[Sca-cooks] Serving stuff over rice

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

On Wed, 23 Oct 2013, Jim Chevallier wrote:
> This article says that its culture was greatly expanded under the caliphs,  
> but that it remained a luxury everywhere except in lower Babylonia, where 
> it was  the basis for many popular dishes:
>
> http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/ahess_0395-2649_1968_num_23_5_421986 (1018)

First, i just noticed the Digest your msg was in.

Lower Babylonia - the marsh area that Saddam Hussein drained, but which is being restored - was a rice growing region. Other rice growing regions within SCA period included, in Persia: the provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran at the southern end of the Caspian Sea; and in Egypt: the Nile Delta, centered around Damietta.

Rice was also grown in al-Andalus, in wetlands south of Valencia, but i don't know if more rice was consumed there than in other parts of al-Andalus or not.

In the areas where rice was grown it was often eaten by ordinary people, often in preference to bread. But these areas were small compared to the breadth of Dar al-Islam, where bread was the basic staple, and the chief grain served with a meal.

I was looking over some Ottoman feast information, and generally rice was not a problem for the palaces to purchase. Yet i came across some interesting information from a major circumcision festival in the early 18th century, that of the four sons of Ahmed III (princes Suleyman. Mehmet, Mustafa, and Beyazid) in 1720, for which the Surname-i Vehbi, extensively illustrated by the famous artist Levni, was created. Each table was arranged for 10 diners. There were a few small dishes (i'm not sure of what) placed around the table and the diners helped themselves with their fingers. In the center was a single dish which the diners shared, dipping into it with their spoons. One dish was rice pilaw with chicken. But there were many other central dishes that did not include rice. In fact, it was noted that each diner tore off a piece of flat bread, placed it before himself, and then put what he'd spooned out of the central dish on it. No individual plates, rice was only in a pilaw, and other meat dishes were served without rice.

I realize this is 120 years beyond our period, but it doesn't seem very different from the reports made by visiting European dignitaries the 15th and 16th centuries. Additionally, talking was discouraged during eating, and laughter positively frowned upon.

Finally, at these expansive state dinners, food was brought in, placed on the tables, diners at a little, and the dishes were whisked away. Europeans were shocked, since they'd barely gotten a taste, but it was also true that the Ottoman diners had only gotten a few mouthfuls of each dish. The food was not discarded but each dish was served elsewhere to people of lesser rank - and after they'd had their mouthfuls, the dishes went on to people of even lower rank. So while a feast might have several dozens of dishes, diners only had one or two mouthfuls of each.

Urtatim