Travel: Souvenirs from Fars
In Iran, you can choose from a myriad of delightful, expensive and inexpensive souvenirs, unique to its bazaars, including gold, gemstones, rugs, saffron, miniature paintings, handcrafted wooden inlay items and glassware. Beware though, that you will have to sift the refined from the kitschy.
Gemstones abound in every colour, shape and size, sold as loose stones or set in pendants, tops, rings and bracelets in gold and silver, including aqeeq of various colours, rubies, emeralds, moonstones and Iran’s famous colour-changing oh-so-beautifully-turquoise Nishapuri firoza, both shajari (with the veins) and clear. To get the best quality genuine stone, it is advisable to go with a reliable local.
If you are looking for sugary nibbles, there is a Willy Wonka range of sweet selection: gaz, a chewy bite-sized nougat with rosewater, pistachios and almonds; tablets of sohan, made with flour, clarified butter, molasses, saffron, cardamom, almonds and pistachios, that stick in your teeth like butterscotch; lavashak, chewy bars of either a single fruit or a mix of fruits made by cooking, pulping, pureeing and then setting as sheets; ghotab and baklava, pastries filled with chopped nuts; pashmak, a local candy floss / cotton candy, and noghl or sugar-coated almonds are just some of the sweet treats.
Undulating coloured hills of all kinds of spices and dried herbs including zereshk, sumac and saffron, their layers giving the appearance of sedimentary mountains, and seas of teas of every plant and flower sit in rows in towering sacks. The world’s most expensive spice, saffron, is used to enhance foods, drinks, desserts, sweets, and cakes with its fragrance and colour. Even sugar crystals are infused with saffron stamens.
When in an exotic land, make it a point to take as mementoes all its delectable arts, crafts and foods to relish back home
If you have a taste for caviar, here is the world’s best, and cheapest at source.