The story
Rasht Food Festival in Rasht
Rasht, capital of Iran's Gilan province and a UNESCO City of Gastronomy, hosts a food festival celebrating the rice, fish and herb-heavy cuisine of the humid Caspian coast. The event showcases Gilaki dishes rarely found outside the region, drawing on a food culture shaped by rice paddies, tea plantations and the Caspian Sea's fisheries.
Most descriptions of Iranian food default to kebab, saffron rice and stews built around meat and dried fruit, a fair summary of much of the country's cuisine but a poor fit for Gilan province on the Caspian coast, where geography rewrote the rules.