>> nice to meet you. was once the silk road extending cinnamon. they had a little bit of money capital of persia and beyond. >> nice to meet you, too. all the way to china. same thing for a hundred [ speaking foreign language ]. ♪ >> thanks. in this part of the world, but because of sanction, this >> don't want to miss the bus. from, isfahan or from tehran? >> no. whatever your background, bread sanction really squeeze >> biryani. >> you can't have this in the everybody. that does it for us. south of tehran, the landscape maybe you know the word. eight years, no foreign investment here. though this doesn't look like it's time consuming. it's very expensive. any biryani i ever had. so you have to -- persian i'll be on cnn with don lemon. opens up. is a vital, essential, >> that's good. cuisine has to be experienced in fundamental and deeply respected i had it in uzbekistan but minced lamb shoulder, onion, >> you like? somebody's home. anthony bourdain parts unknown starts right now. restaurant. >> yeah, and this bread is >> thank you. amazing. >> so this one here is called -- tumeric, cinnamon, mint, and of you were how old when the war there's no question who invented with iraq started? >> slow cooked lamb in yogurt. and so it was very difficult time. it. >> i was exactly 7. and then the population is really young. 70% are under 35. >> iraq attacked and it was a >> yogurt, saffron and egg and the thing is, they deserve surprise attack. much more than what they have now. iran's eight-year-long war with saddam hussein's iraq is deeply, deeply felt. hundreds of thousands of course, saffron, more valuable iranians, many of them children, yolks. died fighting in that conflict. were you afraid? nearly 300 miles of iranian highway stretching to the city than gold by weight. they want to have good jobs. the best simple veggie dish ever? >> very afraid. my brother was in france for two of isfahan. isfahan is iran's third largest years out of eight. city. and it was not only my brother. many young people like him. >> a prominent art gallery owner heart healthy california walnuts. eight years of war with a ♪ country that is supported by many big powers. they want to make, you know, have families. this is delicious. the best simple dinner ever? >> and it is worth mentioning insisted i come over for lunch but it's not possible now for whatever you think, wherever we them. >> i hope we can have more faith >> very good. heart healthy california walnuts. are now, that saddam supported by the u.s. government and with in the ordinary americans, our full knowledge used sarin and mustard gas on hundreds of because every little change in >> isfahan today, is it one of thousand of iranians. the policy of the western great tasting, heart healthy california walnuts. less known in america, known and with her friends and family. country, it really, really the most visited areas by and mornings in tehran countless felt by everyone in iran. tourists. affects our lives here. >> and it was a mistake of the >> here we have sour cherry what is okay to film in iran so simple. and what is not? get the recipes at walnuts.org. ♪ united states at that time. what's okay for the friendly, to rice. us at least, ministry of the meatballs of chicken. >> sour cherries. they made a bad memory for iranians. more than any other nation, we like sour cherries. oh, man. it smells good in here. >> but still people are, indeed, >> the cook has been with the family for generations. guidance might not be okay at rice mixed with yogurt and >> the tower, iran's tallest >> yeah, everybody know if you really, really nice here. saffron baked into a crispy

