Bread – Iranian style

Buying bread in my native country, Iran, is more than just dropping by the nearest supermarket and grabbing factory-baked bread like Malaysia.

Iranians are rather picky in choosing their bread. They like their bread hot and fresh out of the oven. A Persian bakery is the place where Iranians gather every morning to get their daily bread. Each and every bakery specializes in one specific kind of bread and does not bake other kinds at the same time.

Nowadays there are many factories that produce breads of all sorts and kinds that are available in the supermarkets, but four kinds of bread: Taftoon, Barbari, Lavash and Sangak remain the most popular breads in town with each being more popular in one or more regions of the country and out of it.

In the rural areas breads are baked at home in small ovens which are usually built of bricks and cement with a source of heat at the bottom.

Village breads mostly have round shape and are thicker than the usual breads baked in cities and towns.

All in all the breakfast table seldom goes without a fresh baked bread and a special feta cheese most famously of Tabriz, made from ewe’s milk, served alongside honey, or jams and marmalades of all sorts.

The nutritional richness of Iranian breads is arguably unrivaled, a SHATER (baker) prides himself in baking the greatest bread in town and most of the bakeries are family businesses handed down from fathers to sons.

The word bread in Farsi is Naan. The slang or dialect for Naan is Noon. So you will see these names as Naan-e Sangak or Noon- e Barbari, meaning Sangak Bread or Barbari Bread.

Here is a description of some of our favorite Persian breads:

Lavaash bread

Lavaash

 Lavaash is a soft, thin flatbread of Armenian origin lighter in color and different in taste, made with flour, water. And salt. It is the most wide-spread type of bread in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran.

Toasted sesame seeds and/or poppy seeds are sometimes sprinkled on it before baking, though is very uncommon in Armenia.

While some wrap breads sold in the Malaysia are labeled as Lavaash, actual Lavaash is significantly softer and thinner than those products.

While soft, like a tortilla, when fresh, Lavaash is very quick to dry, becoming brittle and hard; however, the dry form can be used for long-term storage and is used instead of bread in Eucharist traditions by Armenia Apostol in Church. Lavaash bread is also used with Kebabs.

Barbari

Is flat fluffy long bread, thick and delicious?  A little similar to Italian Foccacia, this bread is baked in the oven and is crusty on the inside.

Barbari means “of related to Barbars” in Persian. Barbars are a group of people living in Afghanistan eastern borders of Iran. According to Dehkhoda Dictionary of Persian Language, this bread by the Barbar people was brought to Tehran, becoming popular during the Qajar period. The bread is served in many restaurants with “Tabriz cheese”, a type of feta cheese.

This traditional long bread is made with little tiny stones in a hot, deep oven (TANDOOR) that has a gravel floor that is where the name Sangak comes from: SANG means stone, so it is literally Stone Bread.

Sangak bread

Sangak

 It is in between Barbari and Lavaash in thickness and has a heavier consistency. It is often used on the Persian Wedding ceremony and is decorated elaborately to congratulate the couple. It is served for special occasions on the Sofreh such as New Years Eve (Noruz).

 

 

Now, in Malaysia there some Iranian bakery shops that bake Iranian bread freshly and everybody can find and try these breads easily.