It is probably humanity's oldest bread: a flat dough of flour and water, baked on a hot stone, against the wall of a clay oven or in a pan. Flatbread exists almost everywhere grain grows – and yet it tastes different in Tehran than in Delhi, Beirut or Mexico City. Follow the trail of flatbread and you end up in Persia surprisingly often: even the word "naan" is Persian. Here is a short journey around the world, from lavash and sangak via naan and pita to the tortilla.
Flatbread: the oldest bread in the world#
Long before sourdough loaves and Viennese rolls, people baked flat cakes of dough. The reason is practical: a thin dough cooks in minutes, needs little firewood and can be baked on a hot stone, in embers or on a metal sheet. Many flatbreads use no yeast at all; others are lightly leavened and puff up briefly in a hot oven.
There is a second advantage. A flatbread is plate, spoon and napkin at once. In many cuisines between the Mediterranean and India, bread is therefore not just a side dish but cutlery: you tear off a piece, use it to pick up meat, vegetables or a dip – and eat it along with them.
Persian bread: lavash, sangak, barbari and taftoon#
In Iran, bread is so basic that nān simply means "bread" in Persian – any kind, from flatbread to sliced toast. It is eaten with almost every meal, and four kinds shape everyday life:
- Sangak – a long wholemeal flatbread baked on hot pebbles. The name comes from sang, stone.
- Barbari – thick, oval and crisp, with long grooves and often sprinkled with sesame or nigella seeds.
- Taftoon – soft and round, baked against the inner wall of a clay oven.
- Lavash – paper-thin and long-lasting.
Lavash bread: thin, durable, versatile#
Lavash bread may be the most versatile Persian bread. Dried, it keeps for weeks and turns soft again with a sprinkle of water before eating. In 2016 the culture of making and sharing lavash was recognised as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, jointly nominated by Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Türkiye.
In Iran, bread accompanies many classics: grilled kabab koobideh is often eaten with thin flatbread, and with abgoosht bread is torn into the hot broth. To see what a whole morning built around bread looks like, read our article on the Persian breakfast.
Naan bread: a Persian word conquers the world#
Order naan in an Indian restaurant and you are actually speaking Persian. The word comes from Persian nān and travelled to India with Persian, the language of court and administration in the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire for centuries. Around 1300 the Indo-Persian poet Amir Khusrau already described two kinds of naan eaten at the tables of the nobility.
Naan bread is baked in a tandoor: the dough is slapped against the glowing inner wall of the oven and is ready within minutes – essentially the same technique as Persian taftoon. In Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and among the Uyghurs, the word for bread sounds very similar. So whoever says "naan bread" is, strictly speaking, saying "bread" twice.
Pita, pide and khubz: flatbread around the Mediterranean#
Further west, flatbread becomes airier. Greek pita puffs up in the hot oven and turns into a pocket you can fill. In the Arab world the everyday bread is simply called khubz, and in Türkiye people bake pide – a name related to pita. What many in Vienna know as "Turkish flatbread", with sesame and nigella seeds, is often their first encounter with this family of breads.
Pita bread and khubz almost always appear when small starters are shared – more on that in our article on mezze and Persian appetizers. And without flatbread, the success story of the döner would hardly be imaginable; we tell it in our history of kebab. Even Italy has its own versions: piadina from Romagna and soft, oily focaccia.
Tortilla, injera and more: types of flatbread beyond the Silk Road#
Not every flatbread is made from wheat. In Mexico the tortilla has been a staple for thousands of years. It is made from corn dough for which the kernels are first cooked in a lime solution – a process called nixtamalization that makes the corn more nutritious. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, injera is the daily bread: a large, fermented, spongy flatbread made from teff, on which the dishes are served directly.
In India, besides naan, people bake chapati and roti from wholemeal flour in a flat iron pan. In Georgia, the canoe-shaped shotis puri is stuck to the wall of a round clay oven – much like in Iran. The many types of flatbread show that wherever people grow grain, they find the same simple path to bread.
Conclusion: flatbread connects cuisines – and Persian cuisine in Vienna#
Lavash, naan, pita or tortilla: flatbread is the bread that connects cultures. It is shared, torn and used as a spoon, and it tells of trade routes and languages – right down to the Persian word nān, which now appears on menus all over the world. If you want to explore Iranian cuisine further, you will find plenty of ideas in our Persian recipes.
Or let us cook for you: SANTOOR at Florianigasse 20, 1080 Vienna, is a Persian restaurant with a 100% halal kitchen, open daily from 12:00 to 22:00. You can book a table here. Nooshe jan – enjoy your meal!