Food Culture in the

Mediterranean
CAROL HELSTOSKY

Food Culture around the World

Ken Albala, Series Editor

GREENWOOD PRESS
Westport, Connecticut • London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Helstosky, Carol.
Food culture in the Mediterranean / Carol Helstosky.
p. cm. — (Food culture around the world, ISSN 1545–2638)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–313–34626–2 (alk. paper)
1. Cookery, Mediterranean. 2. Food habits—Mediterranean Region.
I. Title.
TX725.M35H46 2009
641.59822—dc22 2008045045
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2009 by Carol Helstosky
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008045045
ISBN: 978–0–313–34626–2
ISSN: 1545–2638
First published in 2009
Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.greenwood.com
Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the

Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The publisher has done its best to make sure the instructions and/or recipes in this book
are correct. However, users should apply judgment and experience when preparing reci-
pes, especially parents and teachers working with young people. The publisher accepts no
responsibility for the outcome of any recipe included in this volume.
 Contents

Series Foreword vii

Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Timeline xv
1. Historical Overview 1
2. Major Foods and Ingredients 25
3. Cooking 55
4. Typical Meals 77
5. Eating Out 107
6. Special Occasions 129
7. Diet and Health 159
Glossary 179
Resource Guide 183
Selected Bibliography 185
Index 187
 Series Foreword

The appearance of the Food Culture around the World series marks a de-
finitive stage in the maturation of Food Studies as a discipline to reach a
wider audience of students, general readers, and foodies alike. In compre-
hensive interdisciplinary reference volumes, each on the food culture of a
country or region for which information is most in demand, a remarkable
team of experts from around the world offers a deeper understanding and
appreciation of the role of food in shaping human culture for a whole
new generation. I am honored to have been associated with this project
as series editor.
Each volume follows a series format, with a chronology of food-related
dates and narrative chapters entitled Introduction, Historical Overview,
Major Foods and Ingredients, Cooking, Typical Meals, Eating Out, Spe-
cial Occasions, and Diet and Health. (In special cases, these topics are
covered by region.) Each also includes a glossary, bibliography, resource
guide, and illustrations.
Finding or growing food has of course been the major preoccupation of
our species throughout history, but how various peoples around the world
learn to exploit their natural resources, come to esteem or shun specific
foods, and develop unique cuisines reveals much more about what it is
to be human. There is perhaps no better way to understand a culture, its
values, preoccupations, and fears, than by examining its attitudes toward
food. Food provides the daily sustenance around which families and com-
munities bond. It provides the material basis for rituals through which
viii Series Foreword

people celebrate the passage of life stages and their connection to divin-
ity. Food preferences also serve to separate individuals and groups from
each other, and as one of the most powerful factors in the construction of
identity, we physically, emotionally, and spiritually become what we eat.
By studying the foodways of people different from ourselves, we also grow
to understand and tolerate the rich diversity of practices around the world.
What seems strange or frightening among other people becomes perfectly
rational when set in context. It is my hope that readers will gain from
these volumes not only an aesthetic appreciation for the glories of the
many culinary traditions described, but also ultimately a more profound
respect for the peoples who devised them. Whether it is eating New Year’s
dumplings in China, folding tamales with friends in Mexico, or going out
to a famous Michelin-starred restaurant in France, understanding these
food traditions helps us to understand the people themselves.
As globalization proceeds apace in the twenty-first century it is also
more important than ever to preserve unique local and regional traditions.
In many cases these books describe ways of eating that have already begun
to disappear or have been seriously transformed by modernity. To know
how and why these losses occur today also enables us to decide what tradi-
tions, whether from our own heritage or that of others, we wish to keep
alive. These books are thus not only about the food and culture of peoples
around the world, but also about ourselves and who we hope to be.

Ken Albala
University of the Pacific
 Preface

When I agreed to write this book, I found the prospect of writing about
Mediterranean food culture very exciting. In the United States and
throughout the world, Mediterranean food is incredibly popular: pasta,
pizza, gyros, kebab, and falafel can be found just about everywhere. Food
experts and cookbook authors adore Mediterranean cuisine and with
good reason: it embodies simplicity, variety, quality, and intensity. There
are libraries of books and articles about every aspect of the region’s food
culture. Everyone knows, or thinks they know, something about Mediter-
ranean food. I wondered if I had anything original to add to what was
already an enormous body of knowledge and appreciation.
Many people throughout the world have a good idea of what Medi-
terranean cuisine and diet are all about, but they know less about the
entire food culture of the region. Do people eat out or eat at home?
How and why do religious rituals differ regarding food preparation?
What do Jews, Muslims, and Christians eat on religious holidays? Why
is it that the same ingredients can be prepared in so many different
ways, even in the same country? Why would cooks take the time to
make foods like zucchini, lentils, or figs into dozens of different dishes?
Why is hospitality so important to Mediterranean people, and what do
they do to demonstrate hospitality and good will through the prepara-
tion and serving of meals? Do people in the Mediterranean still eat
locally produced food or do they eat more American-style fast food and
prepared foods?
x Preface

In this book, I have answered these questions while emphasizing how

the food culture of the region can tell us about the sometimes volatile,
but always interesting and dynamic interactions among the peoples of the
Mediterranean region. I use the word volatile because for centuries, the
Mediterranean region has been a place where different people coexist,
live, trade, exchange information, and disagree. The region is home to
three of the world’s major religions and for centuries, the Mediterranean
Sea has been an invitation to trade, travel, conquest, and immigration.
Where different cultures, beliefs, and traditions mix there is always ten-
sion, but there is also great energy. Understanding food culture is one way
readers can see how people of different regions come together and share
ideas and information to create new dishes, meals, traditions, and forms
of sociability.
To communicate the culinary excitement and dynamism evident
throughout the region, I made some choices regarding the scope of this
book. In terms of defining the Mediterranean region for the purposes of
this study, I stuck closely to the areas that border the Mediterranean Sea:
the Mediterranean coasts of Spain, France, and Italy; the islands of Cor-
sica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Malta; Greece and the Greek islands; Cyprus;
Turkey; Syria; Lebanon; Israel; Egypt; Libya; Tunisia; Algeria; and Mo-
rocco. My intention is to provide readers with the broadest possible un-
derstanding of food culture throughout the region. Because of its broad
geographical sweep, this book does not cover exhaustively every aspect of
food culture for every region that borders the Mediterranean Sea. Rather,
I have tried to provide a variety of examples and evidence from across
the region to illustrate more general arguments about Mediterranean food
culture. Throughout the book, I sometimes think more categorically about
the different areas of the region, based primarily on some common culi-
nary characteristics. Thus I refer to the southern Mediterranean or North
Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt), or to the western
Mediterranean or European side of the Mediterranean (Spain, France,
Italy, and the French and Italian islands), or the eastern Mediterranean
or Levant (Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel). Greece and the
Greek islands occupy a peculiar position with regard to these categories:
many Greek food habits and trends are European-influenced, but much
of the food and dishes served there resemble more closely the foods and
dishes of the Levant. More often than not, I have placed Greece with
other eastern Mediterranean nations when discussing food culture.
In writing this book, I relied on much of the recent scholarship about
the Mediterranean region from historians, food experts, cookbook au-
thors, travel writers, anthropologists, environmentalists, doctors, and
Preface xi

public health officials. Although writings about the Mediterranean region

span several centuries, I chose to focus on the more recently published
texts, those that explored the most dynamic aspects of the food culture in
the region. Recently published books cover everything from street food
served in North Africa, to Sephardic Jewish cooking throughout the re-
gion, to food as part of Muslim hospitality. I also relied on many published
memoirs that mention food or contain recipes to get a better sense of the
recent past (post-1945) in the region. In my research for this book, I found
that there were many different opinions about the essential characteris-
tics of Mediterranean cuisine. Although many texts stress the unchang-
ing and timeless qualities of Mediterranean food and food preparation, I
relied more on sources and texts that depicted food and its preparation
as a dynamic and transformative aspect of culture. In writing this book, I
hope to convey some of the enthusiasm and expertise of a growing body of
scholarship on this topic. I certainly could not have completed this book
without understanding the work of this engaged and engaging community
of experts.
 Acknowledgments

