The defensiveness, misinformation and anxiety of surprisingly many the commenters about the nitpicking of trying to deny anything Palestinian including what they consider their food is very telling. Food for thought.
58
Why the most unappetizing image for some of the most delicious food?
24
I sense a lot of hostility here - not good for digestion.
16
Thanks for the beautiful and balanced story about Palestine and its beautiful food. I own some of these books and they delight my family and our guests. And yes, Palestine has existed for a very long time - read your Mark Twain and your Agatha Christie - and your bible! In Arabic the word is Falasteen (Philistine). Remember them from the old testament?
40
If you like Palestinian food enjoy!!! I like French, Italian, Mexican, Chinese and all American regional dishes more-politics do not mix with palate.
9
About half the Jewish Israeli population hail from Middle East (Mizrahi Jews, North African Sephardim) who immigrated to Israel to escape persecution from their native countries. They brought their foods and cultural traditions with them and if they choose to now identify their foods as “Israeli” then saying that’s cultural appropriation is wrong.
37
The title is bizarre and the image is really really weird. What's with the bloody looking image and the dead animals??
Rise of Palestinian food hardly explains the fact of the matter. There is a distinct Palestinian cuisine like the article lays out.
What amazes me in the comments below is the amount of vitriol from people who file the word Palestine controversial. People who have to go back 3,000 years (history according to them, where they added an extra 1000 years is beyond comprehension).
Palestine does not exist? Ask any Israeli who was born before the formation of the state of israel. Guess what, they have a Palestinian birth certificate if they were born in Palestine. Don't believe me? Feel free to ask. How about you ask them for paperwork from before the British mandate, from the dates of the Ottomans. Guess what, Palestine yet again. Don't believe me? Again, look it up.
Some comments have to go back to antiquity to find any semblance of legitimacy to justify the cultural appropriation of Palestinian food.
And no, Palestinian food is NOT Lebanese food. This is not Chicago vs. NY. We are not talking about deep dish pizza here.
You have to understand the geography and history. Lebanon is a mountainous country where different plants are found at different geographic locations. Across centuries, cuisines have evolved.
I have yet to fully comprehend the level of insecurity and threat that some comments highlight against the very notion of Palestinian food.
62
Never commingle politics and sectarian quarrels with gastronomy. The name Palestine, written in Ancient Egyptian as p-r-s-t, goes back to the 2nd millenium BC, for the region of the East-Mediterranean littoral. But in the cuisine of the peoples or tribes inhabiting modern Palestine there are used rather unappetizing organs of sheep and rams.
2
Very nice article and a story that more often than not gets buried or disjointed all too often. Thanks.
21
It is very understandable that Palestinians would want to transform their culinary heritage into an element of national identity formation, which is what this article is essentially about.
On the other hand, and in pure gastronomical terms, it is a well-know fact that the pecking order of best food in this region is defined by its cities and not by the countries that currently exist there.
Aleppo is number one, thanks to its once central location as commercial knot for trade routes.
Damascus is number two, as it has always been a capital of a great empire, or the most important city in this area under Ottoman Occupation.
Beyrouth, has risen to prominence since 1945, as it has become the freest city in the Arab Middle East.
Cairo is a mystery, the food experience is much lower than the depth of its historical past and the bounties that can come out of the Nile valley.
9
I'm a lazy vegan cook and I love Zaitoun. It's very accessible and has a whole vegan section. I especially love the soups. It's one of the cookbooks I use the most.
26
"Before Kalla’s first cookbook, “Palestine on a Plate,” was published in 2016, prospective editors were worried that the title might be taken as a provocation,..."
Cultural occupation.
23
a point that i think is often missed when discussing appropriation in referring to israeli cuisine is that when we think of Israelis, we think Ashkinazi jews. This oversight, however, completely neglects the rich contribution that Sephardic jews have contributed to the national israeli identity and much of what we know as Israeli food (at least here in the states). i am not claiming that sephardic jews are the sole owners of foods like felafel, hummus, etc. but i think it should be acknowledged that jews from areas such as iran, iraq, syria, libya, egypt, etc bring food and culture that is representative of their history/ethnicity and contributes to this overall idea of what israeli food really is - a melting pot that is reflective of thousands of years of migration, history, and culture.
