Food in the Middle East is pretty meat-dominated, so if you are travelling with a vegetarian, it can be quite exhausting to get something to eat. For example, you walk for hours through the alleys of a Turkish bazaar, with delicious shish kebabs and köfte roasting left and right next to tomatoes on a charcoal grill, aubergines stuffed with minced meat and other delicacies filling the alleys with a smell that makes my mouth water. But we are now on the lookout for a mediocre restaurant that also serves something vegetarian…
In Iran it is even more complicated, because there is no distinct restaurant culture like in Turkey. A few fast food joints with hamburgers and kebabs, then one or two restaurants, well hidden in a basement or third floor (with a sign in Arabic script), that’s it. And there are no pide or börek here either… But there are all the more ice cream parlours.
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Backpacking trip Middle East and Caucasus 2008
Entering Iran
Takht-e Soleiman
The Ziggurat of Choga Zanbil
Persepolis and Shiraz
Yazd
Esfahan
Kashan and Qom
Tehran
Climbing Damavand
Caspian Riviera
Ardabil