I could not have completed this book without the help of others. I wish
to thank Ken Albala, who provided many excellent suggestions for im-
proving the book manuscript in an encouraging and helpful manner. I
would also like to thank Wendi Schnaufer for supporting and seeing this
project through and for her patience in dealing with my sometimes er-
ratic working style. My student, Nicole M. Wong, provided important
background research for me at critical moments in the writing process; I
would like to thank her for her able research skills, her good humor, and
her professionalism. Students in my 2007 Freshman Seminar, “We Are
What We Eat: Food and Drink Throughout History” helped me explore
the many dimensions of Mediterranean food culture. My thanks to all
of them and especially to Carrie Gamper, Lauren Letson, Krissy Scom-
megna, and Shannon Sullivan for their interest and insight. The staff
at Penrose Library, including Special Collections, was always courteous,
professional, and quick.
And finally, I would like to thank my family who, as always, supported
and encouraged me throughout the stages of this book’s production. My
father, Edward Helstosky, gave me a love for, and curiosity about, food.
My children, Helen and Henry, provided much good cheer and enthu-
siasm for ideas and stories about Mediterranean food culture. And my
husband, Martin Gloege, has unfailingly lent his intellectual and personal
support to all of my endeavors, including this one. Without his help, this
book would not be possible.
 Timeline

3100 B.C.E. Egypt emerges as a centralized state; Egyptians develop

agriculture and refine cooking techniques for legumes,
vegetables, bread, and beer.
3000 B.C.E. Wine becomes a popular drink.
350 B.C.E. Sicilian Greek Archestratus writes Hedypatheia (Life of
Luxury), a guide to the best food in the Mediterranean
region.
241 B.C.E. Start of Roman expansion outside Italian peninsula.
Romans under the Roman Empire incorporate foods
and preparation techniques from Greeks and others.
200–300 C.E. Greek librarian Athenaeus writes about food habits of
Romans and others around the Mediterranean region.
300–400 Publication of De Re Coquinaria (On the Subject of
Cooking), a collection of recipes and cooking tech-
niques
750–1258 Golden Age of Islam; food and cuisine for the Arab and
Arab Mediterranean world develop.
1226 Cookbook from Baghdad, composed by Muhammad
ibn al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al-Karim al-Katib al-
Baghdadi, mentions kebabs and stews to be served as
meze.
xvi Timeline

1281–1924 Ottoman Empire: Efforts to feed sultans and court de-

velop into a highly refined cuisine that borrows from all
surrounding regions and even Asia.
1492 Beginning of the age of exploration and Columbian
Exchange. Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and chocolate
are introduced to the people in the Mediterranean.
1554 The first coffee house is opened in the Mediterranean
in Istanbul.
1600 Tea imported to Mediterranean region.
1776 Bekir Effendi sets up a sweet shop in Istanbul, where he
sells a confection that comes to be known as Turkish
delight.
1799–1815 Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, who expands and con-
solidates territories throughout the Mediterranean; be-
ginning of European expansion into North Africa and
the Middle East, bringing new foods and food habits to
those regions.
1830 France conquers Algeria.
1881 Tunisia placed under French rule.
1889 Queen Margherita of Savoy of Italy tries a pizza topped
with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella cheese while
visiting Naples. The pizza margherita is named after her.
1911 Italy conquers Libya.
1912 Morocco becomes a French protectorate after being
dominated by the British, French, and Spanish.
1939–45 World War II brings destruction and food shortages to
the Mediterranean region. After the war, liberalized
trade policies and decolonization affect what and how
people eat, mostly by improving nutritional intake and
the amount and variety of food available for purchase.
1951 Libya declares independence from Italy.
1954–1962 War for Algerian independence is fought against
France.
1956 Morocco and Tunisia achieve independence from
France.
Timeline xvii

1970s Mediterranean fishing declines; traditional dishes

and foods disappear from restaurant menus, leading to
fear that Mediterranean way of eating is falling out of
favor.
1975 American doctor Ancel Keys publishes How to Eat Well
and Stay Well the Mediterranean Way, sparking interna-
tional interest in the Mediterranean diet.
1980s Expansion of American fast-food restaurants begins in
Europe and continues into other parts of the Mediter-
ranean.
1989 Slow Food movement begins, founded in opposition to
growth of McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants
throughout the world.
2008 UN Food and Agriculture Organization finds obesity
levels and fat consumption in European countries of
the Mediterranean have increased.
2025 Population of Mediterranean region is expected to
reach 550 million.
 1
Historical Overview

For many centuries, the Mediterranean region’s history has been a tale of
constant interaction of people, whether through migrations, invasions,
colonization, military conquest, trade, immigration, or travel. Such con-
stant activity makes for exciting history; it also makes for exciting cui-
sine and eating habits. Although the people who live in the countries
that border the Mediterranean Sea may differ in terms of their religious
beliefs, occupations, or political affiliations, they share an appreciation
for similar foods while respecting regional differences in preparation and
cooking technique. For example, chickpeas have been a staple food in
the Mediterranean region for centuries. In southern France, they are
ground into flour and used to make large pancakes called socca; in Mo-
rocco, they are stewed with spices, lamb, and vegetables to make a tajine;
in Lebanon they are ground with tahini (sesame paste), lemon, and garlic
to make hummus; and in Syria, they are baked with a spicy tomato sauce,
eggplant, and zucchini to make a casserole called musaqaa. Each of these
recipes uses the same food to create something very different in the end.
Mediterranean cuisine has been and continues to be about innovation
and variety.
For well over a century, foreign visitors have noticed and commented on
the variety of Mediterranean foods and dishes. The smell and color of the
food seemed distinctive and appealing to everyone who encountered it.
Elizabeth David, a British citizen who lived for a time in Provence, France,
the Greek Islands, and Egypt, was so taken by the taste of Mediterranean
2 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

