The Persian bread basket

Naan

Appears in
Persia in Peckham
Persia in Peckham

By Sally Butcher

Published 2007

  • About

We mistook the full moon as a loaf of bread and raised our hands to the sky.

Rumi

Bread is big in Iran. In every sense. It is far more important than rice, which is often regarded as the staple food of richer folks. Everybody in Iran eats bread, and many will not contemplate a meal without it. It is eaten with cheese at breakfast, wrapped around kebab for lunch and used for mopping up stews with the evening meal; in many areas it takes the place of cutlery.

Persian bread, of course, bears no resemblance whatsoever to dear old Hovis; it comes in large (often up to half a square metre), flat sheets or long, oval slabs. And it is ripped, not sliced.