persian dinner feat persiaonaplate

2026. june 13.
Atno, Népsziget

Sara (Persia on a Plate) and I came up with the idea for the Persian–Hungarian dinner a few years ago, when we both started running independent pop-up restaurants after switching careers.  We ate our way through our own stories, bartering meals at each other’s apartments. It all took place in a former mechanic’s workshop on Népsziget. There was Iranian music, charcoal, fire and ice.

Here’s what was on the menu:

appetizer

Cucumber Azizam

Fermented cucumber + mint sorbet

Brinza de Bamjan + lavash

1:1 with Transylvanian sheep’s milk cheese and Persian kashk

Dolma de Tőtike

Uzbek rice, dried plums, sunflower seeds, mint, dill, parsley, cilantro, fermented pine honey, Georgian cilantro seeds, Hungarian dried mint

Kurut

Dried Taskeni yogurt ball

pickles

porcsin, acacia, lemon balm, beetroot, faeper, unripe: tomatoes, grapes, pine, and figs

ab doogh khiar or okroska

yogurt, kefir, soda, chives, sourdough starter, and baby cucumbers, mint, dill, parsley, cilantro

main courses

Tehran-style stuffed cabbage

with Hungarian lamb, Persian rice, red currant molasses instead of pomegranate, and fermented cabbage leaves instead of plain ones

roasted over embers: beets, apples, potatoes, celery, onions, in Persian gheeben and Hungarian lard.

seasonal salads with a bicultural dressing

dessert

kachi we’re sending a hug to every Iranian woman

halva pudding topped with Maros rose petals, apricot and fig leaves, peony, field sage, and 3 Hungarian almonds: green, naked, and wrinkled

Melon

Cardamom, saffron, mint

drinks

kvass

verjus soda with Iranian unripe grape powder

Maros rosewater kefir

green drink: a take on Iranian green salt juice, with Hungarian mint, lovage, and Kutaisi green adjika; with Strekov 1075 verjus

in a samovar: black tea, cardamom, fig leaf honey

crew:

servers: Máté Ascher, Kati Bitó, Lenne Buzás, Zsuzsi Csiszár, Luca Czakó, Sári Czerjak, Kati Hamar, Yasmin Jarada, Eszti Jóga, Claudia Kulcsár, Sara Mosa, Zsuzsi Szőnyegi, Lázár Vida, Vera Vida

logistics: Fábián Molnár

photos: Dénes Babai

set design and staging: Ákos Sógor