37
I still don’t think there’s much difference between Israeli and Palestinian cooking, except that the latter is probably a little bit better.
4
Cuisine, culture and politics? A rich blend. A place at the table? Palestinians had a place at the table in 2000 but Arafat left before the meal was over.
9
"IN A 1986 INTERVIEW, the Palestinian-American literary critic Edward Said recounted a conversation with a friend over a breakfast of yogurt cheese strewn with za’atar. It was a breakfast that, Said mused, existed “all over the Arab world”
"It’s a sign of a Palestinian home that it has za’atar in it,” siad the friend.
This is an example of politicizing foods which have no politics, including Palestinian.
Za'atar was apparently known to ancient Assyrians and Babylonians. It is known in the Hebrew Bible. There are Persian, Roman and European varieties. It grows wild in Greece. It is found all over the Middle East.
So while it might be a sign of a Palestinian home that has Za'atar in it, it is the sign of many homes in many countries and of many ethnic groups throughout many centuries.
Stick to the food. Cultural appropriations works in many many directions. Why start. It will just backfire.
32
Why are you so threatened by the idea that an herb can be a sign of a typical Palestinian home? The vitriol of reactions to this article has been very disappointing.
46
Thank you for this article. Palestinian cooking is very interesting. But what is one reason that people think the cover picture is so horrible (i do too, these poor little birds)?
This is how animals look like after being tortured, kept in small cages and being painfully killed. Or worse. Meat on your plate, meat in your shops all around the world... All those animals that turned into "meat" - suffered like these birds. You just can not see it so well as the pieces of flesh and bone are cut up. Meat is not neat.
There is no need for intelligent, cute birds like this to die.
There is no need for little lambs, small furry sweet animals, to die.
Why? Because our international, and palestinian recipes, are so rich and delicious!
In the Hague, Netherlands, there is a small veggy restaurant called "Love & Peas", originally of an Palestinian cook and an Israelian cook. They cook food from the region without animal cruelty. That really IS love & peace.
7
@Astrid Vienna
You are right, no reason little lambs, small furry sweet animals to die. But they also wouldn't exist at all, if it weren't for the fact that we breed them for food.
7
Is it not possible to just enjoy food without researching its geographic and /or political origin ?
And by the way Hummus was adopted by Ashkenazi Israeli Jews because it was tasty, very cheap and available all over and not because they wanted to forget the Eastern European foods. Chulent is still the most highly popular dish in Israel for a Shabat meal..
12
Mediterranean cuisine is more Turkish/Greek (Nortern Mediterranean) cuisine which is lighter on spices than Syrian/Palestinian, and mostly grilled meat/fish and olive oil based vegetables. If you go back some 30/40 years, Turks in Istanbul didn't eat hummus, only folks in eastern Turkey ate Arabic food.
I would classify Syrian/Palestinian food as Middle Eastern cuisine. Sure, there are overlaps, but nothing described in this article would be found in a typical Turkish or Greek kitchen.
11
@CacaMera Syrian/Palestinian food is levantine, not "Middle Eastern". The largest population/cultural zones of the Middle East are Turkey and Iran, neither of which are Arabic, but their food is just as much "Middle Eastern".
6
In 1922, Britain drew a line along the Jordan River - and called the territory on the east Trans Jordan. The western part was called "Palestine" which had previously been the designation for the entire territory since the Romans renamed it in the 2nd Century. Today Trans Jordan is called the Kingdom of Jordan.
The people in eastern part are indistinguishable from those in the west - by religion, ethnicity, and language. It's like the difference between Queens and Brooklyn in New York City.
12
@HH Actually, it's like the difference between an Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn and a Polish neighborhood in lower Manhattan. Or the difference between Tuscany and Liguria. The food and even the language arebdefined by community, religion and the differences in geography.
8
I love eating Arab food. One of my favorites foods is called “kabsa”. It is rice with chicken or lamb and uses so many ingredients like grated carrots, coriander, whole cloves, and many others. I like the fresh taste.
7
I grew up in a lttlie suburban town, and yet, I love food from all over the world.
I will add this cookbook to my vast collection.
