What is Sangak?

Sangak is a long, dimpled whole-wheat flatbread baked directly on small river stones inside a massive tandoor-style oven. The stones (sang means stone in Farsi) give the bread its characteristic uneven surface — bubbled and pocked and lightly charred in places — and they distribute heat in a way no sheet pan ever could. A full sangak can be nearly a meter long and weighs almost nothing once you pull it from the baker's long iron paddle. You eat it while it's still hot enough to burn your fingers, which is the correct temperature.

The best sangak in Iran is still found at neighborhood nanvai bakeries that open before sunrise, where a line forms before the bread even comes out. In Tehran, regulars know which baker has the best ratio of char to chew and will cross a neighborhood for it. The bread is eaten with white cheese, walnuts, and fresh herbs (sabzi khordan) for Persian breakfast — a combination so good that diasporic Iranians will describe it with the specific longing usually reserved for people they miss.