Yesterday I celebrated the Persian New Year with my lover’s family. It was a pretty interesting experience; something that I had only been told about but never been able to experience because of scheduling conflicts.
A little background: Noruz is the Persian New Year and it stems from Zoroastrianism; my knowledge of Zoroastrianism is not very extensive, so check out this book for more information. The New Year celebration changes every year with the date and time of the Vernal Equinox–this year it was 10:32 am Pacific Time.
A large part of Persian culture and celebration is the food and oh. my. gosh. is it good food. Something that is quite popular in this cuisine is the palette quenching sensation of sour (or in Farsi they call it “Torshi”). To achieve this vinegar is used like no other. Myself… not really one for sour thing, I’m much more of a sweet person–if I do say so myself :] But around Persian food and company, I’m willing to be adventurous and I was very pleasantly surprised yesterday.
Torshi-e-Seer, or Seer Torshi (I don’t know which one is proper, but I think they both work) is pickled garlic. I LOVE garlic, so when I heard my beloved was pickled I was a bit upset. Why would you pickle garlic? It’s so good as it is, and then you go and pickle it and turn it all sour. Well, despite my apprehension I tried it to find it was somewhat sweet and soft.
What?! I actually enjoyed something sour without it making my face contort and my eyes water? Needless to say the Persians adored me after that point.
After doing some of my own research I have found a fabulous blog–Turmeric & Saffron— choc-full of delectable Persian recipes and among them a recipe for Seer Torshi!
milk. and. honey. 
You have really great taste on catch article titles, even when you are not interested in this topic you push to read it
Thank you @sel_elwak :] I like to think that I can be witty at times, though it is seemingly fleeting. I.e. my title today was simply: monday.
Happy reading.
-L