SC - Hot sauces
lilinah@earthlink.net
lilinah at earthlink.net
Fri Dec 1 16:32:24 PST 2000
Magdalena vander Brugghe wrote:
>The only ingredient that I would question off-hand was the rice,
>which was served
>with everything. First of all, it was Indian basmati rice. This, I guess,
>is a modern affectation. If they have traditionally used rice, wouldn't it
>have been a local variety instead of an import? But, would they
>have used much
>rice at all in period?
Plenty of rice in period throughout Southwest Asia, and various parts
of the Mediterranean within al-Islam. The Muslims brought rice to
Italy and Spain. Of course, if it couldn't be grown in a region, it
could be imported since it's a dry grain.
>Most middle-eastern cooking seems to focus much more
>on wheat, with cous-cous, bulgar, breads like matzoh.
It isn't surprising that you don't find "Middle Eastern" staples in
Persia. Most of what people think of as Middle Eastern - other than
things Turkish, but that's a whole different kettle of food and
misunderstanding - are Arabic or were spread by the Arabs.
But Persians aren't Semitic, don't speak Arabic, and do not have an
Arabic culture, beyond being Muslim and using the Arabic alphabet to
write their Indo-European language. They have a very different
history, including having been conquered and ruled by Mongols for a
couple hundred years.
Additionally, couscous, which was and is made of barley in what is
considered a more rustic form, is Berber food from the Maghrib, which
is not part of the Middle East (it is part of the Near East). The
Berbers are Hamito-Semitic, distantly related to the Egyptians, and
more distantly related to the Arabs and Hebrews. After the Arabs
converted them to Islam, it took a few centuries just for an elite
group to learn to speak Arabic, although now it is the official
language of most Maghribi countries.
In addition, the Maghrib was considered the sticks, the tulies (sp.),
the boonies, by the Arabs, so it isn't surprising that Maghribi food
was not widespread in al-Islam, and isn't that well known even today,
unless you live in an area dominated by the French, so that there are
a number of Algerians and Tunisians around, or buy E-Z-2-cook instant
yuppie flavored couscous at the supermarket (heck, i do).
Furthermore, the Maghrib, what is now Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia
(and sometimes Libya) was called the bread-basket of Rome. The Romans
got interested in what was going on there in their competition with
Punic Carthage, and began making alliances around 200 BCE. The
Maghrib became a Roman province of Mauretania, from which the word
"Moor" derives, and the Romans exerted a powerful influence on the
region for about five centuries after the destruction of Carthage.
The region supplied 60 per cent of the wheat and much of the barley
the Romans used.
Wheat was also a major crop in the Levant. Bulghur is used in many
Levantine foods, such as kibbie. But it is certainly eaten in Iran
and was eaten in Persia. And thin but NOT crisp breads are eaten in a
wide ranging area - Armenians eat lavosh (besides, from what reading
i've done, Medieval matzoh was neither thin nor crisp)
>The middle-east doesn't seem well suited to rice paddies.
Rice only grows in paddies in America - and maybe other English
speaking countries. The word "paddy" comes from Malay/Indonesian
"padi", and refers to the rice as it comes from the plant, completely
unprocessed and not edible. Malay/Indonesian has a separate word for
raw uncooked rice - beras - and another word for cooked rice - nasi.
In fact, *wet* rice grows in a sawah. Sorry, i don't remember the
names in Chinese, Japanese, etc., but since "paddy" is Malay in
origin, i'll stick to the language of origin.
But there is such as thing as *dry* rice cultivation, which, while
less dramatic, and perhaps less common, than wet rice cultivation
requires a much less complex infrastructure of channels, canals,
irrigation ditches, dams, sluice gates, and the massive sculpting of
the hilly landscape to make areas flat enough to hold water, etc. I
know that dry rice cultivation takes place east of the Wallace Line
in Indonesia and i'm sure that it takes place in some other parts of
the world.
>On the other hand, the only wheat product
>they offered was pita bread. They didn't have anything like
>tabouleh, cous-cous
>or other "middle-eastern staples".
Well, they certainly eat wheat in Persia, now Iran. There are areas
with climate and soil unsuitable for rice growing. But rice is a more
prestigious grain. I don't think pita is typically Persian, but
probably easy for the restaurant to buy and serve. And, of course,
bread is hard to make out of rice :-) I'm always amazed at the HUGE
mounds of rice i get served in Persian restaurants. There are a large
number of good ones in the Los Angeles area, but only a few around
the San Francisco Bay Area where i live now.
Tabouleh is Levantine, couscous is Maghribi, and they're from
opposite ends of the Mediterranean. You won't find one where the
other is served, except maybe in America. I don't think either are
Arabic and neither is all-pervasively "Middle Eastern", whatever that
is :-)
Sheesh! My Persian cookbook seems to have disappeared or i'd mention
at least some of its distinguishing modern characteristics.
Now what i want to see are more Mesopotamian restaurants...
Anahita al-shazhiyya
That's Near Eastern, not Middle Eastern, and you better smile when
you say that, pardner.
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