dishes that she spent years of her life dedicated to writing cookbooks
instructing British and American readers in the ways of Mediterranean
cooking. For David, it was the simplicity and quality of the ingredients
that made Mediterranean food attractive. For others, it was the sheer vari-
ety of fresh foods, available year-round, that made Mediterranean food so
tasty. British writer D. H. Lawrence visited the Italian island of Sardinia
for a time and wrote about his experiences in a diary. He was particularly
struck by the smell, color, and abundance of food there, in particular the
fruits and vegetables that seemed to glow so lucidly in the market stalls
and in the shops. For observers like David and Lawrence, Mediterranean
cuisine was about freshness and variety.
Today, there is much talk about the Mediterranean diet, a diet that
includes whole grains, vegetables, fruit, olive oil, and fish. This diet does
not include much red meat or processed foods like junk foods and frozen
food. Doctors, researchers, and nutrition experts around the world have
noticed that people in the Mediterranean appear to have fewer prob-
lems with coronary heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Their diet, ex-
perts argue, is a determining factor in their overall health and ability
to prevent certain diseases and health conditions. There are now many
variations on the Mediterranean diet and experts believe that eating the
Mediterranean way can reverse certain health problems. For medical
and nutritional experts, then, Mediterranean cuisine is about health and
well-being.
Variety, freshness, health, quality, simplicity: all have become key words
to describe what, and how, people in the Mediterranean region eat. How
did Mediterranean cuisine and diet take on these particular characteris-
tics? This chapter explores the history of growing, harvesting, preparing,
and eating food in the region around the Mediterranean Sea by examining
first ancient food cultures that still influence eating habits today. Next,
this chapter looks at the important historical developments in the region
that affected what people ate, most notably trade, colonization, and im-
migration. These events brought diverse populations together, not only to
exchange food, but also to exchange ideas about food and its preparation.
The chapter also examines the past and present significance of agricul-
ture, which includes not only farming the land, but tending flocks and
harvesting food from the sea. Given that the region has been dependent
on its own resources for much of its existence, agriculture in all its forms
has significant impact on what, and how much, people eat. Finally, this
chapter looks at attitudes towards food to show how historical develop-
ments, religious beliefs, and demographic factors help shape what people
think about food.
Historical Overview 3

THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN

A great deal is known about food habits in ancient Egypt, Greece, and
Rome because of the work of historians and classics scholars who use a
variety of sources to tell contemporary readers about everyday life. Find-
ing out about food habits and ancient cuisine is not as difficult as one
might think. There is a wealth of information in literary sources, from
Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey, both of which record all kinds of infor-
mation about eating habits, to the elaborate work of the Greek scholar
Athenaeus, a librarian who lived in the third century. His job allowed
him to compose a 15-volume work called The Deipnosophists (Banquet of
the Learned), which contains detailed notes about ancient Greek food and
cookery, as well as what was served and how it was presented at meals
and banquets elsewhere in the Mediterranean.1 In ancient Greece, almost
all the authors of the Hellenistic age—storytellers, historians, poets, and
comic writers—recorded their observations about food, wine, banquets,
and food preparation techniques. Although there are many references to
these observations, not all of the works survived. Historians have tried
to fill in the knowledge gap with archaeological evidence. For example,
there is much evidence to suggest that even the earliest societies in the
Mediterranean region made a kind of baked flatbread by pouring dough
onto hot rocks. Excavations have revealed where kitchens were set up and
how they operated. Through this combination of literary and archaeologi-
cal sources, historians have been able to determine what people ate, as
well as how people prepared food.
Historians have to read literary sources carefully, given that many sur-
viving works chronicle the eating habits of the elite. One would have the
impression from this evidence that ancient Romans spent most of their
time at elaborate banquets. Hollywood has only embellished these incom-
plete images, giving the impression that most ancient Romans were glut-
tons and ancient Egyptians loved to drink out of giant golden goblets. A
more accurate understanding of the role of food in ancient Mediterranean
societies reveals instead how early populations chose to cultivate, prepare,
and eat certain foods, as well as the values they placed on these foods.
Many of the foods these populations cultivated, as well as the dishes they
prepared, became the basis for Mediterranean cuisine and food habits for
centuries. Some ancient habits and dishes are still around today.

Ancient Egypt
Most of the information about food in ancient Egypt comes from the
period after Egypt emerged as a centralized state (3100 b.c.e.), which is
4 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

also known as Pharaonic Egypt. The sources that describe food include ar-
tistic depictions on tombs, food offerings, lists in tombs and temples, and
archaeological remains. At the core of the Egyptian diet were bread and
beer, consumed by rich and poor alike. Bread was produced in the kitchen
or was made by professional bakers and was either shaped by hand, or
later on, baked in ceramic molds. Emmer, an ancient grain, was most
commonly used for bread, but barley and sprouted wheat were also used.
Bakers added honey, dates, figs, and other ingredients to the bread to give
it different flavors. Beer was brewed at home or in breweries. Testing of
ancient beer dregs reveals that both emmer and barley were used to make
beer, with barley being the preferred grain for consumers of modest means.
Bread and beer were consumed by all but in different quantities. Fruits and
vegetables were considered non-necessity foods, out of the reach of most
poor Egyptians because of the high cost of watering and tending them.
Lower classes may have supplemented their diets with wild plants such as
amaranth, wild grasses, and sorrel.
Social status mattered in terms of what one ate on a daily basis. Wealthy
Egyptians had access to vegetables, fruits, wine, meat (usually beef ), and
olive oil, first imported from Palestine. An excavated tomb of a wealthy
Egyptian from the third millennium b.c.e. contained barley, porridge,
cooked quail, fish, beef, bread, pastries, figs, berries, cheese, wine, and
beer.2 Because meat was expensive even for the wealthy, it was reserved
for special occasions. Middle class and upper class Egyptians ate small
birds; duck was a delicacy that was served roasted or stuffed with crushed
wheat or millet. It was either spit roasted or baked in clay casserole dishes.
Wealthy Egyptians ate all kinds of fish and Egyptians figured out how to
salt and preserve fish. Because Egyptians did not have sugar, they used
honey to sweeten their food, and the marshlands of the Nile yielded lots
of celery, lotus root, cucumbers, leeks, peas, okra and beans. Another
popular vegetable was called melokiyah, used to make a gelatinous soup. If
peasants were lucky enough to receive a plot of land to cultivate on their
own, they frequently filled the plot with melokiyah plants in order to have
abundant supplies for soup.
Those who could afford it enjoyed fruit, either as a dessert or as a course
in the middle of the meal. Ancient Egyptians ate figs, dates, and pome-
granates. Figs, which grew wild, were enjoyed by the rich and poor alike.
Fig and date juice were used as sweeteners for dishes, and both fruits were
eaten fresh, not dried. There are several dishes that modern Egyptians
still share with their ancient ancestors. Kofta, or Egyptian meatballs, were
made from lamb or beef by ancient Egyptians and grilled. Today, Egyp-
tians enjoy kofta in a sandwich, tucked inside pita bread. Also, considered
Historical Overview 5

the national dish of Egypt, ful medames, or fuul medammis, is a fava bean
dish that modern Egyptians make at home or buy from a street vendor.
Fava beans are slow cooked and then seasoned with olive oil, parsley,
onions, and lemon juice. Ful medames is a popular breakfast food, eaten
with bread. Ancient Egyptians made a similar salad for breakfast, but they
probably used a variety of legumes instead of fava beans.

