Iran is a vast country with a wide range of subcultures, tastes, and food diversity, so much so that sometimes the taste of some of these foods and their ingredients seem strange even to the Iranian people themselves.

Chai-churak, or tea-bread in local language, is a small bread made of flour, water, milk, sugar, eggs, oil and sesame seeds.

Valak Pilau and Valak Soup are native foods of Iranian capital Tehran that are prepared with a wild plant called Valak.

Carrot meatballs also known as Kermanshahi meatballs are one of the various types of meatballs cooked in Iran and among the most delicious and nutritious ones.

Iran is to hold the first International Gastronomy Festival with the main goal of bringing various countries and nations closer together through the means of food, said the director of the festival, Jalal Zokaee.

Jaghoor-Baghoor is a traditional food of Zanjan province in northwestern Iran, which is mainly made of the sheep’s liver, lungs, and heart.

Qanbar-Polo is a food from Shiraz, a large city with an ancient civilization, located in the southwest of Iran in Fars province.

One of the most delicious homemade sweets prepared for the Persian New Year is Sohan Asali, which is a combination of honey and Sohan, a traditional saffron brittle toffee indigenous to Iran.

Barberry, also known as berberis, is a plant with lots of medical features used in many Iranian dishes, desserts and drinks. Medicines made of barberry have been used for 2,500 years for treating various diseases.

Sistan and Baluchestan province in south-eastern Iran is falsely known as “a deprived region” while it enjoys a wide range of unique attractions and natural resources, including exotic fruits.