SC - OOP Burns Day

[Prydwen]

Selene responded to my message about sandwish [sic] in Morocco:
>Sounds yummy, but oddly familiar.  I've been hitting the books for an upcoming
>French feasts, and this looks practically identical to the Nic,ois 
>recipes I've
>been reading.
>
>To ask a big question:  When did the food along the Mediterranian Sea get so
>homogeneous anyway?  It wasn't always that way.

Well, at least in North Africa, European colonialism (mostly in the 
19th and 20th centuries) had a lot to do with it. I didn't see as 
much American influence, except for ubiquitous American soft drinks. 
Although MacDonald's, and Pizza Hut, and, i think, Kentucky Fried 
Chicken, have "restaurants" in Morocco, and burgers are on many 
menus, there was much more obvious French and Spanish influence on 
the food.

And there are a number of North African foods in European countries 
that border the Mediterranean. Some were influenced by the Maghribis 
of the Medieval and Renaissance periods. But much influence has 
occurred in the past 50 years of so, with Maghribis migrating to 
Europe, sometimes for education, often for work - Algerian-French 
'pieds noirs' and Muslim Algerians primarily to France, some 
Tunisians to France, and a bit of everyone to Spain, often as 
illegals, to work. The Maghribi style tea shop we dropped into in 
Cordoba appeared to be run by a Spanish man and his Moroccan wife.

Anahita al-shazhiyya