea that we should think about human beings living in a country as having the same character as their government is really pretty destructive,” she says.
“It’s fun to think that people will try dishes and associate a flavour or technique with a place. Because sometimes the tangible helps anchor the idea; people could make tamarind syrup for sharbat (a sweet drink), for example and have a sense of the human scale of things in these places. It’s a deeper understanding and appreciation — that’s what I’m hoping to do with the book. And food seems like a good way to do that.”
Recipes below excerpted from Taste of Persia (Artisan Books).