Following on from the success of their award-winning books, Saha and Turquoise, Greg and Lucy Malouf now explore one of the world's earliest and greatest empires: Saraban is an unforgettable journey through the culinary landscapes of ancient Persia and modern-day Iran. Persian cooking is one of the oldest and most sophisticated cuisines in the world and its influence has spread across India and the Middle East to North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula and even through Medieval Europe. It's a cuisine that is subtle, elegant and alluring, which rejoices in rice, uses fresh herbs in abundance and combines meat, fish, fruit and vegetables with exotic spices, such as saffron, cardamom and dried limes. In Saraban, Greg and Lucy discover a land where the rich diversity of climate, countryside, architecture and poetry provide a fitting background for an equal variety and richness of cuisine. Join them as they visit bustling bazaars and tiny soup kitchens, pick saffron before dawn and fish, in time-honoured tradition, from wooden dhows in the Persian Gulf.