Ancient Greece
Ancient Greeks ate wheat, barley, and lentils as staple foods: lentils
as soup, barley as mash or biscuit, and wheat as bread or porridge. Even
though wheat was an expensive staple grain, ancient Greeks loved it,
making all kinds of bread from wheat flour. The most popular breads
were flatbreads with toppings baked on them: boletus, rolls shaped like
mushrooms; cubo, a square bread flavored with anise, cheese, and oil; and
streptikos, a twisted bread made with milk, pepper, and lard. Bread was
eaten with a mint sauce or a vinegar and garum (fermented fish sauce)
mixture. Such an astonishing variety of bread types and flavors suggests
that the ancient Greeks thought a great deal about preparing food so as
to make the ordinary seem more extraordinary, or at least tastier. Greek
cooks and consumers also had a wide variety of foods to supplement the
staples: vegetables, cheese, eggs, fish, and sometimes meat in the form of
lamb, sheep, goat, pig, or game birds. And the Greeks were well known for
their fondness for sweets and desserts of all kinds. All of these foods were
complemented by wine, which was served watered down.
Literary evidence suggests that ancient Greeks maintained distinctions
or divisions between the types of food consumed; these divisions func-
tioned as precursors to courses or distinct types of meals. For example,
soldiers were well known for eating a lot of bread, but bread was eaten for
a snack or as a meal in itself, but never for dinner. Instead, a soldier’s din-
ner consisted mostly of roasted meat. At the beginning of a meal, ancient
Greeks whetted their appetites with a variety of dishes: all kinds of olives,
sea urchins, wild hyacinth bulbs (which were also used in love potions),
stuffed grape leaves, grasshoppers, and cicadas. Soups were filling, made
either with grains like barley or with legumes like lentils. Meat was roasted
and Greeks made use of every part of the animal. Feet, ears, heads, hearts,
lungs, liver, tongue, and tripe (the stomach lining) were served boiled, or
they were made into a kind of gelatinous pudding. And of course Greeks
had access to a lot of fish and seafood, including lobster, shrimp, tuna, eel,
octopus, squid, and swordfish. Some of the more creative dishes were des-
serts. Greek cooks made cream desserts, a ricotta and honey mixture, fried
6 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

dough balls, pies made with cheese, a sweetened lentil dessert, and a va-
riety of soft cookies and sweet breads. There were also desserts and breads
made for special occasions, like elaphos, a dessert in the shape of a deer for
the festival of Elaphebolia, or kreion, a flat bread given by a new bride to
her husband. After meals wine was served, a single taste of unmixed wine
followed by wine mixed with water, usually accompanied by cakes, sweets,
nuts, and dried and fresh fruit.
Ancient Greeks were great innovators in the kitchen, so much so that
they are thought to have been the first population to elevate cooking to
an art. They made use of all of ingredients available to them, seasoning
their foods with honey and herbs. They took basic categories of foods, like
bread or desserts, and expanded the culinary offerings in that category
by combining ingredients in new ways or experimenting with cooking
techniques. These innovative approaches to cooking have become the
hallmark of Mediterranean cuisine today, as cooks and chefs continue to
experiment with combining new tastes. According to Greek mythology,
phenomenal appetites spurred the search for new combinations of foods,
as one cookbook author explains:
Darius, king of the Medes and Persians, maintained a staff of gastronomic detec-
tives whose sole function was to search for new and delectable foods to tempt the
appetite of their ruler. Xerxes, Darius’ son and successor, demanded such variety
for his table that the countryside, wherever he traveled, was laid bare. “Wherever
Xerxes took two meals, dining as well as supping,” wrote Herodotus, “that city
was utterly ruined.”3

These exaggerated descriptions emphasize how some of the elite un-

derstood the world around them as a place that provided new tastes and
stimulated culinary desires. This is not surprising, considering that even
today cookbook authors and travel writers emphasize the diversity, abun-
dance, and vibrancy of food in the Mediterranean region.

Ancient Rome
In the first centuries of Rome’s existence, food was quite plain. Most
people ate wheat, olives, pork, and fish. The situation changed dramati-
cally at the end of the third century with Roman conquest. First, Romans
encountered lots of new foods. As one food historian describes the an-
cient Roman diet, it was enhanced by “exotic spices from Indonesia, pick-
les imported from Spain, ham from Gaul, wine from the provinces, oysters
from Britain, and pomegranates from Libya. New seasonings, ingredients,
and flavors were imported from all over the Mediterranean, from North
Historical Overview 7

Africa, Egypt, the Middle East, and, most notably, Greece.”4 Greek flavors
used by Romans included honey, dill, anise, wine, cumin, poppy seeds,
coriander, hyssop, thyme, vinegar, oregano, and garum. These flavors
brought new life to otherwise drab Roman dishes. Honey was the pre-
ferred sweetener, used even with seasoned savory foods for a sweet-spicy
taste. Romans also used grape must or fig syrup to sweeten dishes, breads,
and desserts.
Although Roman cooks learned a lot from their encounters with the
rest of the Roman Empire, most Romans ate a bland diet of pulses or gruel,
which was the mainstay for slaves, peasants, and soldiers. Sometimes the
gruel was flavored with fennel or mushrooms, foods that grew wild and
could be gathered up to use in cooking. Those who could afford to added
legumes like chickpeas, lentils, and fava beans to their porridge. Today,
Sicilians eat a dish called maccu, or fava bean soup, which has been a sta-
ple food since ancient times (Sicilian cooks were known as the best cooks
in the Roman Empire). Maccu is a rarity among Sicilians, but occasion-
ally it appears on restaurant menus as nostalgic peasant food. Fava beans
are boiled with wild fennel sprigs, fennel seeds, salt, pepper, and olive
oil. Sometimes pasta, onion, or tomatoes are added to the soup. Leftover
maccu can be poured out onto a platter, left to harden, then cut into strips,
floured, and fried in olive oil. Like ful medames, maccu is a filling dish that
was probably eaten for breakfast by peasants in order to give them enough
energy to work in the fields.
Wealthier Romans ate more than porridge or gruel. Bread was a popular
food eaten as a snack or meal. Slaves ate bread made with barley flour
and everyone else ate bread made from wheat flour. Bread was flavored
with honey, olive oil, salt, poppy seeds, cheese, and herbs. Sometimes the
ingredients were added to the dough and other times they were sprinkled
on top and the loaf was baked off, similar to the focaccia served in Italy
today. Wealthier Romans also ate more vegetables, fruits, cheese, eggs,
meat, and fish. Soldiers were given rations of grain and cereals, but they
would obtain additional food by paying merchants a fixed price or by req-
uisitioning supplies. Thus Roman soldiers enjoyed roast oxen, sheep, pig,
and goat, as well as a variety of cheese and vegetables.
Romans ate four meals starting with lunch, then a midday meal, then
a substantial snack later in the afternoon and finally, an evening meal.
Meals were either cooked at home, over an open hearth or fire, or, in
congested urban areas, poor Romans could use communal kitchens or
resort to purchasing cooked foods from street vendors. Like the Greeks,
the Romans came to enjoy a broad variety of tastes as they encountered
new foods, dishes, and eating habits throughout the region. And, like
8 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

