[Sca-cooks] 2016 Silly Season Starts

[Terry Decker]

It occurs to me to ask when this feast is set.  The Arab Moslems took the 
city in 637.  From roughly 962 to 1076, it was under the control of 
Byzantium.  Went to the Seljuk Turks, then wound up under the control of 
Mamluk Egypt with numerous incursions by various people who didn't hold the 
city long.  In 1516 it was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.  From the 
7th Century to the 17th Century it had a major trade relationship with the 
various dynasties of the Persian Empire.  Each of these represents a major 
influence on the cuisine of Aleppo.  Other influences are from Coptic 
Christians and Jews with a smattering of Armenians arriving around the time 
of the Crusades (greatly expanded in the early 20th Century).

Bear


I'm still wanting to do an event that is just a feast.
I'd like to do a feast from Aleppo.
No idea where to begin with the research.
No idea on a time frame.
Why Aleppo?  Well I have a modern cookbook that talks about how all the
Jews have been driven from there and with all the death and destruction I'd
like to know more of the past and try to bring some of that back to life if
just for an evening.
I don't have any books myself but might be able to get some from the CU
Library.
We're heading to Pennsic on Thursday so maybe I"ll check out books there.

Shoshanah