Lamb Shocking Iranian Food in Isfahan, Iran (PART-02)
It can be eaten as a desert,straight up as a desert like with tea time orjust as a sweet snack, and it can be eaten with the main dish, like you eat a kabob and you eat this as a sauce of a kabob or eat this on top of the kabob, wow, thatis slightly strange and incredibly tasty. - [Man] No sugar. - [Mark] No sugar, honey. - [Man] Only honey. - [Mark] Only honey. Found me one with honey. - Instead of sugar?- No sugar, just honey. That's awesome. Let's cheers it.(laughing) Do we not stick together? (woman speaking in foreign language) - [Both] Mmh. - Oh I like the honey. - It's even better (laughing) - [Mark] It's more mellow sweetness. - [Mr. Taster] More sticky as well. - [Mark] More sticky, and thesweetness is not so harsh. It's more like blended in. This is my final bite before I overdose. (lips smacking) The honey one, wow. Stunning and unique,lamb saffron cheesecake. (chuckles) Wow. I can guarantee that'sthe best lamb cheesecake in the world. (upbeat music) From here, continuingon this tour of Isfahan, we're going to the mainsquare and to the bazaar for lunch and to justwalk around and explore that area, that's the center of the city and that's the heart of Isfahan. (upbeat music) (motorcycle engine revving) (man singing in foreign language) - Wow, welcome to Naqsh-e Jahan Square. This is the center square of Isfahan. That means, "World View" and it's one of the largest squares in the world and it's just (motorcycle engine maintenance) which is a wonderful place with markets and shops all around. And we're not actually goingto walk around the square yet, we'll come back for the square, yet, we'll come back for thesquare, but first we're going straight into the bazaar for lunch. (Iranian instrumental music) Look at these platesand platters and saucers and bowls and vases, theblue and the turquoise and the designs. That is unbelievable. (Iranian instrumental music) (tapping) (background chattering) And now getting intomore of the food section of the market of the bazaar, just strands and strands of dates and coconuts. Another four-way direction on the bazaar to choose from, just lanesgoing down either side, and in the center isanother stack of dates. This is the section I love, all the food, all the ingredients, all the spices, you can smell the aromas.
(motorcycle engine revving) This section of the bazaar is just packed and this is like everyday necessities, lot of clothes section,the clothes bazaar. There are rugs and carpets,jewelry, and just like hats and pants and earmuffsand socks (chuckles). (door creaks) (speaking in foreign language) This bazaar is justincredible, like a never-ending labyrinth of tunnelsand walkways and alleys and shopping streetsand then you just look down other alleys andthey lead to courtyards or lead out of the bazaar into other areas or into other sections of the bazaar. (upbeat music) (speaking in foreign language) Thank you very much. (upbeat music) This restaurant is incredible,its far into the bazaar. In the minced meat mixtureit's just minced lamb, mint, and saffron. He hand mixes, mashes ittogether, fills it into this spoon trough patty. Is it called biriyan? - It's called biriyan. (speaking in foreign language) Ah, okay, okay. So the actual dish is called biriyan. Oh man, that mashed upmixture is incredible. Then it goes directly onto this grill and grills, heats,almost like an oven grill where it bakes in that little pan patty and then it gets transferredover to this station where he takes a piece of bread, he ladles on some melted animalfat, I think some lamb fat and then he puts thepatty, the cooked patty into the bread on topof that, he sprinkles on some almonds andsprinkles on a handful, and grabs on a handful of lungs, uh, like a lungs paste,and then wraps it up.