8
The organization referenced in the final paragraph of the article, for whom "Breaking Bread" event at James Beard House was a benefit, is the Parents Circle/Family Forum, well worth knowing
about and supporting.
5
What a remarkable read! I am indebted to the time and scholarship that Ligaya Mishan invested in this piece. It deftly weaved cuisine, history, conflict, struggle and longing. It made me weep.
29
Bourdain actually wrote a promotional quote on the front of "The Gaza Kitchen," which I own. Boosting agriculture and food industries in the region seems like a really smart idea that even the Israeli government can get behind. Isn't it better for people to work, gain skills, and become financially self-sufficient instead of poor, unhappy, and easy prey for extremist ideology?
12
I'm sorry, but that cover photo is horrifying. It looks like several small birds were tortured and sacrificed on a pedestal, and the hollowed out watermelons remind me of flesh blasted by bombs. The aesthetics are not... ideal, especially considering the context.
21
Thank for such a beautiful article. It is such great to read about dishes my Palestinian father taught my Anglo-American mother how to make many years ago. And yes, the food is unique both within Palestine itself and definitely compared to her neighbors. I have often felt that the tendency of Israeli chefs to deny that much of the food they claim as their own (especially here in the US) has its origins from their Palestinian neighbors. That would be like American chefs denying that their version of a burrito or enchilada is not originally Mexican. What is the point of refusing to recognize our cultural and culinary contribution? Or of persisting, as many of the letters reflect, in denying us the right to identify as Palestinians? Insisting, by definition, that we don’t exist (after all, if there’s no Palestine, how can there be Palestinians) will not make us disappear. Thank you again for sharing the beauty not only of Palestinian food, but of the people who lovingly prepare it.
54
@Laila Al-Marayati
Don't sweat it Laila, it stems from insecurity. The web is truth's friend.
6
Re cultural appropriation, it’s hardly cultural appropriation when Jewish Israeli family members cook these and similar dishes (perhaps made with oil rather than butter). They lived in Jerusalem for, well, forever more or less. Their house was stolen from them when the Jordanians occupied the Old City and Jordanian military divided Jerusalem with fences and barbed wire and landmines.
Those family members lived there well before 1948 and continue to do so now. The cuisine is theirs, too.
27
Lovely feature of a truly rich and delicious cuisine! The photography is also wonderful. Thank you, NYT!
4
Thank you for this article and for writing about the traditions of Palestinian food.
I am intrigued by the commenters who seem to go out of their way to deny the very existence of Palestinian culture or nationhood - or food. My parents were born in Palestine and fled with their families in 1948. They identify themselves as Palestinian and always have. They do not call themselves Syrian, Lebanese, or "Levantine Arabs." Palestinians existed and exist, even if the future of Palestinian statehood remains an open question.
My teenage daughter (the product of a Palestinian mother and a Russian Jewish father) recently confided that she avoids telling people that she is Palestinian because she doesn't want to get into a political debate with those, like many in these comments, who will go through all kinds of gymnastics to challenge the right of Palestinians to actually call themselves Palestinians, as though it is an affront. How sad it is that at her young age, she has discerned that the simple act of stating her heritage might be deemed by some as a provocative and political act.
47
Thank you for sharing! Palestinian food is indeed about so much more than food - history, culture, politics, and retaining our ties to the land, both for those living under occupation and those in the diaspora.
My wish is that the NYTimes could have chosen a front page photo that was less barbaric and crude; must we always subtly signal that Palestinians and the broader Arab and Muslim worlds are backwards and less civilized than the West?
91
i didnt read the picture at all like that. Sometimes we can be a little hyper-vigilant with regard to slights.
4
@Sammy you are right. But you are asking too much.
4
I miss Tony Bourdain. He traveled to Iran, Israel, and Palestinian territories for "Parts Unknown", his TV show. He was able to see past the politics and get to know the people through a common denominator for all human beings: sitting down together for a meal.
77
"Cookbook authors and chefs are arguing for their nation’s place at the table"
Sorry, there has never been a nation called "Palestine".
The name is an Anglicized version of a Roman province, and is also the name of the more recent mandate given to Great Britain at the end of World War I by the League of Nations.
You can use the term "Palestinian" like you can "Brooklynite".
71
I see your point, but point out that Brooklyn was indeed once a distinct city all of its own. So, wrong analogy.
