SC - Persion cooking

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

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.