This Iranian Supermarket Gives Me a Taste of Home

Food & Wine

When I first immigrated to the U.S. from Iran at the age of 9, I was as enthralled by American grocery stores as I was by MTV. The grocery stores, with their perfect mix of ascetic cleanliness and colorful cheer, were like amusement parks full of wonder. They were places where I could feel happy. My new suburban life was a long way from Tehran and its overstuffed and dusty corner stores where we bought canned goods and toilet paper, or the farm where we picked up milk in large plastic bags to pasteurize at home.

In the early 1980s, Iran was in the midst of a brutal war with Iraq. The U.S. sanctions, which continue to economically devastate the country nearly 40 years later, combined with the tight grip of the Islamic Republic, isolated us from the West and its goods. We coveted Nesquik and Nutella, Coca-Cola and Corn Flakes because they were hard to come by.

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