12
@G
What is your definition of a nation? Respectfully, I think you mean that there has never been a State of Palestine. No contemporary State in the Levant existed before WWI.
There is definitely a nation of Palestinians - defined by common descent, history, culture, and language -- all living in a defined (and confined) territory.
Perhaps an article about food -- which is the most accessible, portable, and tangible manifestation of a culture -- is not the appropriate place to intimate one groups claim to statehood over another.
26
Simply denying the existence of ten million people does not let them go away. The Jewish people existed for millennia in exile. There is no doubt that the Palestinian people will do the same to keep their culture and aspirations alive for centuries as they have been doing for the last century against formidable odds.
32
Is this actually Lebanese and Syrian cooking (two nations that are thousands of years old) merely relabeled as “Palestinian”, a ‘nation’ invented by Yassir Arafat in the 1960s?
86
@Bailey T. Dog
Lebanon as a nation was carved in 1930s by the French. Italy as a nation was made in lates 19 century. But in both examples out of many there were indigenous people living there.
29
@Bailey T. Dog Read the article - there are local variations in a region that's been there for centuries and purely local dishes. Palestine has been in existence since the old testament (Philistines, remember?).
19
@Bailey T. Dog
Neither Lebanon nor Syria is thousands of years old. Lebanon is not Phoenicia, and Syria is not Assyria, which was in northern Mesopotamia.
15
Two words: Nablus kanfeh
24
Two words (one of which I spelled wrong in an earlier comment ; ) -- Nablus Knafeh
25
Wow. Interesting article, and perhaps the most nuanced look at the Palestinian question that I’ve read in a long time in the Times (a paper not known for its balance on Israel).
82
I read articles like these because I enjoy articles about food and also with the hope that food can bring people together. This article, while giving examples which include hope along with the food, also reminds me of the harshness of life. What is disturbing is that life, death, illness, weather can all be harsh naturally but nothing seems to match the sheer stupidity of human beings and these days we seem to be getting even more stupid.
12
Isn't this cultural appropriation? The horror.
15
It is more than cultural. It is land, water and air. They don’t even get a thank you.
7
>> ...or the more euphemistic “Mediterranean,” invoking the familiarity and safety of Italy and Spain to deflect from negative Western stereotypes of Arabs.
Inflammatory accusations should be substantiated. Otherwise, you render “racism” meaningless.
>> ...a largely academic argument that fails to answer the question of what, then, to call the people who lived in the territory before 1948. They are not merely Arab any more than the French are merely European.
This analogy is false. The Arab invaders homogenized North Africa and the Middle East. Arabs all speak Arabic, albeit different dialects, and practice Sunni Islam, except for Oman. The “diversity” is the ethnic-linguistic-religious minorities suppressed by Arabs for centuries (Berbers, Copts, Assyrians, Druze, Yazidi, Melkites, Maronites, etc.). Palestinians are simply Levantine Arabs. If you want to blame anyone, blame supporters of pan-Arabism and Arab solidarity.
44
@Chris Pining
You should ask instead how come in these lands of Arab and Muslim rules, dozens of sects and religions survived to modern times when other countries (such as Enlightened Europe) eliminated their sects and other religions forming one-religion kingdoms/empires with wholesale persecutions decades old wars? Israel too wants one state religion. Same pattern.
The Arab/Muslim of past allowed diversity when Christian nations eliminated it. Just look at Europe.
11
@Chris Pining Spoken Arabic dialects are often unintelligible to speakers of other dialects. Much worse than the English spoken on either side of the Atlantic by two different countries.
5
The people you call “Berber” don’t call themselves by that word, which is considered by some to be derogatory.
(Just for future reference.)
6
Palestinian maftoul and Israeli pititim: I don't think the juxtaposition is apt. Ptitim were literally meant to be a substitute for rice in the 1950's, when Israel was under severe food rationing and shortages. I don't think anyone thought of maftoul or that ptitim were an Israeli version of it.
