Karolyn: From Tehran to Mouraria
She lived in 3 continents, 3 different cities, but sufficed three days in Lisbon to get in love with the city. Born in Iran, Karolyn was delighted with the light and calm of Lisbon, moved form Chiado to Mouraria and loves a Carioca (coffee) with a drop of milk in the morning. “If I do not drink it feels something is missing in my day.”
Karolyn was 12 when she realize she wanted to leave Iran to the United States, where she had relatives. For four years she waited for the arrival of passport to allow her to leave a country torn by war and revolution. “I was born in Iran and moved to the USA when I was 17. My adolescence was not very common because I spent all these years in a country in revolution, with doors closed to the world.” Forced to wear a veil from 7 to 17 years, Karolyn only found herself free in the United States, but the fear remained: “For years I had bad memories. I also could not wear skirts because in Iran we could only wear pants.”
In USA she studied fine arts in Chicago and during a trip to France, Spain and Portugal she fell in love with Lisbon. We asked what she likes the most. “The light and calm! I thought no one could be depressed with this light and this beautiful city!”
She lived in Berlin for some years, where she had an art gallery, until the birth of her son made her want to move to Lisbon. After living for some time in Chiado she discovered Mouraria, a quieter neighbourhood, where she lives for eighteen months.
Eurico and Trigueirinho are her favourite restaurants and what she likes best of Portuguese cuisine is fish! “I like sardines, gilthead, swordfish. I just don’t like cod, Portuguese will have to excuse me, but I do not like it”. Breakfast is taken in Leitaria Moderna and she no longer dispenses the coffee Carioca with a drop of milk! “If I do not drink it feels something is missing in my day.”
And what you miss the most of Iran cuisine? “Nothing! Portugal has completely changed my taste”. And what about breakfast in Iran? “We ate bread with feta cheese, sweets, butter and fruits. But we do not have bread like you, we do not use yeast. We have a bread that you put in the oven with small stones on top. Yes, it is stone bread! It has a rectangular shape, is huge and very thin. When out of the oven and the stones fall, the bread gets the design of the stone. Now that I’m talking about it after all I miss the stone bread!”