Thursday, August 4, 2016

The happy taste of Iranian Ice-cream


Sweets are so popular among Iranian people and a reason for having them is always found, especially on feasts and certain occasions. They offer each other sweets, saying: “sweeten your mouth!”. So, whether in ceremonies or funerals, big gatherings or close ones, different kinds of sweets have their own place. There are different kinds of sweets, baked and prepared in every city or even town, according to the climate and local substances available. For example, in southern areas like Khuzestan or Kerman, where date trees are available, cookies are made with this nutritious fruit and local spices, while in Isfahan the famous sweet, “Gaz” is made of a wild herb with the same name, found on the deserts around.

Iranian Ice-cream or the traditional ice-cream is a very popular sweet because of the hot and sunny climate. Many years ago in Iran people used to mix snow with syrup (especially grape’s syrup), homemade jams and honey to have a sweet and cold desert. This can be counted as the first type of ice-creams, prepared in Iran. Iranians still enjoy having this homemade and instant ice-cream during snowy nights. During hot summer days, with no snow, they had used the ice piled in ice houses in cities to make this simple ice-cream, which gave them a great pleasure. My grandfather has a memory written in his diary about the first time he had an ice-cream as a little boy: “wow! I couldn’t believe that something can be sweet and cold at the same time!”

Iranian ice-cream is prepared with organic and fresh rich milk, salep (herbal substance essential for making ice-cream), sugar, rose water, rich cream, pistachio or walnut and especially saffron for the pleasant taste and color. The result is so moderately sweet, creamy and delicious that sometimes people stand in a long line in front of an ice-cream shop to buy the great sensation of frozen cream pieces melting on tongue. Yum… this really tastes like a bite of heaven!! Sometimes Iranian ice-cream is mixed with carrot juice or “Faloodeh” (another Iranian cold sweet made with frozen starch and lemon juice) and sometimes cherry syrup is added on top.

So, I guess that you have chosen one of your delicious options during your travel to Iran.

saffron makes Iranian ice-cream taste wonderful!

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