Casual meals in Iran have so far consisted of various types of kebabs with rice (“chelo kebab”): Soltani kebab, Bakhtieri kebab, “Caucasian” kebab etc. All this merely denotes various versions of lamb and chicken kebabs. Beef seems very uncommon. Sometimes it is grilled pieces of lamb or chicken meat (depending on your taste, served singly or as a combo), and sometimes the meat is minced. The kebabs are served sans skewer. The rice is the usual Iranian long-grained rice – basic steamed with a little saffron coloured rice mixed in.
The kebabs are served separately from the rice and usually come with chargrilled tomatoes, pickles and pickled red cabbage. It also seems to be common to eat the chelo kebab with a yogurt or an olive spread as a small side dish that adds an intense piquant flavor to the kebab meat (which, strangely enough, appears to be grilled without any seasoning). It can be a plain yogurt but more often, yogurt with cucumber strips or yogurt mixed with minced garlic. The olive spread is more interesting – it is basically green olives marinated in a paste of walnuts and pomegranates called "parvadeh". I have to confess that all of the kebabs that I have had so far have been quite over-cooked and on the chewy side. “Medium rare” is not an option it seems.
A variation on chelo kebab is the zereshkt polo with chicken. The steamed rice has a generous tossing of dried barberries on top which adds texture and an interesting slightly sour flavor (sort of like small cranberries but less sour). The chicken is grilled first and then a thin tomato sauce is spooned on top of the chicken. Another variation is fried fish with rice. Sturgeon and trout are the usual choices that appear on the menu. A third varation is grilled eggplant with a yogurt dressing, plus rice.
Iranians also seem to enjoy starting a meal with a salad. Even in hotel restaurants, the salad dressing is served in packets – two varieties: thousand island or mayo. An accompanying drink may be a soft drink or a plain yogurt drink (“doorgh”) or sometimes a minted yogurt drink, both of which are delicious with the chargrill flavor of the kebabs – well, it certainly helps where the meat is overcooked.
