By Maryam Sinaiee
(The following piece was contributed to Kayhan Life by the journalist and Iran International contributor Maryam Sinaiee. The views expressed are her own.)
You may have wondered why your Iranian friend stops you from ordering that lovely-sounding yoghurt and spinach dish on the menu when you are also having fish — and warns you that the combination will make you ill because fish, spinach and yoghurt are all ‘cold.’
The explanation, if you ask them, is that they grew up with the concept that some foods were ‘cold’ and others ‘hot,’ regardless of whether they were served cold or hot, and that what you eat or serve must create a balance between the ‘cold and hot’ to maintain your health.
The concept of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ ingredients draws from Unani medicine, a traditional system of health and healing originating in the teachings of the Greek physician and philosopher Hippocrates some 2,400 years ago.
A simpler version of the very complex system that was later developed by Persian scientists such as Avicenna and Razi during the Islamic Golden Age is still part of Iranians’ everyday lives and cuisine. Unani medicine spread to India where it is still quite popular as a branch of traditional Indian medicine.
A quick look at lists of ‘cold’ and ‘hot’ ingredients suggests that high-energy, high-fat foods such as honey, nuts, and some very sweet fruit like dates and persimmons are generally considered ‘hot’ while other foods such as yoghurt, rice, and romaine lettuce are listed as ‘cold’.
The lists also show that vegetables such as aubergines (eggplant), courgettes (zucchini), and spinach are ‘cold’ but garlic, celery, and some varieties of mint are ‘hot’.
“So why don’t Asians get ill when they cook fish with yoghurt?” a friend of mine once asked. The best reason I could think of was the heavy use of spices in their cuisines, most of which — including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, black and red pepper, cumin, and cloves — are considered ‘hot’.
By comparison, Persian cooks use spices, apart from saffron, in much smaller amounts.
In the north of Iran where fish from the Caspian Sea and rice are staples, fish is rarely cooked with any spices, apart from a little turmeric and black pepper perhaps. One may wonder why the people don’t get ill eating so much fish and rice.
The answer from the traditional point of view perhaps can be that green and wet, fresh, or pickled garlic, a hot ingredient, is served with almost every meal, and that copious amounts of garlic go into most dishes they cook.
The combination of ingredients in many dishes follows the same principle. ‘Cold’ tangy pomegranate is combined with ‘hot’ walnuts in fesenjan, a dish of duck, game, chicken or lamb braised in a gloriously dark sauce.
Similarly, ‘cold’ broad beans (fava beans) are paired with ‘hot’ dill in baghali polo, a rice dish served with braised meat, poultry or fish. If broad beans are served on their own as a snack (yes, we snack on boiled broad beans), they will be sprinkled with ‘hot’ Persian hogweed seed powder (golpar).
Older generations better acquainted with the system not only consider the balance of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ in a dish, but also in the different courses of the meal, in the time of year, and in extreme cases, in the temperament (mazaj) of the person being served when they cook a meal.
You are in for a disappointment if you crave a certain ‘cold’ dish in winter, and based on the color and feel of your skin and your health history your grandma believes you have a ‘cold temperament.’
She may whisk away ‘cold’ sour plum fruit leather (lavashak) or cherries from the table when you walk in, or you may find that ‘hot’ chocolate and nuts are kept in a secret place if she thinks that because of your ‘hot temperament,’ they are likely to blemish your beautiful skin with an acne outbreak.
There are also ‘correcting’ foods. Something ‘cold’ such as yoghurt is therefore served alongside a dish made with ingredients considered too ‘hot’.
For instance, yoghurt diluted with water and often flavored with herbs (dugh) is paired with deep-fried pastry drenched in honey or sugar syrup (goosh-e feel) not only at home but also in street food stalls. Saffron tea with crystalized sugar (nabat) or one of our many types of distilled herb waters (aragh) which can be ‘cooling’ or ‘warming’ are very common ‘corrective’ remedies.
Very little scientific research has been conducted on these traditional beliefs, but the need to balance ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ in the foods that we serve is so ingrained in our collective psyche that even many physicians highly qualified in modern medicine also follow these rules and even swear by them.
So next time you are creating a new recipe, or planning a menu, give some thought to adjusting the ingredients as recommended by ancient tradition. Who knows, you may find it makes you feel healthier!
