The first place I visited when I arrived in Tehran was
Darband, a former village near Tajrish, Shemiran (Wikipedia… and yes, I know
good ‘ol Wiki is frowned upon in academic circles). Nowadays, Darband is
neighborhood within Tehran. It includes the start of a hiking trail into
Tochal, an Alborz mountain, and has a chair lift as well (Wikipedia).
The area is filled with many excellent restaurants, most of
them (in recent years, from what I understand) modern. My family and I went to
a traditional restaurant:
In traditional Iranian restaurants, you take off your shoes,
and sit on an elevated, carpeted area with decorated backrests. The custom of
taking off your shoes is identical to the custom present when eating a
traditional meal in Japan. The menu, of course, was basically kebab – chicken and
ground beef. There were also seafood options, such as fish. The chicken kebab I
ordered was the BEST chicken I’ve ever had in my life. There are Persian restaurants
in the States, but none of them have quite the same quality of food as the
original ones:
While we were walking towards the restaurants, we passed by
tons of shops. In Darband (and typically all of Iran) it is completely normal
for restaurant workers and shop workers to yell out what they’re selling as you
walk by. If you aren’t used to it, it could be startling (and annoying) at
first, but after a while, you come to appreciate it as something very Iranian. The
shops were selling everything from fresh berries to teddy bears to Halloween
masks:
See the photo of the man with the parakeets? The papers in
front of the parakeets are fortunes, and the man chooses a parakeet, moves him
along the fortunes, and the parakeet picks one for the customer. My fortune was
so accurate! It mentioned how traveling will give me a new lease on life.
I will miss the taste of authentic Persian food and the liveliness of Darband’s
many shops and restaurants.
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