As far as Humus, felafel and lots of other dishes: They may not be Israeli, but they aren't Palestinian, either. They are simply local dishes based on local ingredients. I'm willing to bet you humus existed not just hundreds, but also thousands of years ago. Nothing to do with the Palestinians. Lots of different peoples have lived in this area over the centuries. They weren't all Palestinians. There were Jews and lots of others and multiple instances of population transfers and ethnic cleansings and repopulations. In an area where chickpeas are a staple crop, that's the kind of thing people are going to eat:
In neighboring Egypt, where the staple is the fava bean (ful), and not the chickpea, they eat cooked ful paste instead of hummus and make felafel balls from fava beans and not from chickpeas. And they Are the Egyptians also stealing Palestinian food? I think not.
61
No. They also eat hummus in Egypt. Yes. Hummus is a near eastern staple.
4
I know of a place in LA that serves great Palestinian Chicken, but at the moment its name escapes me.
9
@artikhan Al Abbas? Across from goldblatts deli.
4
At last some respect for Palestinians.
142
Dear Mir, I agree. This is a welcome article and a pleasant surprise from the NYT! Many years ago I worked with Palestinians in hotels by the Red Sea, in a youth hostel by the Dead Sea and in the Convent of Our Lady of Zion in Jerusalem. I have such fond memories of these dear people and of their cuisine.
14
It seems that Palestinian independence movement gets more respect and attention than any other ethnic independence movement in the world.
12
This is a complex subject, because it’s not just about food. The idea of a ‘Palestinian’ cuisine is inherently political...asserting itself to further a strategic narrative.
For instance, there is no such ethnicity as ‘Palestinian’. Those now identifying as such are predominantly Arabs originating from across the Arab Muslim world, and Egyptians. Their food, their culture, as well as their clan names, reflect those origins. The ‘Palestinian’ moniker was appropriated for political purposes...a carefully-honed narrative of a supposedly ‘indigenous’ people whose supposedly ‘native land’ was supposedly ‘stolen’ by European Zionists.
Perhaps if the Arabs...themselves, the descendants of invaders, occupiers, and economic migrants to a land not their own...would stop denying the Jews their historic, indigenous, and rightful connection to the very ground upon which Israel now exists...preceding Arabs by millennia...they might find a more receptive neighbor.
Until then, stealing your time” at checkpoints?...the price Palestinians have to pay for perpetrating over 70 years of war and terrorism in an effort to restore Arab Muslim hegemony ‘from the river to the sea’...as yet ongoing.
95
@Susanna
A provide one decent artifact of the Solomon and David states. All the archaeologists (and they were many and were frantic) over decades did not find one. Not one, otherwise it will be talked about, copied, etc especially by the evangelicals. Nada
4
@Susanna
Can nationhood exist without culture? What is culture, if not a common cuisine, language, music and literature? Sure, one can invent, copy or steal, but can never claim ownership.
3
Your response is common refrain from many Jews who cannot reconcile the fact that Israel and the west forced one ethnic population off their land without compensation, to make room for another.
39
The food described herein is delicious! But the notion that they have no country to call their own (like the Roma, etc.) is interesting. The Palestinians are Sunni Arabs like most of the populations of Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. All of these countries are fictitious in that their borders and sovereignty were created in the aftermath of WWI by Western powers Out of the numbers of the Turkish empire. The oversimplification of history described here by the author is breathtaking.
69
I think that millions of Lebanese May disagree with you there bud. Lebanon is no more fictitious than any other country. It is 100s of years old, much older than the Western mandate that lasted only about 30 years.
8
All countries everywhere are, to use your term, fictitious in that they are created.
18
@Liberal Not Lemming "Sunni Arabs" -- who are they? A significant portion of the Palestinian Arab population was Christian when Zionist settlement began, which itself indicates the very deep roots of the Palestinian identity. Or do you think there were hordes of Christians coming out of the Arabian peninsula? Christians were disproportionately represented among the early Palestinian nationalist groups.
15
Bravo! Wonderful honest article - Palestinian food has been long subsumed under the "more popular" heading of Israeli or the broad swath of "Mediterranean" and it's simply wrong - another co-opting of a culture that's it's own kind of genocide. Bravo, I say again, bravo to shine a bright and positive!
64
The top photography is an absolutely intriguing still life. It‘s theme seems to be war and violent death. It is not exactly an appetizer for Palestinian cuisine, but a great piece of art.
12
Salam Ligaya Mishan,
I follow your food journey by reading your amazing and inspirational articles.