the Greek appetite, the Roman appetite became legendary. The Roman
banquet, hosted by wealthy Roman citizens for their fellow male guests
(women were admitted during the reign of Augustus) thoroughly ritual-
ized the presentation and consumption of food. Guests would recline on
divans or couches, propping themselves on their left side while eating
and drinking with their right hand from a table that held platters of food.
They were assisted by a large staff of servants and slaves, including a prae-
gustator, who tasted everything to see whether it was delicious enough to
eat, and a nomenclature, who informed diners of the name of each dish.
There were also people on hand to cut up the meat, play musical accom-
paniment, and keep flies away from the guests. And, of course, there was
an army of cooks who prepared a sumptuous variety of dishes. There are
tales of thousands of dishes being served at a single banquet. Certainly,
the banquet host wished to display his hospitality and wealth by having
an array of dishes, some exotic, presented to his guests. In addition to
more common foods like dates, raisins, seafood, fish, pork, and lamb, foods
like peaches, strawberries, and truffles were prized because they were less
commonly available. Abundant quantities of wine were also dispensed.
Banqueters would start off by drinking wine mixed with honey before the
meal, then return to drinking wine mixed with water after the meal. And
if one drank too much, servants were available to escort guests home.
Understanding the nature of ancient food cultures provides much in-
sight into understanding Mediterranean food culture today. Although
it is interesting to learn what, and how, ancient peoples ate, it is also
important to note their influence on food preparation techniques and a
broader philosophy toward the enjoyment of food. First, ancient societ-
ies experimented a great deal with different seasonings to give the same
food a variety of tastes. To do so, ancient cooks used what was available
to them, usually a mixture of local herbs and honey with spices and other
ingredients from farther away. Whatever fresh local foods were avail-
able to them, they used. Also influential was the predominance of grains
over meat. Today, the Mediterranean diet (see chapter 7) is internation-
ally praised and recommended because it emphasizes whole grains as
the mainstay of diet. Lastly, ancient societies were receptive to culinary
change. When conquering armies or inquisitive merchants tasted some-
thing different or witnessed a new method of cooking food, they read-
ily embraced and incorporated food and recipes into their own culinary
repertoire. As the following chapters of this book argue, this diversity of
foods, styles, and approaches makes Mediterranean food culture unique.
One finds, for example, North African influence in Sicilian cooking or
European influence in Syrian cuisine. To say that the ancients influenced
Historical Overview 9

the moderns does not mean, however, that Mediterranean cuisine is es-
sentially unchanged; nothing could be further from the truth. Instead,
centuries of trade, conquest, and immigration have shaped and reshaped
food preparation and consumption habits, making Mediterranean food
culture both diverse and dynamic.

TRADE AND CONQUEST

The entire Mediterranean region consists of coastal communities.
There are not a lot of natural barriers such as mountains to divide in-
habitants. Instead, the Mediterranean Sea offers a constant invitation for
travel, commerce, and adventure. The islands of Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily,
Malta, Crete, and Cyprus are hardly isolated. They were easily reached by
boat and today are even more accessible by motor boat or airplane. The
sea itself is not perilous or particularly difficult to navigate. The Mediter-
ranean Sea acted as a clearinghouse for all sorts of goods, including food,
some of which came from farther inland in Europe, the Middle East, or
Africa. Interactions and exchanges of populations, whether through trade
or conquest, meant that the Mediterranean Sea also acted as a culinary
clearinghouse, as people learned about new seasonings, spices, cooking
techniques, and styles of eating. The three areas of the world that ex-
changed information and ingredients were southern Europe, North Af-
rica, and the Middle East.
In ancient times, the sea facilitated both formal and informal exchanges
of populations and goods. People would build ships and sail off to settle in
new places, bringing with them their mode of life, institutions, and ideas.
Settling in to a new area can be formal, as in instances of military inva-
sion and/or colonization, or it can be informal or even unintended, as in
the case of travel or immigration. The sea also facilitated the exchange
of commodities through trade and commerce and sometimes through pi-
racy. Trade began in the Mediterranean with the Egyptians, who traded
with the Minoans in Crete by 2000 b.c.e. and later, the Phoenicians, who
founded merchant colonies along the sea. The Greeks later set up trading
colonies to rival those of the Phoenicians. These trade rivalries gave way
to Roman domination (Rome first took over territory outside the Italian
peninsula with Sicily in 241 b.c.e. and expanded throughout the region
until the Empire reached Egypt in 30 b.c.e.), which consolidated the area
into one political unit under Roman rule. Conquest, trade, and immigra-
tion meant that people learned, either by accident or on purpose, about
different foods and new ways to combine or prepare foods, as in the case
of Romans learning from Greeks.
10 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

After the period of Roman domination in the Mediterranean came an

extended period of Arab domination, beginning in the seventh century
and continuing until the end of the sixteenth century. The Mediterranean
Sea became divided between Christians and Muslims; earlier battles for
Spain and some of the islands (Cyprus, Crete, Sicily) gave way to confron-
tations in the eastern Mediterranean between the Turks and the Byzan-
tine Empire. And while the rest of Europe struggled through difficult times
during the Middle Ages, trade on the Muslim side of the Mediterranean
flourished. Costly spices such as pepper, cardamom, turmeric, and curry
were imported from India and China and carried overland by Arabic trad-
ers to markets throughout the region. Coffee from Yemen was highly prized
as well, and rice, sugar cane, watermelons, and eggplant were brought from
China and India and then cultivated in the region. Salt from Mali and
Mauritania was traded in North Africa. For Muslims, the Qur’an regarded
trade in positive terms and Muslims spent a great deal of time regulating
and regularizing trade practices and routes. And from the seventh cen-
tury forward, Jewish traders were another important means of exchange
between east and west. Trade formalized the exchange of commodities
through markets, where shoppers could find foods from the region or from
far-away China; under the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople’s Grand Ba-
zaar had more than 4,000 shops sprawled over 67 streets. The Ottomans
adopted a cosmopolitan approach to food, embracing spices from the east,
olives and olive oil from Greece, and dates and dried fruits from North Af-
rica, among other foods. Today, Turkish cuisine is a combination of Greek,
Middle Eastern, and Central Asian (Chinese and Mongolian) dishes, many
of which were sampled, relished, and replicated by the Ottomans.
In addition to increased trade in the region, travel for religious purposes,
known as pilgrimages (either to Mecca or to the Holy Land), facilitated
the information exchange about food and cooking. As one authority on
Sephardic Jewish cuisine described the process, “[t]ravelers, merchants,
peddlers, rabbis, preachers, teachers, students, beggars, and pilgrims on
their way to and from the Holy Land were vehicles of gastronomic knowl-
edge as they carried news and descriptions of exotic dishes in far off lands.”5
And later, with the age of exploration and European conquest of the New
World, a variety of foods entered the Mediterranean through Spain and
Italy, foods such as tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes, all of which became
central to Mediterranean cooking. It was during this period, then, that
Mediterranean cuisine thoroughly integrated the culinary styles of Eu-
rope, the Middle East, and Africa.
The cuisine of the island of Sicily provides a good example of how multi-
ethnic and varied Mediterranean cooking has been and still is because of
Historical Overview 11