go to tehran, you don't visit >> because people here don't dough. building and a symbol of don't think of rice as a side national pride. ♪ i am so confused. >> you have to stand in line. dish around here. it wasn't supposed to be like it can be the main event. it rises a thousand feet in the this. >> okay. of all the places, of all the all for the basij, essentially >> no problem. very, very good. >> you put far more on the table air and looks out at all tehran countries, all the years of isfahan, you are wasting your hate americans. than anyone can conceivably eat. and beyond. traveling, it's here in iran standing on line is a daily part you had a coup. is that -- >> yes, if you don't like your guest, you don't put anything. ♪ that i am greeted most warmly by >> and here we have a large very total strangers. roving, young religious of life for many iranians. big meatball. the other stuff is there, the they bake these on small stones. >> kufta tarisi. time. gives it the textures. ground beef, onion, and cooked rice. iran we've read about, heard >> that's why it's called walnuts, dried apricots, boiled tahdig. and then a revolution egg and barberries. about, seen in the news. >> anyway, we are a very but this, this i wasn't prepared interesting nation. for. >> the royal mosques, naghsh-e stone, pebble. >> and very, very confusing. >> extremely confusing. we're out on the observation ♪ i took a walk through this >> in years since the '79 everything. >> the contradictions are revolution, iranians have just -- deck, taking it all in, trying beautiful world ♪ >> enormous. to make some sense of it all. endured wars, food sanctions >> enormous. militias. >> iranians, we take you into our time in iran was coming to ♪ felt the cool rain on my jahan, the second largest square that have caused the economy to and then we captured your embassy. our house and take you to our shoulder ♪ sputter. we didn't kill each other. hearts. in that way we are extreme. an end, and it was impossible to ♪ found something good in this in the world behind tiananmen in we didn't have a real fight. so it can be political we are extremists in so many despite all permits and misunderstanding which is ways. say, was a window opening? beautiful world ♪ resolved, which will be resolved maybe i hope. >> you see this tortured relationship between america and ♪ i felt the rain getting paperwork being in order, we are china. iran for many years. or was it only a moment in time detained for several hours. at dusk families come to the then i found aleve pm. how do you think most americans square to cool off, picnic, and will react when they see this? before it shut again? colder ♪ >> so i am going to make you a aleve pm is the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus >> they will start coming. this sort of harassment is a >> yes. >> it is very important for us small table. as iranians, to get true, to daily part of life for iranians. the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. make sure that we are seen as humans here and not the >> just turn it off right now. so-called enemy or the darkness >> bye-bye. i'm back. of iran. bye-bye. >> right. aleve pm for a better am. >> i'm so glad to be here. thank you. have, yes, it looks like even a >> he is kind enough to take me like you go to anybody's house ♪ sha, la, la, la, la little bit of fun. ♪ in iran, and i am sure they will welcome you. hello. ♪ for breakfast. hi. >> the axis of evil. you learn pretty quickly that in ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la good to meet you. >> morning prayer in isfahan. people have been ridiculously >> across town the bridge where nice to us. we are not the axis of evil. iran there is plenty of gray area. ♪ sha, la, la, la, la aren't you guys supposed to be men gather spontaneously to >> it is made from bulgur wheat? just normal evil like everybody an undefined territory. the axis of evil? sing. >> you are absolutely right. ♪ >> yes. else. we are demonized by the media ♪ >> ten years ago iran was -- ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, la people, they had hope for outside. you know what is inside the where is the line? you show black and white. >> is this okay, this impromptu it seems to change with barely a except wheat? future. moment's notice. people are demonstrating and it is meat. killing and bombing and this and okay. here it comes. that and you see and this and >> we should leave now. that, but you never talk about it's dangerous.

♪ the real people who are actually living peacefully inside the this is a mixture of sugar and country. you know? >> this is the first time that and eventually in the future of we have experienced such thing. the world, we and americans have a very special place in this, giving oneself over to the creative urge to stand and sing out to no one in particular. maybe, but not okay apparently you cannot play a game without considering iran as a friend. >> stay away from the glass. ♪ ♪ >> one of his passions is to film. ancient persia, culinary >> please come this way. history, and he is writing a book on the subject. please follow me.ums ] how do you pronounce the specialty here? dizi? >> dizi, it's the name of the pot. >> it's like earthenware. >> this is one of the dishes of humankind. >> please stop filming. it goes back to mesopotamia 6,000 years ago. >> potato, chick peas, water, lamb cooked together. >> thank you. good to be here finally. it's taken some time. gotta go. add a little fat. yep. mash it up with potatoes and gotta go. the road back to tehran. chickpeas. along the way, reminders of just in the country how far back this culture goes. have in common?

many of them now call that's good. the ruins of ancient caravans, cancer treatment centers of america home. highway rest stops from when expert medicine works here. like a lot of time. like four years i've been trying. find out why at cancer center.com. finally. armies, merchants, traders cancer treatment centers of america. tehran. city of nearly 8 million people. what do iranians want to eat capital of iran. traveling by camel, by foot all it feels like there are neighborhoods of rome that's today? it is a home cooking culture. i mean -- passed along these same routes. this right here, a stop on what >> yes. but this morning, a city i've never been to built like these. after all this time i finally had my chance to see a country we didn't have the culture of felt like one i already knew. i'd heard so much about. eating out. the weather is nice. this is a culture of sacred i don't know what i was i just wanted to thank you expecting, but it's nice. foods in the house. for sharing your world with me. a big blank spot on nearly every it felt like home. traveler's resume. things which are unheard of. merci. it's not in the book. airbnb. belong anywhere. delicious. >> that's really interesting. thank you. >> once upon a time there was an >> a lot of secrets. ancient kingdom where they found >> have you ever tried a lot of magical black stuff under the ground. traditional iranian food? >> it's difficult because everybody says the great food of iran is cooked in people's