I so appreciate your mission in highlighting the food from other cultures and especially by immigrant Chefs.
As a Palestinian immigrant chef I loved your article in the NY times food section today about the Palestinian cuisine.
As Palestinians we are so proud of our culture and Heritage, we are especially proud of our love for cooking and sharing our delicious and wonderful dishes with others, these recipes are always passed on to us by our mother’s and grandmother’s, I learned how to cook by memory, remembering how my mother’s kitchen smelled and trying to master her dishes to comfort myself when I immigrated to the US at a very young age.
Now I use my love for cooking and feeding people to heal others and to bring people of conflict to one table to break bread.
Thank you for your beautiful article today and thank you for Highlighting our amazing Palestinian chefs and cookbook writers.
These Chefs are my inspiration and I’ m so proud to know and follow in their path.
Keep up your delightful and delicious articles coming and if you’re ever in the west village come join us for a true Palestinian brekfast.
Sahteen . صحتين واهلاً وسهلاً ♥️
127
Beautiful story of interconnections between food, terroir and culture. Anthony Bourdain would applaud this essay.
32
How sad that innocent civilians cannot even get credit for their food. Thank you for this article. While I love pearl couscous I will now try the Palestinian version. I am also going to buy one or more of these books. I would have liked at least one recipe though :)
57
Having grown up in Lebanon with a father who was born in Palestine of Lebanese parents (long, weird story), I learned early that there's a very distinct but often subtle difference between the cuisines. A lot of dishes are shared but to my palate, the Lebanese seem to veer to salty/sour whereas the Palestinian is more on the spicy side. I could always tell which version of something had been made and each was a pleasure to experience in its own way from a shared root. When the difference was subtle, half the fun was figuring out which one or two pinches of spices tipped it one way or the other. As Narikin noted - USE FRESH SPICES!
56
Thank you for this wonderful piece celebrating Palestinian food and culture and giving voice to a people who, as you say here, can hardly utter their very name without fear of reprisal. The overwhelming injustice of being silenced at the very core of your being--by even giving name to your ethnicity--is undeniably tragic. The Palestinians deserve a voice and to be heard and seen and understood. We can have debates over right and wrong, but the silencing of the Palestinian perspective and even right to exist is untenable.
For too long, they have been denied that. Thank you to NYT for your efforts to make it possible for Palestinians to tell tehir story and share their history, as many before have and continue to do.
95
@ADC When did Palestine become a nation? Who was their last president and what currency did they use? When was it founded and what were its borders? Just curious.
11
Thank you for this beautiful read. It is enraging when restaurants like Zahav put Taboon bread on their menu and it’s described as “Israeli.” Palestinians have been making bread that way for centuries. It may not seem like a big deal to many, but it evokes the feeling of erasure that Palestinians feel on every level.
95
@Dalia Hawatmeh It IS Israeli. There is no country called Palestine. Palestinians haven't been making the bread for centuries - Arabs have, specifically Lebanese. I'm sorry, but you can't change history even if you want to.
10
Thank you for this article. I have had the good fortune to dine in Palestinian homes and found the food delicious and the people most hospitable. With today's sensitivity to "cultural appropriation" I am happy that Palestinian dishes are being rightly titled rather than being relegated to"Middle East" cuisine. Sadly, Israeli policy creates hardships for the cultivation and transport of traditional foodstuffs. It is a tribute to the Palestinian people that their culture and cuisine survive.
63
Wonderful and welcome.
I just hope the authors and readers/cooks remember that the food traditions of the area have always (or at least for the past ~3,000 years) included Jewish food traditions and later Christian and later still Muslim ones. Although Gaza is now completely devoid of Jewish residents, people of the 3 major Abrahamic faiths, and others faiths as well, coexist in Israel which, like the U.S. is replete with the richness of many cultures and cuisines.
Food is meant to bring us together, and I hope these cookbooks do just that, rather than serve the cause of division and destruction.
I can’t wait to read them and taste the flavors of another home.
19
I've been cooking from The Palestinian Table for the past couple of months and it's wonderful. I visited Lebanon this summer, including the countryside and realized the strong connection between the villages. the land, the water and the amazing food on the table. It was the best food I've ever eaten.
