For anyone who knows about Persian food, about sardi and garmi (sardi referring to “cold” foods and garmi to “hot”), or about sweet and sour, the answer will be a resounding yes. For me, though, and for everyone else who doesn’t mind a timely reminder, ahead of the Iranian New Year celebration, Nowruz, on March 20 in Britain (March 19 in the United States), it felt good to take a moment.
Sweet and sour is clear enough as a culinary principle. A sweet ingredient (fruit in many of its forms, or simply an onion slowly sweated down) works alongside a sour one (dried or fresh lime, some tangy yogurt or those barberries) to bring contrast and, ultimately, balance to a dish. Lime juice and wine vinegar combine with grape molasses and sweet cinnamon in stuffed grape leaves, for example, or they offset dates, apricots and apples in a sweet-and-sour chicken.
The union of sweet and sour is not unique to Persian cuisine, of course. But sardi and garmi are much broader concepts. With sardi and garmi, it’s not about their temperature, per se, so much as about the influence these foods have on the body. Walnuts, garlic and dill are all “hot,” for instance; pomegranate molasses, yogurt and fish are all “cold.” Hot food, Batmanglij writes, “thickens” the blood and speeds the metabolism, while cold “dilutes” the blood and slows the metabolism. If someone is feeling out of sorts, then eating more of a “hot” or “cold” food is the Persian way.
The thing I find so soothing and complete about Persian food, though, is how much this balance is often built into the very fabric of a particular dish. Forget eating more or less of just one thing, as we’re often told to do — more nuts! less red meat! — just make fesenjoon, the classic Iranian chicken with walnuts and pomegranates. The “hot” walnuts combine with the “cold” pomegranate molasses to make a nuanced nutty paste and a general sense of wellness and balance.
Persian food is also uniquely packed full of ingredients that combine these contrasts. Think of barberries again: at once sweet but with a tartness that pulls them back.