Questions about differences between Persian and Arab cuisines?

Question

My son's school hosts a festival celebrating different world cultures every year: each class picks a country to present, and the history, traditions and foods of that country are studies by the whole class. My son's class is presenting Iran, and I'm on the food committee.

The classroom across the hall is presenting Iraq. I realize that there are deep distinctions between Iranian/Persian culture and traditions and those of Iraq and the Arab world, and it would be great if the differences between the 2 could be reflected in the foods served.

Would I be wrong in thinking that despite those differences, there are many ingredients and flavors common to both cuisines? I'm thinking rice dishes, kababs, walnuts, pistachios, saffron, pomegranates, rosewater--please tell me if I've left out something important!--and are there differences in preparation methods too?

What makes a dish distinctly Iranian/Persian--or distinctly Iraqi?

Thanks!!

Answer 1

I found this link written by a Persian woman on the differences btw Arab and Iranian foods. Very interesting.  I used to be married to an Arab and learned how to cook the food, it's very labor intensive but sooo good. One thing they do in Iran is to serve foods on a Persian rug... you could get an inexpensive oriental rug and that would definitely look the part.  Here's the link

http://www.iranian.com/main/2007/arabian...

Answer 2

Iraq has three main ethinic groups.

Arab food is different from Iranian food, although you may not know it from all the restaurants in America.

Iraqi food may have similarities to Iranian food because there are ethnic groups that are closer to Iranians in religion and geography.

Gulf Arabs tend to eat more dates than the, pomegranates and plums. Also the food may have the same names (e.g. kababs, sharbat) but taste different.

I actually am not familiar with Iranian food names. I just know that they taste different from Arab food. Also Iran is a huge country and so like India and China the food will differ across the regions.