That is a spectacular display, genius. (speaking in foreign language) Okay, so over here at thefront of the restaurant they have these two steamingvats and that's where they boil the lamb andthey save the juices, all of the meat juice, they actually steam the bread in the lambjuice steam, they cover that up so the bread stayssoft and has the lamb aroma. But then they use thesoup to go over bread, they tear up some bread,they put the lamb soup in it, they put some herbsin it and some tomatoes and then the lamb fat on top. This is just like thedefinition of playing with meat juices, they'rejust like slinging meat juices all over the place, into the bread strategically (chuckles). (upbeat music) That will be interestingto try it with lamb, the same one we've had. (laughing) (speaks in foreign language) - No hand wash for twodays so you can smell it (laughing)and enjoy it. After you eat biryandon't wash your hands. (woman speaking in foreign language) - He is watching all your videos, she is - Oh, (speaks in foreignlanguage) thank you very much. (speaks in foreign language) (people speaking in foreign language) - [Mark] So we beginwith the bread mash up in lamb oil, lamb fat,with herbs, sprinkled with herbs, tomatoes on there,and a little bit of that, was it yogurt? The curd, okay. Oh, it's jut oozing. And then you also wannahave onion ready to go. (dishes clattering) That is so, sheepy tasting. The oil, the flavor, - Love it. - The bread just soaks it up. Yeah that's extraordinarilyanimally tasting and delicious. (chuckles) Mmh, squeeze in next, the sour orange. Oh yeah, I love it. And you can taste itwith some of the basil. So the main dish has arrived,and we got the special edition with extra juicesand meat juices and oils. So what you do is you unwrap the envelope. Oh, it's so soft and justsaturated with oil, juices, meats. Let that kinda drape, justdrapes over your plate. There's that patty, you smellthe nuttiness of the almonds. And then you have twodifferent types of breads, too. One is the fluffier bigger bread and one is the thinner bread. - [Mr. Taster] So you take thebread, juicy bread, and then take a bit of lamb, mix itwith lung and fat, and then I go for onions as well. - [Mark] Re-juice it, and then you have someonions, either onions or herbs to chase with. Okay,- Ready? - I cannot wait, yes, afterseeing the whole process? (chewing and moaning)- Wow. (laughing) (speaks in foreign language) - It's so good. - That's incredible. - It's so good. - It's like the mostcrumbly, juicy crunchy lamb and then you've got thecrunch of the almonds as well. (chuckles) (onion crunching) (man speaking in foreign language) Mmmh. Mmh, I've never had thatcrumbly of lamb in my life. And that flavor just erupts.
I love chasing it with theonion juicy crunchy refreshing. That's just awesome. (upbeat music) (bites onion) (laughing) That is satisfying, so juicy. And then when you get tothe bottom, you just start eating the base, and that' the best part, the base of the bread,because that has the most juices that are actuallystarting to harden, harden onto it. It is just unbelievable. - [Mr. Taster] Wrap it like this, and then you're gonnahave biriyani sandwich. (laughing) - Final pro-tip fromMr. Taster is to wrap up the remains of yourbread, you could literally probably squeeze this like this and juices and fat would run out of it. (upbeat music) (laughing) Can you drink this atthe end of your meal? - Yeah. - To wash it all down? (laughing) Which is the yogurt,carbonated salty beverage. Cheers (chuckles). Oh I had a, a leak. Oh that's nice and carbonated. Oh, this one is not that heavy. It's good it like washes everything down. At the last place we sawthe process of making it, now we get to really seethe way that it's eaten in Isfahan, culturally,the real way to eat it. And in this instance,it's eaten like a desert at the end of your meal. Oh this is the same lamb meat mixture, strained yogurt saffron. Khoresht Mash.- Mast. (smacking and chewing) - Mmh. This one is like citrusy more. - Yeah (chuckles). Oh the saffron, whatan extraordinary dish. And here's this place inFarsi, and this is the, this is the English. (background chattering) Oh, it was so amazingly good. The process of them making itand then being able to eat it, that was superb. We are walking outside ofthe bazaar, jumping back into the van and we're on our way to go see what is the most famoussweet dessert of Isfahan, and it's called gas.
And it's especially from Isfahan? - Just for Isfahan. - Okay. Actually that was justdown the road from where we were, this is the gaz factory,and gaz is Persian nougat. (upbeat music) Hair netted out, and plastic shoes'ed out. So this place is actually a major factory export specialist of gaz in Iran. Mana.- Mana. - It's only for Iran.(speaks in foreign language) - [Mark] Is it a typeof plant or something? (speaks in foreign language) It's what? - Insect. (speaks in foreign language) - Ah. - Just try a little bit. - Okay, I'm gonna try some of this. Wow, and it's all natural. Yeah, it's sweet, thank you,it's like sweet and waxy. And it's produced by sometype of an insect, wow. Sticks to your teeth. It's called Mana locally, I believe. This is another one,there's like little sticks and herbs in it, mmh,that is, that is unique. And they say that's whatmakes it truly Iranian nougat as opposed to othernougat from other countries, is that, oh now it takes likehay, is that like substance. - [Woman] Hot gaz. - Here it is some of the fresh hot nougat. That is pillowy and stickyand gummy and nutty, mmh. (upbeat music) Okay, and from here we goback to the main square to try to get the lightwhen it's nice over the whole square andwalk around a little bit. And we are re-emerging intothe square, but this time on the opposite side, whichis like way on the other side, it's so far, it's so huge. Just walking to the entrancehere, and this face, the, again the geometry, thepatterns and the tile work is just unbelievable andthe colors, and this is one of just the, the facade,you can look out over here, you see the dome in the distance,you see the entire square, wow this is really just unbelievable Persian architecture design. (banging) And so quickly rightbefore they close we have an opportunity to step inside.