historical circumstances. Contributors to the Sicilian “grocery list” span

the globe. From the ancient Greeks came honey, wine, ricotta cheese, and
olives. From the ancient Romans came wheat and other grains. From the
Arabs came sugar, citrus fruits, couscous, eggplant, and rice; the Greek
Byzantines contributed spices and hard cheeses. Normans contributed
dried fish and Angevins brought sweet pastries, eel, and spices. The Span-
ish introduced tomatoes, peppers, squash, potatoes, and chocolate. All of
these ingredients form the foundation of Sicilian cooking today. Also im-
portant were the cooking techniques that Sicilians learned from succes-
sive waves of conquerors and traders. Since ancient times, Sicilian cooks
were considered to be the best cooks in the Mediterranean because of
their ingenious and sometimes eclectic cooking style. For example, there
are many tomato-based dishes that resemble classic southern Italian cui-
sine (pasta, eggplant dishes, pizza), yet there are lots of sweet-sour taste
combinations that resemble North African and Arab cooking (sauces,
couscous dishes, stuffed foods). Sicilian cooks were also known for em-
bracing new ingredients such as sugar or chocolate to make the sweetest
confections and desserts in the region.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European territories con-
solidated into nation-states that sought to expand their economic and
political influence through colonization and imperialism. Parts of the
Mediterranean were united, albeit briefly, under Napoleon Bonaparte, a
Corsican. As territories, duchies, estates, and small republics came to-
gether into nation-states, governments began to play more of a role in the
everyday life of citizens. State intervention or involvement in the area of
food production and consumption meant controlling food prices and pos-
sibly handing out food in times or crisis, monitoring agricultural produc-
tion and the export trade, and taking care of populations in need of better
nutrition (infants, schoolchildren, the poor). State intervention in mat-
ters of food and diet was a highly uneven process, dictated not so much by
politicians’ unwillingness to intervene as much as it was by the absence
of economic resources. For example, although Italy unified in 1861, there
were tremendous disparities among regions and socioeconomic classes in
terms of the amount and kinds of foods consumed. Doctors and scientists
argued that low caloric intake and poor nutrition had a dramatic effect on
the nation state. The military could not perform well, the economy could
not take off, and citizens could not fulfill their obligations on empty stom-
achs. Yet the government had little money and few resources to address
chronic problems such as underproductive agriculture or the subsistence
economy in many regions. Not surprisingly, the Italian government could
do little to improve the food habits of most of its citizens.
12 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

The rise of the nation-state had dramatic impact on the diet and food
habits of Mediterranean populations in unanticipated, or less direct, ways
through imperialism. France controlled Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia,
and Italy controlled Libya. France and Italy extracted a certain amount
of food from their colonies, but the more noticeable impact on food hab-
its came through the exchange of information and populations. Colo-
nial European officials and settlers brought their food habits with them
to North Africa and picked up a few new ideas about how to prepare
certain foods. Although the exchange of information went both ways, the
legacy of European imperialism can be seen more clearly in North African
countries, where, for example, a café in Morocco may have a French name
or in Libya, where most people drink coffee, not tea, as a pick-me-up.
Coffee with milk in Libya is called mikyaata, a phonetic spelling of the
Italian “macchiato” or “stained coffee” popular among Italians living in
Libya under the colonial period (1911–1943). Elsewhere in North Africa,
people drink tea.
It would not be until the twentieth century that governments would
become more involved in monitoring, controlling, and regulating the
food habits of citizens. Two world wars necessitated tighter controls over
food production and consumption. For many Mediterranean countries,
World War II brought devastation and food shortages. In particular, war
in North Africa, Italy, and Greece disrupted food production and, in the
absence of adequate imports, civilians faced harsh living conditions. In
parts of Italy, for example, food available through rations for civilians
dropped as low as 800 calories per day, barely enough to support life.
In Greece, the devastation of war destroyed crops and disrupted supply
lines to urban areas; citizens faced severe shortages. After World War II,
governments finally realized the importance of intervening in the food
habits of citizens. Whereas state intervention kept populations alive
during wartime, in the postwar era, intervention ensured that consum-
ers could buy more food and that populations in need would also have
enough to eat. Many governments opened trade to international markets,
which had the effect of increasing the standard of living, even if it meant
more characteristically Mediterranean foods (olive oil, wine) were being
exported from the region. Some governments continued to subsidize pop-
ular consumption by controlling the price of necessities. The Egyptian
government, for example, lowered prices on wheat and other necessities
by law in response to widespread protests and riots. The liberalization of
trade, along with increased levels of immigration to the Mediterranean
region, had a dramatic effect on Mediterranean food habits. Consumers
who were used to buying local produce or growing their own food sampled
Historical Overview 13

new foods brought by recent immigrants or manufactured by American

corporations. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the Mediterra-
nean palate became global.

A MULTIETHNIC PALATE
For much of the modern era, the population of the Mediterranean re-
mained static. For example, the nineteenth century witnessed few dra-
matic in-migrations, although Europeans in the region (mostly Italians
and Greeks) began leaving for North and South America at the end of
the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, the impact from two
major wars and European decolonization in areas like North Africa and
the Middle East would not be felt until the last third of the twentieth
century. Over the last four decades, there has been a tremendous increase
in the overall population of the region. The population of all Mediterra-
nean countries was 350 million in 1985 and will increase to 550 million
by 2025. Why? It seems clear that areas around the Mediterranean Sea
are becoming attractive to immigrants. Increasing numbers of Africans
from the sub-Saharan nations are making their way to North Africa; in
Europe, immigrants from former Yugoslavia, Albania, and some Eastern
European countries have settled in Greece and Italy. The population of
less permanent residents will also increase; the traffic of tourists will in-
crease from 80 million in 1985 to more than 200 million by 2025. There
has also been a redistribution of populations in the region. At the outset
of the twentieth century, the majority of the region’s population resided
on the European side of the sea. By 1985, Europeans accounted for half
of the total Mediterranean population and by the end of the twentieth
century, they accounted for about a third, with the populations of North
Africa, Anatolia, and the Levant now accounting for more than two-
thirds of the population.6
Certainly the Mediterranean region now struggles with a host of prob-
lems connected with a rapidly increasing population. And tensions have
erupted between native populations and recent immigrants, prompting
calls for immigration reform and even provoking threats of violence.
Governments throughout the region face a serious challenge in trying
to balance population increase with economic growth, sustainability,
and social harmony. Frequently overlooked in all the media coverage of
the conflicts and problems caused by recent immigration are the ways in
which eating habits are changing because of immigration and how these
changes are both greeted with enthusiasm and viewed in a mostly posi-
tive light.
14 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

