It looks like an airplane...
...but it's really a good restaurant. So says the friendly
man in the olive and fruit leather shop where we stock up on road munchies
(real fruit leather in apricot, pomegranate, plum, and apple, plus walnut
filled cookies).
Airplane? Sure nuff. Half a mile down the road an entire
airplane sits on top of a restaurant with a crowded parking lot (runway?) and
satisfied looking diners milling. (Looking for baggage?) The food is heavenly
even if the plane is earthbound: a Salisbury steak like beef and parsley
confection in a tomato and pomegranate sauce, beans simmered in dill, fluffy
rice, yogurt and mint drink. The waiters pose for pictures.
After 'landing' we
head north to a town famous for its 'cookies'. Hot from the oven, five inches
across and filled with a paste of ground walnuts, cardamom, rose water and
other magical flavors they live up to the hype. In a gesture we encounter every
day, another customer pays for us and says 'welcome to Iran'.
Earlier in the day
some cab drivers gather around wishing us welcome. One thanks me because years
ago another foreigner (serendipitously named Dr. Bob) Had cured him of smoking.
Another pats his heart in the engaging Persian gesture of sincerity and
declares operatically 'I will die.for you '.
Iran is captivating us.
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