Have you ever stopped to think about what someone might be trying to say to you when they're offering you food?
What I'm saying is welcome.
I'm giving you a glimpse, an understanding to my rich flavours, history, tradition.
And what you're saying, if ever you don't accept.
It gives a message.
If you reject the food, by rejecting the food, you express a stand of your ideas.
In this episode of The Food Chain from the BBC World Service with me,
Ruth Alexander, we're exploring what happens when food does the talking.
If you bring pears to patients during a hospital visit, that would be offensive.
How what we cook, share or refuse to eat can speak volumes.
We came up with the idea of this programme while making another one.
Why is saffron so expensive?
We were talking to the Iranian-American cookbook author, Najmir Batmanghalij, and she told us this.
Marriage in Iran is a family affair, so the family are involved.
So in some part of Iran, it's still practiced that when the suitor's family go to ride to bees,
family had in marriage, they don't say anything.
If they serve black tea, the answer means no. But if they serve saffron tea, the answer is yes.
So it's a lot of Iranians.
They love joke and poetry and they don't like to say no,
but they can say things through poetry and joke and it's a lot of sign language through food.