homes. >> yes. >> this is a land of secret recipes passed down within families like treasured possessions. beautiful spread of food. >> she's my wife. i am a really lucky man. she is very good cook. >> bejan, like so many iranians i have met, has been kind enough soon't trust your smile to any regular toothpaste. to invite me to his home. improved crest 3d white brilliance removes 5 times more stains than the red box. >> this is milk and chicken try the whole collection for a smile that gets you noticed. but two other kingdoms had the key to the magical black stuff, and when they wouldn't share, the people of the ancient kingdom got mad. they voted, and their leader soup. said the magical black stuff is ours to keep. but the other kingdoms were >> it looks really good. ♪ the lexus december to remember sales event is here. >> my mom said that iranian afraid of losing all of the lease the 2015 gs350 with complimentary navigation magical black stuff so they gave people loves guests. see your lexus dealer. and they will never get tired if money to some bad men to get rid the guest likes their food. of the leader. they put back in power another >> mm-mmmm. leader, and they gave him money too. a stew of fried chicken, onion, ground walnuts, pomegranate, and tomato paste. and this fruit, some kind of fruit? >> yes, there's the dried apricot inside as well. >> delicious. to some he was a good king, but to others he could be very so good. cruel. >> needed 24 hours time. after many years the people of the kingdom got mad.

this time even madder. >> these are very sophisticated, so they scared the king away forever, and then things started to get really messed up. >> okay. very time-consuming dishes to that's a simplistic and incomplete way to sum up the last hundred-odd years of prepare. iranian history. but the point is there were a always from scratch and always lot of issues and differing in excess of what you could agendas leading to the explosion possibly need. ♪ you tend to kill your guests with kindness around here. so far, iran does not look, of rage known as the iranian >> that dish is from the south does not feel the way i had hostage crisis. of iran. >> from the persian gulf? expected.le. >> persian gulf. look, we know what iran, the yes. >> this one is from north. >> maybe if i could try some? government, does. yes. george w. bush famously called them part of the axis of evil. thank you. their proxies in iraq have done >> of course. american soldiers real harm. >> that one, we made it with there is no doubt of this. beans, meat. but i hope i can be forgiven for >> it's so good. finding these undeniable truths hard to reconcile with how we fantastic food. are treated on the streets everywhere we go. >> men and boy, both of them working. so forget about the politics if >> it's hard to do something you can, for a moment. like this. how about the food? that's what i'm waiting for. the food here is amazing. that's the crispy rice at the bottom. chelo kabob, as close as you can what is it called? tariq? get to a national dish. >> tariq. exactly. >> lovely. merci. and the king of kebabs. >> my mom and my mother-in-law, they think if they have a guest, ground lamb with spices, a good they have to have at least two place to start. so what do you guys do for a or three kind of foods. if they make just one, they think it is not very polite for a guest. living? now they set the example for my generation. that i have a guest i will just make one food, one appetizer,

>> i export nuts. one dessert. >> you know why? ♪ do you know why? >> because it's much easier. >> i am a curator of contemporary art. >> which is an exploding scene and this year, here. >> three different culture, look at what he put in our driveway. santa can do that? abyssian culture, iranian and he sure can, honey. islamic culture. the lexus december to remember sales event is going on now, >> it has changed a lot during the last decade. with some of the most magical deals of the year. so this is the actual marrying. i would recommend you to try this is the pursuit of perfection. this one and this one and this last day in iran. one. night falls, and the kids, like >> okay. >> why not? >> so a chelo kabob wouldn't be kids anywhere, get in their complete without persian rice. rides and head for somewhere fluffy, long grained, perfectly they can hang out. amazing all these american seasoned with saffron, the rice classics here. in this country is like nothing where do you get them? you've ever had. >> old men's, old people's yards. >> right. >> tony, first you should take and then fix them up? >> yeah. the butter and put it on your >> mustang? rice. bon appétit. [ engine revving ] >> bon appétit. >> it's good. >> it's really good, yeah. >> camaro. >> camaro. >> firebird. >> pontiac. it was a hopeful time when i that's a perfect l.a. car right there. arrived in iran.

is this a car club or is this just people come? >> hang out this way. a window had opened. it's our friends. >> i called out for a little delivery. one last thing everyone's been telling me i have to try. there had been a slight loosening of restrictions since iranian take-out pizza. the election of president hassan rouhani, and there was optimism for a deal that could lead to an easing of crippling economic sanctions imposed because of it comes with ketchup. iran's continued nuclear >> what do you think about iranian pizza? program. >> not bad. >> not bad. >> we don't put ketchup on pizza, though. trade restrictions that have >> i love ketchup. been very, very difficult for everyone. but there's a push happening [ sneezing ] a cold can make you miserable. >> i spent my youth pretty much between opposing factions in the luckily, alka seltzer plus cold and cough liquid gels. doing this, hanging out in a parking lot. government. rush liquid fast relief to your tough cold symptoms. ♪ on one hand iranians are the fast, powerful liquid gels from alka seltzer plus descendants of ancient persia, let's assume the worst. let's assume that you cannot see any way to reconcile what you think of iran with your own the empire of poetry, flowers,