31
Very well written and interesting piece.
As I remember Palestine tribe originates not in Israel so I really thought they merely had typical Nejd food. But indeed whichever connects memory and legacy is really worth showing!
Alas, culture should be preserved without abiding by line of politics (smile)
Growing up in the 90s, Palestinian food was quick eats and stale bread at the generic Mediterranean restaurant down the street to many of my non-Arab friends.
But today, Palestinian food is experiencing a revival as the chic new trend in American dining. Too bad you have to go to an Israeli restaurant to try it.
14
To Israelis and Palestinians, always remember to treat other people, particularly your “enemies”, with respect. It is a minimal recognition of our common humanity.
7
Great article. Another significant cookbook is called "Soufra" from Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut Lebanon. There is also a documentary on this group of women who created a truck with Palestinian food (against many odds}. Inspiring
30
Thank you for a beautiful, elegant, insightful, and comprehensive piece.
Just to caution, "Arab-Israeli" is a "whitewashing" term, not how the people see or call themselves.
23
Lovely article but where is Rawia Bisjara and her restaurant Tanoreen in Bay Ridge? She makes the dishes from her childhood in Palestine and also updates a few. She has two cookbooks: Olives, Lemons & Za'atar and The Levant Cookbook.
www.tanoreen.com
37
Appropriating food isn't solely the realm of Israelis, the Turks have done the same with native Armenian and Greek cuisine, both of which are indigenous to Asia Minor. To the victor go the spoils? I say, give credit where credit is due. The Spanish cannot and should not ever claim chocolate, corn or potatoes as their own, can they?
11
"There are those for whom the word “Palestinian” is already a stance, as if simply pronouncing it constitutes an attack on Israel’s right to exist."
Yes. What a well-balanced and contextualized article. My only criticism is I would have loved to have recipes out of each of the books explicitly featured so people could explore them right away.
35
Labeling is hazardous. I heard in Egypt that falafel (aka "ta'amiyah," something "tasty") was "invented" in antiquity by Coptic Christians as a Lenten dish. My Jewish Romanian grandpa loved "patlajel," the eggplant salad with a Yiddish name that is cognate for the Turkish "patlichan." Over half of Israel's Jewish population / descdendants grew up eating "Middle Eastern food" all over the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish speaking world. All histories are constructed for a purpose, including this one. How about a "Neolithic" cookbook with recipes for chickpeas, flatbreads, oh so many things we take utterly for granted have origins of which we remain unaware.
18
I am a Jewish doctor. One of my patients is a Palestinian lady. I give her relief with her back and neck pain, she gives me Palestinian food.
Nice deal for both of us.
At the beginning she said to me, Doctor, I have some literature for you to read to show you how the Jews have oppressed the Palestinian people.
I asked her if she wanted to discuss politics or get relief from her problems. She chose the latter.
We get along fine as long as we don't discuss politics. We agree to disagree.
These cookbooks are exactly what we all need.
27
I love to cook new recipes, and have 2 of Ottolenghi's cookbooks.It never enters my mind to worry about whether a recipe is of "Israeli" or "Palestinian" origin. This article raises my consciousness, and yet the situation persists. I am currently resuming my reading of Benny Morris' book The Birth of the Palestinian refugee Problem Revisited in order to try to understand the trajectory of the tragedy that has befallen both peoples on either side of the Green Line. Interestingly, the beginning of the book tackles the question of how to describe the people on the land before Jews arrived even before the Holocaust. He lands on naming the culture tribal, not a nation. Be that as it may, In addition to deadly strife, people have been cooking and collecting recipes for a long time. Perhaps we will get back to that , not only in Israel, West Bank and Gaza, but in every place currently bursting with animosity. If only food could carry that burden. Alas, It cannot.
20
@renee I appreciate your comments. To those of us from Arab descent, we're very proud of our cuisine and yes, the origin matters.
16
i reccomend you read Edward Said's classic work "orientalism"
5
Highly recommend Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian by Yasmin Khan which I got last fall. And for plant based, vegan I recommend Recipes For Peace- Vegan Cookbook Based On The Traditional Arabic Cuisine - Bilingual Arabic And English Recipe Book - Delicious And Healthy Plant-Based And Low-Fat Dishes by Kifah Dasuki which came out a couple years ago.
