The first 60 hours of our visit to Iran are always the most interesting.  Since we take so many naps, it always feels like a week in those first two and a half days. This trip was no exception. In the first 60 hours we traveled by planes, trains, and automobiles, visited 3 different cities, slept in a 450 year-old caravan stop, visited a zoroastrian temple, I had my first 1st cooking lesson, and had a background check done by the military.

We arrived in Tehran around midnight Sunday, the day was spent visiting with family and spending time in the kitchen with Nastaran, watching and taking notes on how she makes her Qormeh Sabzi.  I will be doing several posts making adaptations of the various dishes she cooked, as each main vegetable comes into season in my garden.

Early Monday morning, we boarded a train for Yazd, a city in the center of the country, near to 450 year old caravan stops, a 1200 year old fortress and a 5,000 year-old castle/fortress.  It was great fun wandering over these well preserved sites.

As we traveled around, we hit a military checkpoint, the first I have ever encountered there.  Other than holding us up for 15 minutes while they ran some background checks, it was fairly unexciting.

Our trip to central Iran was topped off with dune climbing and camel riding in the desert.  That was great fun! and also an opportunity for some wonderful pictures…

Quite a bit for 60 hours!

After 8 days of visiting family, I flew to Istanbul for a conference.  Istanbul is marvelous!  And with the demonstrations, it was an exciting time to be there.  I was fairly sheltered at the university where my meeting was held, but even there there were student protest marches.

And, of course, more food…!

Here is a preview of some of the other dishes I will be recreating from Iran and Turkey…