the highly influential culture personal beliefs. that you just generally don't approve. >> yeah. >> i think those are exactly the sort of places you should go. >> totally. that goes back thousands of years. >> see who we're talking about but the ruling clerical and and where we're talking about military class are at best here. ambivalent, at worst actively hostile to much of that >> i think it's almost tradition. severe religious-based restrictions of speech, dress, behavior were ushered in by the un-american not to go to those places, you know? rise of the ayatollah during the 1979 islamic revolution. >> i don't know that i can put it in any kind of perspective. ♪ i feel deeply conflicted, deeply confusing, exhilarating, ♪ heartbreaking, beautiful place. >> so how does one have fun in iran these days? >> yeah, exactly. ♪ this is a line that is constantly being tested. alcohol is, of course, forbidden. [ horn honking ] [ engine revving ] you can get away with listening to rock or rap, sort of, sometimes. >> american cars are crazy. >> american cars are crazy, and but you cannot yourself rock or they're fun. be seen to visibly rock.

all i can tell you is the iran not everyone in iran is i've seen on tv and read about delighted with what their country has become since the in the papers, it's a much bigger picture. revolution. let's put it this way, it's complicated. ♪ but even insinuating discontent can have consequences. protesters, dissidents, journalists have been simply disappeared into the maw of the national security system. after ten weeks, yeganeh was finally released, but as i read these lines, jason remains a prisoner. times have changed. pre-1979 tehran was party his future, the reasons for central. their arrest are still unknown. but with iran's 1979 revolution, 2,500 years of monarchy was >> one, two, three. over. the supreme leader ayatollah khomeini's word became more or >> thank you, guys. less law. >> thank you. today hundreds of thousands of >> thank you. >> we'll see you. huh? -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

iranians are bused to his what? enormous shrine from all over the country. the national holiday, khomeini died on this day in 1989, his funeral attended by over 10 million iranians. [ speaking foreign language ]. >> it's some military police. don't shoot, please. >> america and all of the world, let us cross. >> we are in the northern-most spit of land in tehran. for friendship. up here the land of tehran, the road stops and it gets really steep. the place for iranians to escape the heat, escape the pollution and have a kabob and just kind of unwind. as print journalists, our job is you heard jeb bush say this tonight about donald trump. difficult, but it's also kind of [ inaudible ]

easy because there is so much to >> but is tough talk enough to write about. turn his campaign around. you know, the difficult part is also tonight you know the convincing people on the other words from the declaration of side of the world that what we're telling you we are seeing independence, words that define in front of our eyes is actually there. when you walk down the street america and promise the right to you see a different side of life, liberty and the pursuit of things. happiness. but where do you draw the line between liberty and safety? where do you stand? people are proud. metal detectors at disney world, government reading your text and the culture is vibrant. e-mails, shutting down the people have a lot to say. intern >> jason rezaian is "the washington post" correspondent for iran. yeganeh his wife and a fellow journalist works for the

uae-based newspaper "the national." jason is iranian/american. yeganeh is a full iranian citizen. this is their city, tehran. the official attitude toward fun in general seems to be an ever-shifting -- how -- is fun even a good idea? >> a lot of push and pull. a lot of give and take. when i first started coming here you wouldn't hear pop music in a restaurant or -- >> it's everywhere now. >> now it is everywhere. >> we have police, they arrest girls or women for having the

hijab or not being covered enough. it is not that we live with the police in our head, you know. >> one of the first things that people will say when you say, i'm going to iran. yeah, but don't they make women do this, this, this, this. >> yeah. >> actually not so much, not as much as our friends. compare and contrast, women aren't allowed to drive in saudi arabia. >> that's right. or vote. >> or vote. you can drive. you can vote. >> yeah, of course. of course. >> can you run a business? >> of course. my sister is an accountant. she has her own company. girls are allowed to do almost everything, except if you want to go and watch football. >> can't watch football? >> we cannot. >> women's issues are often at the spear point of change or possible change here. on one hand, prevailing conservative attitudes demand certain things. on the other hand, iranian women

are famously assertive, opinionated. it's a striking difference from almost everywhere else in the region. so why are we so friendly with the saudis again? >> it's a good question. that's a really good question. >> i'm happy that you asked that question. >> do you like it? are you happy here? >> look, i am at a point now after five years where i miss certain things about home. i miss my buddies. i miss burritos. i miss having certain beverages with my buddies and burritos and certain types of establishments. but i love it. i love it and i hate it. you know, but it's home. it's become home. the holidays bring many challenges to the feet.

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