The food culture of the French port city of Marseille offers a good ex-
ample of how native and immigrant populations have come together at
the dinner table. Marseille is a city where traditional Provencal cuisine
(Marseille is famous for the fish stew known as bouillabaisse) mixes with
Italian, Algerian, Tunisian, and Moroccan cuisines. Marseille became a
multicultural city in the twentieth century. Initially, Italian immigrants
were attracted to the work opportunities provided by an economic boom
at the beginning of the century. By 1914, one in four people in the city
were of Italian origin. Corsican, Greek, and Spanish immigrants also
came for work in Marseille. By the 1930s, Marseille became home to a
constant flood of political refugees, beleaguered citizens fleeing Franco’s
Spain or Mussolini’s Italy. During World War II, hundreds of Jewish
refugees arrived; some eventually left Marseille for the United States,
but others were taken away by the German Gestapo and the French
Vichy officials. In the decades after the war, France gave up its colonies,
sometimes peacefully and other times, under considerable pressure and
violence (as was the case with the French Algerian war). Waves of im-
migrants from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia came to Marseille looking
for jobs, education, and other opportunity. And after the French Alge-
rian war, a number of French settlers from Algeria (called the Pied-Noirs)
made Marseille their home. More recently, there have been immigrants
from Egypt, Turkey, and Greece, including many Sephardic Jews from
these nations, as well as from North Africa. And the most recent im-
migrants hail from the French West Indies, Indochina, and parts of sub-
Saharan Africa.
Such a multiethnic and multicultural mix has meant a dramatic change
for the food culture of Marseille. Markets are now full of foods imported
from all over the world and not just meat and produce from local farm-
ers. Restaurants and cafés offer a dizzying variety of ethnic specialties,
and in people’s homes, it is not unusual for families to buy a bûche de Noël
(a traditional cake) at Christmastime and make chorba (a type of soup)
for Ramadan, a Muslim holiday. All of the different cuisines have been
welcomed by citizens of Marseille with a mixture of curiosity and delight.
The presence of ethnic foods in the city does not seem to provoke the
same heated reaction that a discussion of citizenship or immigration re-
form might.7 This is not to say that there are few tensions and problems
as immigrants continue to pour into the Mediterranean region. Rather,
the example of Marseille demonstrates the willingness of many people in
the Mediterranean to try new tastes, foods, and cooking techniques. This
willingness is as much a reflection of their past as it is a symbol for their
future.
Historical Overview 15

AGRICULTURE
For thousands of years, people in the Mediterranean have been harvest-
ing foods from both land and sea. It is perhaps most useful to think about
Mediterranean agriculture as a multifaceted occupation in which all kinds
of foods are cultivated, harvested, or caught. First, there is cultivation of
the land, which can range from tending wide open wheat fields to look-
ing after an olive grove perched on a rocky clump of land. Cultivation of
grains, fruits, and vegetables means thinking about the best crops to grow
on rocky soil, as well as understanding how to make the most from the
sun and warm climate. Olive, grape, and grain farms can be small or large
enough to produce significant harvests for local and international markets.
Fruits and produce, although they tend to be from small producers, can
also be large crops. The citrus industry, for example, includes many large
farms that export lemons and oranges outside the Mediterranean region.
Next, there is pastoral work; shepherds can maintain a flock of sheep or
goats just about anywhere, which explains why sheep and goat herding is
more popular than cattle ranching in the Mediterranean region, as they
make efficient use of sparse amounts of land. Sheep and goat herding pro-
vides essential dairy products as well as the main source of red meat for the
Mediterranean diet. Farmers and even urban citizens might raise chickens
or other birds for eggs and meat. There is also the production of fish, or
more accurately, catching or harvesting fish from the Mediterranean Sea,
which today has become a global enterprise.
In all three areas of agricultural production, Mediterranean farmers,
shepherds, and fishermen are facing issues that their counterparts around
the world confront today: the consolidation of agricultural production
into large units, declining profitability in the face of international com-
petition and a global market for food, and increasing environmental con-
cerns about the depletion of natural resources. And, as the population
begins shifting with immigration and a rural exodus in some areas, there
is growing concern over whether the region can continue to feed itself.
For example, the country of Egypt has to import about two-thirds of its
food supply. A massive exodus from rural to urban areas in recent decades
(most of the population lives on about one-tenth of the available land)
has meant fewer farms and more urban consumers who need to be fed.
The current situation is perhaps ironic, considering that Ancient Egypt
was the birthplace of agriculture; Ancient Egyptians cultivated wheat,
barley, beans, lentils, onions, dates, grapes, millet, and sesame and later
cultivated rice and fruits that came via Arab traders to Egypt from India,
China, and Persia. Today, the prospect of importing more and more food
16 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

to feed the Mediterranean region will, no doubt, change the nature of the
popular diet, given that for so long, this diet has been based on locally
grown and produced foods.
The history of agricultural production in the Mediterranean closely fol-
lows the history of population exchanges in the region, whether through
immigration, trade, or conquest. Just as citizens exchanged foods and
cooking tips, farmers and fishermen traded seeds, nets, or tips on preserv-
ing foods. The Mediterranean region started off as the birthplace of wheat
production, sheep farming, and goat herding, all of which were in place
in the Near East (Syria, Israel, Turkey) before spreading to Greece and
southern Europe. The cultivation of peas, barley, lentils, and other le-
gumes followed the same path. Ancient Greek and Roman farmers honed
their skills in olive and grape cultivation as well as honey production. Ag-
ricultural production in the western and eastern Mediterranean regions
was advanced enough to allow for a variety of staple foods—barley, wheat,
legumes—as well as produce and foods such as oil, honey, and wine. Agri-
culture in the southern Mediterranean, or North Africa, caught up in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with the Reconquista; Muslims and Jews
who were pushed out of Spain resettled in Morocco and Tunisia, bringing
knowledge of different agricultural and irrigation techniques that allowed
fruits, nuts, and vegetables to flourish.
The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were also the period of Spanish
exploration and conquest. Plants from the New World—tomatoes, pep-
pers, and potatoes—were brought to the Mediterranean region and did
well in the sunny climate. New world crops such as peppers and tomatoes
changed the nature of Mediterranean cuisine, but the potato did not as-
sume as prominent a role as it did in northern Europe and in countries like
Ireland, which made the potato the staple of their diet. And given land
limitations, Mediterranean farmers never opted for large-scale meat pro-
duction as did the United States. Instead, Mediterranean populations con-
tinued to exist mostly on grains (wheat and bulgur) prepared in a variety
of ways. The dominance of whole grain is what makes the Mediterranean
diet (see chapter 7) so distinctive. Another important source of protein
for Mediterranean consumers has been fish. Contrary to popular belief,
perhaps, the Mediterranean Sea is not an incredibly abundant source for
fish, given the high salt content of the water. Still, the sea yields all kinds
of fish and seafood: tuna, rock fish, bonita, mackerel, rascasse, dory, gur-
nard, anchovies, sardines, eel, squid, octopus, mussels, lobster, and a host
of lesser known species. After World War II, the Mediterranean region’s
fishing industry boomed. Fishermen had few problems making a living,
and hundreds of processing plants sprang up to accommodate the growing
Historical Overview 17

