[Sca-cooks] Persian food

[Stefan li Rous]

I just saw this message. This is in my file of stuff to go into my
fd-Persia-msg file the next time I update it. But since this food has
been talked about here recently, I thought this might be of interest
to some folks:
--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****

> Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2000 23:57:52 +0100
> From: TG <gloning at Mailer.Uni-Marburg.DE>
> Subject: Re: SC - Persian cooking
>
> << But, would they have used much rice at all in period? >>
>
> Adam Olearius who travelled from Germany to Persia in 1635-39 in a
> diplomatic mission reports about many dinners and banquets. Rice seems
> to have played a very important role:
>
> "Die Sch¸sseln waren alle mit auffgewalletem Reiþ angef¸llet/ vnd oben
> mit gesottenem Schafffleisch/ gebratenen H¸nern/ Eyerkuchen/ gekochten
> Spinat ... beleget ... Neben solchen gedachten quotlibet Speisen/ wurden
> auch absonderliche Sch¸sseln mit Reiþ von mancherley Farben gesetzet"
> (ed. 1656, p. 511).
> Upshot: the dishes were filled with rice with the other stuff on top of
> it; in addition there were separate dishes with rice in different
> colors.
>
> In his short chapter on Persian food and drink he says among other
> things:
> "Jhr principal Gericht/ so sie jhnen allezeit zuerst vortragen lassen/
> ist schlechter auffgewalleter Reiþ/ welchen sie Plau nennen/ worauff in
> gemein gekocht Schafffleisch lieget. Sie richten auch den Reiþ auff
> vnterschiedliche art zu/ vermischen jhn mit Corinthen/ Mandelen/ f‰rben
> jhn mit Safft von Granaten/ oder Kirschen/ Jtem mit Saffran/ ... Sie
> belegen auch den Reiþ mit gebratenen H¸nern vnd Fischen/ ... Sie essen
> zwar den Reiþ an statt des Brodts/ aber haben gleichwol auch
> vnterschiedliche arten von Brodt/ so von Weitzen gebacken: ..." (p.
> 594f.)
> Upshot: their main dish (_plau_) is based on rice; there are many other
> ways to prepare rice ...; they use rice instead of bread, however, they
> have also different kinds of bread ...
>
> Other information includes: the use of wine, coffee, tea, fruits,
> eggplants ("Noch eine vns Deutschen vnbekante Frucht haben sie/
> Padintzan genandt/ ... Es wird nicht roh gegessen/ weil sie etwas
> bitter/ aber gekocht/ vnd in Butter gebraten sol ein delicat essen
> seyn"; p. 576 'In addition they have a fruit that is unknown in Germany
> (!!) called Padintzan [=Badinjan, eggplant], the fruit is not eaten
> uncooked, because it is somewhat bitter, rather the fruit is cooked and
> fried in butter, and it is said to be a quite delicat dish') and so
> forth...
>
> There are earlier travelogues of this kind.
>
> Th.