[Sca-cooks] Andalusian = Middle Eastern?

[Terry Decker]

> Master Cariadoc suggested:
>> > Greetings unto the List, this fine warm evening!
>> > Our Queen in Meridies is a Lady of Middle-Eastern interests.
>>
>> You can also find a substantial 13th c. Andalusian cookbook webbed at:
>>
>> http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/
>> andalusian_contents.htm
>
> I've heard Andalusian foods, and probably this specific site,  suggested
> before for 'Middle Eastern' foods. I considered suggesting  that myself in
> an an earlier message I posted to the Middle Eastern  nibbles thread.
>
> However, what are the reasons to suggest that the foods of Andalusia  were
> common or even used in the Middle East? They may both be Moslem,  but
> Andalusia (I thought) was southern Spain and perhaps Morocco?  That's a
> long way from the Middle East.
>

The Moslems were rapid adopters of new food stuffs and were constantly
spreading new plants across al-Islam.  While there might be regional
differences, the manner of food preparation was primarily of Middle Eastern 
origin, so
Andalusian might be consodered Middle Eastern cuisine.

>> Do we know when tea came into use in the Middle East? I can't think
>> of period references, although given the close ties between the
>> Ilkhans and the mongol rulers of China, it doesn't seem impossible.
>
> Who were the "Ilkhans" and what connections to the mongol rulers of  China
> are you talking about?
>

The Ilkhan Sultanate controlled Persia from 1259 to 1335.  It was founded by
a grandson of Ghengis Khan.

> Even so, it seems unlikely to me that tea/chai would have made it to  the
> Middle East but not to Europe. Can anyone think of any other  central or
> southwestern Asian item that made it to the Middle East  but not to Europe
> within a reasonable time after that, which did  later catch on in Europe?
>
> Coffee certainly doesn't count since it isn't from Asia and it did  make
> it from the Middle East to Europe within a century or two.
>
> Stefan

The first European reference to tea is in the late 16th Century from a
missionary in Asia.  The first imports of tea into Europe were in the latter
half of the 17th Century from Asia, so the Middle East does not enter into
the transfer of tea to Europe.

Probably, the first known reference to tea is in the writings of Confucious 
between the 5th and 6th Centuries BCE.  The first teacups appear in the Han 
dynasty (3rd C. BCE to 3rd Century CE).  It's rise to serious commercial 
crop was most likely between the 7th and 9th Centuries.  Tea use expanded 
into Japan and then into Southeast Asia.

Brick tea was used as part of the trade for horses to tribes in Central 
Asia, Mongolia and Tibet where it was churned with yak butter and barley or 
millet to make porridge. (Kramer, Ione, Tea Drinking and its Culture; in 
Murphy, Patrick, and Dingdo, Wu (eds.), Handbook of Popular Chinese Culture, 
pp. 55-76.)

One does need to consider that the source of tea was China and that in the
late 14th Century trade between the Levant and China was disrupted for an
extended period, which might account for a lack of tea in the Middle East,
even if there had been a trade in it earlier.

The first reference to tea in India is from the late 16th Century, which 
suggests that the Chinese tea trade did not extend very deeply into Western 
Asia and al-Islam.

Toilet paper is a Chinese product known to the Moslems which was not passed 
along to Europe.  The Moslems considered it unsanitary and would have 
nothing to do with it.

Bear