It is just huge in here,massive domes, massive arches, the tile work. (man singing in foreign language) So despite it being underconstruction, this entire courtyard, it's just spectacular. (man singing in foreign language) So when you stand in the centerthere on that stone and sing your voice echoes andpicks up all the way. (clap echoing) Whoa, hey. (children speaking in foreign language) (man singing in foreign language) And on the outskirts of the square again, this is where we startedlast night, last night, where we came here, wejust stopped, we just took a look said hi to theowner and then we said we were gonna come back, now we are back. (chuckles) (background chattering) Look at that drill.(laughing) We're here to eat fereni which is a milk, like a milk pudding dessert. And so he is about to makea batch, he has this amazing marble counter top witha huge hand rotating a drill with, this is astraight up construction drill, with a massive beater onit, and that's just full of hot milk right now. (tapping) (man speaks in foreign language) (laughing)(drill whirring) It's amazing, so he mixes insome starch into a bucket, with some hot milk, andthen he uses, he brought out the drill, he jack-hammerstyles it, drills it. So then this whole starchgoes back into the main pot. (liquid pouring) (drill whirring) I think that might be thecoolest hands down, the coolest kitchen appliance I've ever seen. It's been brewing and stirringslowly for 30 minutes, it's now ready but it'sstill hot so it's not thickened, it's not cold,but it's still like soupy. So, we're gonna try it like this first.
Mmh, it just has thesweetness of the natural milk and you can feel the thickness of it, like gravy thickness. (liquid pouring) (upbeat music) Okay, so once that mixtureof hot milk and starch then hardens and then itturns into a milk pudding and it's not sweetened yet,and it has this jiggly, amazingly jiggly texture,and then when they serve it at the front ofthe (laughs) look at that. (speaks in foreign language)It just shakes.
What he does is he scoops itout and then the sweetness comes from a grape syrupmade from grapes, a syrup made from grapes and he sprinkles that on. - [Mr. Taster] I'm mixing it. - [Mark] And then you mix it all in (speaks in foreign language) Mmmh, thank you. (laughing) Mmh, mmh. Oh it's really milky, it's really, oh it's not too sweet. - No. - [Mark] It's like the aromaand the hint of sweetness from that syrup. - Normally in other placesthey making it with sugar. - [Mark] The actual milk pudding? - Yeah, and it's alreadysweetened so you don't use the grape juice. - [Mark] But that givesyou more of a fragrance. That gives you more of a,its so refreshing, yeah.
And he is the man behind it. - The king of firni.- The king of firni. (Hamid laughs) (men speaking in foreign language) - Thank you so much. That was, that was good I enjoyed it, butespecially I enjoyed Uncle who is so friendly, he's such a nice guy. (man singing in foreign language) One final thing this eveningbefore we end this tour of Isfahan, is we came tosee a bridge called the Si-o-seh pol Bridge, it's very famous. We're just gonna takea little stroll, enjoy the atmosphere and takea look at the bridge to end this tour. Either 33 or 32, arch 32though, 32 arches that go all the way acrossthe river, and the design again, the design, thesymmetry, the composition is spectacular, and on thebottom is really nice too. You can go to the of thebridge, you can see the arches, but if you come to the topit's really, also spectacular. Even the way it's lit up in the night. (man singing in foreign language) It's amazing. (background chattering)(laughing) (people in foreign language)Nice. And what's amazing abutthese bridges in Isfahan, is they date back 400 or 450 years ago. And they're almost like community centers where people gather, at thisbridge people are singing. People are hanging out,there's a little bit of street food under this bridge. And so it really is like acommunity hangout gathering where people just cometo leisurely stroll, or for both leisure and like gathering. (man singing in foreign language) (audience clapping) And so that's gonna beit, that's gonna complete this day, this amazing tour, amazing food, amazing history and attractionsand people in Isfahan. This is such a fascinating city. I loved every moment of it, andall the food and I wanna say a big thank you to everyone who hosted us, to everyone who we met alongthe way, thank you so much and I wanna say a hugethank you to Mr. Taster for organizing everythingand to Ghasr Setareh who is the organizationwho supported my trip to Iran, thank you somuch and also thank you to Ali Jan for guiding us, for touring us in Iran.
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