[Sca-cooks] Middle Eastern Food

[David Friedman]

>Yes of course, all those areas were known before as the "Otoman Empire",

Only recently. Further back, as the Abbasid Caliphate, the Western 
Umayyad Caliphate, the Fatimid Caliphate, ...  .

On the more general question, I think the relevant question is one of 
culinary similarity. We have sources from both the Middle East in the 
strict sense and al-Andalus, and, for the former, from the 10th 
through the 15th centuries. While there are surely differences, on 
the whole it looks to me like a single cuisine, with dishes that have 
the same name and similar composition appearing across that range. So 
although it would be fun to do a feast entirely from the 13th c. 
andalusian sources, or entirely from al-Warraq, I think it reasonable 
to have dishes from both in the same meal.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com