30
I remember hearing Amos Oz speak in Toronto. He said that there are people who think that the conflict can be solved by getting Israelis and Palestinians together over coffee. He didn’t think it would work, but if it ever happened, he said, “I hope it’s Palestinian coffee.”
90
And maybe some kanafe. Yum.
17
Thank you for this article. I am a Jewish Israeli living in the US and this piece was thought and feeling provoking.
66
The food looks amazing. Here’s hoping that one day Israelis and Palestians can enjoy each other’s company and maintain their cultures side by side like French, Italian and German Swiss. It’s not impossible to think of forming a new shared national identity on top of existing religious and ethnic ones. One can hope.
31
@Kenneth Before the first intifadah, Palestinians and Israelis regularly enjoyed each other's company and many Palestinians worked in Israel. I know Israelis who used to drive to Gaza just to purchase produce. Once Palestinians began blowing themselves and Israelis up using suicide bombings, coexistence came to a shrieking halt.
43
Palestinian food is delicious, as well as Lebanese cuisine. Nice to see an article about these cookbooks.
44
Add to that Syrian, Armenian, Iraqi, and Kurdish!
9
Arabic, Palestinian, Turkish food is some of the most AMAZING, flavoursome food I have ever eaten. Not always easy to recreate at home but definitely worth the effort.
50
The hallmark of cultural enrichment, wonderful food!
23
Beautiful writing, what a treat
37
Thank you for this article. I immediately ordered one of the books after finishing the article and can't wait for it to arrive. My husband and I sympathize with the Palestinian's plight (to the chagrin of our more conservative relatives), so this is a much-needed piece of journalism and the books it promotes are long overdue on our shelves.
110
thank you! thank you for writing about us in a humane way. it is truly heartening to see the Renaissance of palestinian food and the beautiful cookbooks being produced.
68
My aunt lived in Palestine for 35 years, and built up a wonderful cookbook of handwritten recipes, that our family follows still. The book has been facsimile copied and lives in 5 different households now!
Start with Khoussa Mashi, as a beginner. Lamb stuffed zucchini. Easy and delicious. Just remember to use fresh spices!
77
I can attest that "Palestine on a Plate" is one of the best cookbooks in my collection. A sometime-Palestinian-diasporan colleague gave it to me after I mentioned I was making musakhan one weekend.
It's funny, just mentioning that I was cooking the food she grew up with made her eyes light up. We talked for hours, then and later, about places we'd lived, restaurants we liked, things we liked to cook. Sharing food, and recipes like this is like opening a small window into the lives and histories of other people.
111
"still true to its roots"
I see what you did there! Cute!
I have been eating "Middle Eastern" food since 1980. A college friend was dating a fellow, I believe he was Lebanese. She was Jewish, but she spoke Farsi (?), was an anti-Zionist, and loved to cook Middle Eastern food. I have since eaten in innumerable Middle Eastern restaurants and it is just downright delicious cuisine.
I would like to become further enlightened on how "Middle Eastern" food is broken down into its regional variants. The food described in this article seemed familiar to me from the Lebanese, etc., food I have eaten. Could it be compared, for example, to the difference in U.S. regional approaches to barbecue? Or New York-style vs. Chicago deep-dish pizza? What are the unique flavorings and techniques being used?
Guess I'll go to my local public library (yay, public libraries!) and see if they have any of these books in their collection.
Thanks for a great, informative article. I pray that the Middle East may one day be at peace, and that sharing culture and cuisine can be a part of that.
37
@Miss Dovey
Thank you for this great article, I like to experience other cultures and in particular by learning to cook the regions I am interested, and this article hit the SPOT in my current situation!!
thanks again
8
@Miss Dovey
" was an anti-Zionist,"
is that supposed to be a badge of honor ?
26
@Miss Dovey
Lots of Jews speak Farsi as well as Arabic. There was a huge Jewish community in Iran until the 1970s/1980s when most left (a few remain today). There were also very large Jewish communities in Egypt, Syria (my own grandparents were from Aleppo), Iraq, Morocco, Yemen, etc. until the late 20th century when virtually all left for the U.S., Europe, or Israel.
13