A New Direction
Dear Friends,
When I considered some of the possible topics that this blog might cover, now that Lebanon is relatively quiet, I made a list of some of the major issues facing the Middle East today. As I have tried to focus on any of them and express my thoughts in an incisive and journalistic way, I confess to feeling totally overwhelmed.
Why, when you could be reading Juan Cole, would you be reading me? Will Keith Olberman ever get up early to see what insightful and astute punditry I have posted? Will I ever become a source for the Colbert Report? I think not.
But I have enjoyed writing and posting and receiving responses from so many of you; as long as my topic was right in front of me, I felt qualified to write about it, and I thought it was worthwhile to help people see what I was seeing. So I have been wondering about a topic that might be interesting, accessible, occasionally controversial, and easy to digest. It would have to be a topic that expressed the flavor of Lebanese culture, steeped in memory and spiced with the passions of experience. Well, there you have; what do the Lebanese love, possibly even more than political infighting and intrigue? They love their food.
When we lived in Istanbul, a friend was explaining the origins of an area called Arnavutkoy. It was on our bus route towards downtown, and on a good day, we would often walk along the Bosphorus, through Arnavutkoy, to Ortakoy where they sold immense baked potatoes stuffed with cheese and butter, and a host of other mix-ins. Sadly, one of them wasn’t bacon, but I am getting off topic already. Carol was very fond of Arnavutkoy, because it translates nicely: Arnavut = Albanian, and koy = village. Not that there were a lot of Albanians there then (except for Carol) but there were when Albania was part of the Ottoman Empire.
Our friend explained to us that many of the Albanians in Istanbul and elsewhere in the Empire, had been gardeners and farmers. They had been responsible for growing and selling produce in the city. (I have not fact-checked this, but it fits well) “They were the gardeners for the Ottomans. Much the same way that the Armenians were the jewelers.” Well that seems reasonable. In this region, even now, jewelers and metalsmiths often have that telltale –ian ending their family names. Our dear friend Bedros, in the Grand Bazaar, collected and sold antique pitchers, hamam bowls, candelabra, and also manufactured very reasonable copies. The Armenian skill with metal lives on. The Ottomans, it seems, were quite adept at using the skills of the peoples that were “incorporated” into the empire.
So here’s a hypothesis: the Lebanese were the cooks of the Ottoman Empire. Taking the diverse ingredients of the region, they created a cuisine that is reflected around the Mediterranean to this day. The vegetables: tomatoes, eggplants, squash, beans, lentils. Meat: lamb and goat. Grains: wheat, barley, beans Greens: spinach, mint, wild greens. Herbs and spices…too numerous to mention, but garlic, oregano, mint, thyme…
You might ask how a preppy American guy thinks he can write anything worthwhile about Lebanese food. That would be a fair question, and I have a reasonable answer: shish kebab has been part of my family culture since before I was born. (OK, we made it with steak, not lamb). But probably more importantly, most of what I first learned about Lebanese food, I learned about in the back room of Ed Hyder’s Mediterranean Marketplace in Worcester Massachusetts. I can think of no more willing and generous teacher than Ed.
Stay tuned; I’m starting with meze, and hummus is top on the menu.
When I considered some of the possible topics that this blog might cover, now that Lebanon is relatively quiet, I made a list of some of the major issues facing the Middle East today. As I have tried to focus on any of them and express my thoughts in an incisive and journalistic way, I confess to feeling totally overwhelmed.
Why, when you could be reading Juan Cole, would you be reading me? Will Keith Olberman ever get up early to see what insightful and astute punditry I have posted? Will I ever become a source for the Colbert Report? I think not.
But I have enjoyed writing and posting and receiving responses from so many of you; as long as my topic was right in front of me, I felt qualified to write about it, and I thought it was worthwhile to help people see what I was seeing. So I have been wondering about a topic that might be interesting, accessible, occasionally controversial, and easy to digest. It would have to be a topic that expressed the flavor of Lebanese culture, steeped in memory and spiced with the passions of experience. Well, there you have; what do the Lebanese love, possibly even more than political infighting and intrigue? They love their food.
When we lived in Istanbul, a friend was explaining the origins of an area called Arnavutkoy. It was on our bus route towards downtown, and on a good day, we would often walk along the Bosphorus, through Arnavutkoy, to Ortakoy where they sold immense baked potatoes stuffed with cheese and butter, and a host of other mix-ins. Sadly, one of them wasn’t bacon, but I am getting off topic already. Carol was very fond of Arnavutkoy, because it translates nicely: Arnavut = Albanian, and koy = village. Not that there were a lot of Albanians there then (except for Carol) but there were when Albania was part of the Ottoman Empire.
Our friend explained to us that many of the Albanians in Istanbul and elsewhere in the Empire, had been gardeners and farmers. They had been responsible for growing and selling produce in the city. (I have not fact-checked this, but it fits well) “They were the gardeners for the Ottomans. Much the same way that the Armenians were the jewelers.” Well that seems reasonable. In this region, even now, jewelers and metalsmiths often have that telltale –ian ending their family names. Our dear friend Bedros, in the Grand Bazaar, collected and sold antique pitchers, hamam bowls, candelabra, and also manufactured very reasonable copies. The Armenian skill with metal lives on. The Ottomans, it seems, were quite adept at using the skills of the peoples that were “incorporated” into the empire.
So here’s a hypothesis: the Lebanese were the cooks of the Ottoman Empire. Taking the diverse ingredients of the region, they created a cuisine that is reflected around the Mediterranean to this day. The vegetables: tomatoes, eggplants, squash, beans, lentils. Meat: lamb and goat. Grains: wheat, barley, beans Greens: spinach, mint, wild greens. Herbs and spices…too numerous to mention, but garlic, oregano, mint, thyme…
You might ask how a preppy American guy thinks he can write anything worthwhile about Lebanese food. That would be a fair question, and I have a reasonable answer: shish kebab has been part of my family culture since before I was born. (OK, we made it with steak, not lamb). But probably more importantly, most of what I first learned about Lebanese food, I learned about in the back room of Ed Hyder’s Mediterranean Marketplace in Worcester Massachusetts. I can think of no more willing and generous teacher than Ed.
Stay tuned; I’m starting with meze, and hummus is top on the menu.
posted by Robert in Beirut at 10:07 AM
4 comments
