Breakfast in Iran: Trying Uncle Reza’s Sangak Bread

Sangak Bread

Once in a while, I manage to catch an episode of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Where I cannot wanderlust, I rely on good old television! One of those episodes I caught featured Iran. And while Iran is all over the news for different reasons, it was refreshing to see another part of it—especially food!

I may have forgotten the rest of the show but what stuck in my mind was the scene of people lining up in bakeries in the morning to get their hot Sangak bread. Sangak is a plain, rectangular, or triangular Iranian whole wheat leavened flatbread.  'Sang' in Persian means stone or pebble. 'Sangak' means little stone. The bread is traditionally baked on a bed of small river stones in an oven. Then it is hung up to cool down a bit or handed off to the customers in line.

Sangak bread at Uncle Reza's

 There are, apparently, a couple of varieties of this bread offered at Iranian bakeries: the generic one which has no toppings and the seed bread with poppy/sesame seeds.

In one of the complexes off of Yonge St., I found Uncle Reza’s. Grandma and I saw some folks coming out of the bakery holding the flatbread I saw on the show! So, into the store we went to give this a try.

Fresh off the oven, we got a seed bread. It was straight on one end and pointed on the other. 

On the modern side--oven for Sangak bread 

And as we were paying, we asked what they usually ate with this bread. The baker’s wife recommended this bean/chickpea mixture (with free taste!) to go with the bread. A good source of protein along with some freshly baked flatbread, it was a good meal to start the day! I believe it was called, Abgoosht—a very tasty, mashed mixture of beans, chickpeas, potatoes and fried garlic cooked in wonderful spices.

Abgoosht --a perfect companion for Sangak bread

Grandma and I had our second breakfast of the day—a delicious, hearty Persian/Iranian breakfast! I am no expert in Iranian food nor do I know how this compares to other Sangak breads. But this was really good! I cannot wait for the kids to try this!