Happy self isolation, and please enjoy our first episode of the new social distancing landscape. In this episode of our rice series, we’re leaving East Asia and heading to Iran to talk about one of the country’s most beloved rice dishes. We discuss how rice arrived to Central Asia, the rich cooking culture of the Safavid Empire, and the pre-Islamic origins fo Nowruz, aka Persian New Year. Finally, we speculate which Christian scholars may have dabbled with non-Christian faiths.