People generally understand what that means,” she says. “Mediterranean is a much more popular selling point. Leila Hudson, associate professor of modern Middle East culture and political economy at the University of Arizona in Tucson, considers the use of “Mediterranean” as a catch-all term as “mostly a marketing decision” when considering the American restaurant scene. That in part has to do with history, wars, and cultures rising and falling. Many foods are shared by the Middle East and other Mediterranean regions, including flatbreads, roasted skewered meats, and filled dough items, he adds. ![]() “It’s like saying the difference between lo mein and pad thai is indistinguishable,” says Neath Pal, a chef who teaches international cuisine and several other courses at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. ![]() In some ways, identifying Middle Eastern cuisine as Mediterranean is similar to lumping the wide array of Asian cuisine under the Chinese banner, or various Latino foods as Mexican. While there are certainly similarities, the culinary traditions of the Middle East-from Egypt in the west and Turkey in the north to Iran in the east and Yemen in the south-embody tastes and textures different from those of the Mediterranean foods of Europe and North Africa. But the region’s cuisine is often misidentified as simply Mediterranean food. The Middle East makes up a large swath of the globe, spanning parts of three continents.
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