> Mirza Ghasemi: A smoked eggplant dish cooked with garlic, tomatoes, and eggs, from the Caspian Sea area.

That sounds good. Makes me think of hunkar begendi.

everything's stew. everything's a variation of the 4 easiest ingredients for humans to cultivate plus one or two local or regional specials

garlic/onions: aliums that thrive in most climates

rice: grass that can be drowned (to fuck off pests)

eggs: per day, one chicken produces enough binding enzymes to thicken and modify a meal for 5-8 people

veg/seed oils: cooking, flavor, etc

and since that's in the caspian sea area, they also have a ready supply of tomatoes and eggplant from centuries of trading with asia