To an Iranian, the table is empty without bread. Flatbreads are served with raw sliced onion, fetalike cheese, and a plate of fresh herbs (usually basil, tarragon, and mint), all of which can be sandwiched together. With this opening spread, you might have meze (appetizers)—perhaps a silken eggplant and yogurt spread, or an olive tapenade with walnuts and pomegranate—or noghl-e mey (wine accompaniment).

For a large meal, follow breads and spreads with an ash, a thick soup made with legumes, meats, vegetables, and sometimes noodles, served garnished with drained yogurt and herb-infused oil. Traditionally, ash was peasant food designed to be a one-dish meal and was often vegetarian if the family couldn’t afford meat. Kukus, frittatalike baked egg dishes, also make a hearty appetizer or light main. Yogurt mixed with shallots, cucumbers, or herbs is a popular condiment, as are torshis (homemade pickled vegetables and fruits). Yogurt also shows up in dugh, a still or sparkling drink flavored with mint and popular with chelow-kabab (kebab and rice).

Persian rice gets its long, fluffy grains from a combined technique of parboiling and steaming. The most famous dish, chelow, is topped with saffron and served with the tah dig that’s encouraged to form on the bottom of the pot. This dried-out, stuck-together rice could have been mistaken for a culinary accident. But Persian cooks long ago appreciated that the buttery, crunchy, golden crust is a textural treat and the ideal base for stews. In homes, family members argue over who gets the tah dig when rice is served. At restaurants, you can order it on its own—hold the rest of the rice.

Other rice dishes, called polows, are layered with fruits, nuts, meats, or poultry. A favorite meatless combo with lima beans and dill is often served alongside smoked fish.

At kebab restaurants, succulent, smoky skewers of grilled chicken, beef, or lamb are served with grilled tomatoes on the side and a shaker of tart, maroon-colored sumac. Other popular mains include lamb shanks braised with rose water and saffron, stuffed fish with pomegranate sauce, and sweet-and-sour stuffed chicken.

Khoreshes are stews of lamb, beef, veal, chicken, or seafood combined with vegetables, dried fruit, beans, grains, nuts, or dried flower petals and served over rice. Kofte, a meatball-type dish also found in Indian and other Middle Eastern foods, contains raisins and prunes. The kofte are sometimes large enough to be stuffed with an entire chicken. Regional competition is expressed in exchanges like “My mother made a kofte with a whole sheep in it.” “Oh that’s nothing, my mother puts a whole camel in hers!”

When Iranians sit and visit, a heaped platter of fruit is usually on hand. Other snacks, commonly sold on the street near schools, include peeled fresh walnuts, coal-roasted corn, baked potatoes, roasted beets, green almonds, and salted popped rice. Iranians create refreshing summer sharbats from sweetened vinegar, crushed ice, water, mint, and cucumber, or diluted syrups of sour cherries (registration required) or rhubarb. Once famed for its vineyards, the Iranian city of Shiraz is one of the world’s oldest grape-growing regions, and despite the Muslim prohibition against alcohol, the cuisine remains a great match for big red wines.

Sweets are eaten throughout the day. Preserves of quince, fig, rose petal, orange blossom, or cherry are combined with bread and butter or drained yogurt, or added to tea. In addition to rich, delicate pastries like baklava and shortbread cookies made with rice or chickpea flour, there’s Persian halva, a dense confection seasoned with saffron, rose water, and cardamom. Persian ice cream is thickened with sahlab, the powdered root of an orchid, which gives it a delightfully elastic, chewy texture. Faludeh—a lemon and rose-water ice mixed with vermicelli-type noodles to add texture, then garnished with sour cherry syrup—is perhaps the most unusual of Persian sweets. But the most striking part of a Persian meal by far is the quantity of food served: Rice is heaped upon platters, and leftovers seem inevitable.