international demand for Mediterranean anchovies, sardines, tuna, and

other fish. By the 1970s, however, there were problems. Overfishing in
many areas led to a marked decline in the size and amount of the average
catch; processing plants closed down and fishermen resorted to fishing off
season to make ends meet. Today, some fishermen even resort to illegal
drift nets for profitable fish such as swordfish. And the United Nations
Environmental Program has recently warned of high mercury levels in
Mediterranean fish and has declared the ecology of the Mediterranean
Sea to be seriously out of balance because of overfishing and other envi-
ronmental problems.
The fishing industry is struggling to survive an uncertain future, and
there is some evidence to suggest that sheep- and goat-herding will also
face challenges. Although lamb and goat continue to be popular meats in
the region, recent studies of consumer habits indicate that beef, much of
it imported, is now popular among Mediterranean consumers. It is still too
early to tell how significantly this growing preference for beef will affect
these pastoral occupations. The farming industry has fared slightly better;
after a slump in the 1970s, agriculture has made a comeback and the small
farmer is alive and well throughout the region. Government subsidies
have helped farmers stay competitive and in some cases survive, but a host
of other factors have also helped. Over the last two decades, there have
been many efforts to revive regional culinary traditions through talking
about, preparing, and enjoying traditional foods. Consumers tired of fast
food and corporate food culture now yearn to go back to the simple tradi-
tions of Mediterranean home cooking. Some farms have been able to stay
in business because they take in tourists who are curious to understand
where their food comes from or who just want to relax in a rural setting
and enjoy wholesome, fresh food. Agritourism provides a viable alterna-
tive to bankruptcy or consolidation with a larger farm. And outside the
Mediterranean, gourmets around the world have sought out Mediterra-
nean olives, high quality extra-virgin olive oil, the finest capers, and spice
mixes for their own cooking. Growing international demand for Mediter-
ranean products has sparked innovation and improvement in all aspects
of agricultural production and marketing.
There is still a nagging fear, however, that farming may become increas-
ingly less important to the Mediterranean economy, especially if farms
remain small and are unable to compete with American agribusinesses.
Some industries have risen to the American challenge. For example,
the wine industries of Spain, southern France, Italy, Lebanon, and Israel
have mechanized or at least found a way to combine human labor with
mechanization. They have turned out high quality wines that hold their
18 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

own against California competitors, and they have used the Internet to
market their products around the world. Some industries have been less
successful. The productions of nuts—almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, and
walnuts—is still managed on small farms with human labor. These farms
are unable to compete with large nut farms from California, which use
machines to replace human labor and, in the process, turn out a cheaper
product. For Mediterranean nut farmers, mechanization is impractical
(the land can be very rocky and uneven) as well as expensive. Although
an increasing number of residents in the region have moved from the
countryside to the city, many still have ties to rural areas and return there
to work. In large cities such as Athens, Istanbul, Rome, and Cairo, the
outer districts and suburbs resemble villages and the countryside is not too
far away. Citizens in these cities can alternate work in the city with work
in agriculture, such as picking grapes or olives, on a seasonal basis. It is
unlikely, then, that machines will every fully replace human labor as they
have in other parts of the world.

ATTITUDES TOWARD FOOD

Popular attitudes toward food are shaped by many factors. As this chap-
ter has argued, these attitudes are constantly changing because of the his-
tory of populations sharing foods and information about food with each
other. Of the many factors that influence food choices and ideas about
preparing food, one’s way of life or livelihood has been important. Of
course, one’s livelihood dictates how much one can afford to spend on
food and in the Mediterranean region, so many residents have been poor
for centuries, whether they were peasants, shepherds, or fishermen. For
centuries, Mediterranean diet and cuisine were shaped by the principles
of peasant cooking, or cooking with little. Peasant cooking relies on grains
and limited produce as the main source of nutrition; although farmers
produced foods like meat, eggs, dairy products, and more expensive pro-
duce, they sold these foods for market instead of eating them. Similarly,
fishermen sold almost the entire catch, keeping only fish that were too
small or fish parts for personal consumption. Peasant cooking also relied
on easy-to-make dishes that stretched the basic ingredients a long way to
satisfy hungry family members. Thus there are a lot of stews and soups in
which a variety of inexpensive ingredients can be combined to create a
satisfying and tasty meal (see chapter 4). Pies, tarts, and omelets were also
popular forms of peasant cooking because a wedge or piece could be sliced
off and the rest kept for later. And flatbreads topped with a few simple
seasonings could be cut up, tucked in one’s pocket, and taken out to the
Historical Overview 19

fields for lunch or a snack. Peasant cooking relied on few ingredients and
few utensils.
Although it relies on an economy of tools and ingredients, peasant
cooking is not as easy as it appears to be. Centuries of cooking with few
ingredients created a formalistic approach to cooking whereby the exact
measure of ingredients and cooking technique matter a great deal to the
Mediterranean palate. A Moroccan diner eating a tajine or stew will no-
tice the combination of spices; a pinch too much of a certain spice is cause
for embarrassment or apologies from the cook. And for centuries, cooks in
the region have tried to make the same foods interesting in many different
ways. These efforts to bring variety to the table can be most clearly seen
in the Italian art of pasta making. Pasta, which is a paste of flour, water,
salt, and sometimes eggs, is available in Italy in hundreds of shapes. Many
pasta names reflect the shape of the dried paste: cavatappi (corkscrew) for
example, resemble corkscrews while tubetti are little hollowed-out tubes.
The different shapes provide more options and choice for cooks and din-
ers alike. There is also a wide variety of sauces to go with the pasta. Many
of these sauces are simple and inexpensive to make, from a pesto (olive
oil, basil, pine nuts, and garlic) to an aglio e olio (garlic and olive oil)
sauce. Although there are lots of different pasta shapes and lots of dif-
ferent sauces, only specific pasta shapes go with certain types of sauces;
some pasta shapes and textures are meant to hold small chunks of food in
a sauce, whereas smoother sauces cling better to roughly textured pasta.
There are definite dos and don’ts for combining sauce with pasta, so it is
not as easy as it looks. Pasta shells, for example, are not meant to be served
with a smooth sauce, but with a chunkier sauce or with finely chopped
ingredients. Some might argue, however, that pasta is pasta, no matter
what the shape, and any choice within these limits is an illusion of choice.
It is nonetheless important to understand how the art of pasta making and
preparation has developed and what this reveals about the nature of peas-
ant cooking or cooking with little. Over the last two or three centuries,
Italians have created a sophisticated culinary system out of very little:
flour, water, salt, and a few ingredients for sauce. Another example would
be the many kinds of zucchini pie in Greek cuisine. They are all zucchini
pies, but each one is made slightly different from the other. One may have
cheese grated on top, the zucchini used in the pie might be cooked in milk
before being baked off in the pie, or a particular spice might be used.
For centuries, Mediterranean cooks have had to cook within certain
limits, and although their cuisine reflects the nature of these constraints,
their attitude toward food also reflects a tradition of sobriety and thrift.
In meal preparation, nothing is wasted; even leftovers are recycled and
20 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

served in the next meal. And the classic Mediterranean diet relies on a
few simple ingredients—bread, vegetables, fruit, fish, olive oil—to cre-
ate a variety of interesting meals. Although a great deal of ingenuity and
creativity go into making entire meals out of only a few ingredients, Med-
iterranean cooking is not simply about throwing together a few things
to see what comes out. There are established rules for making the more
traditional dishes, and these rules matter to cooks and diners alike. For
example, the citizens of Naples have long maintained that they origi-
nated pizza, a flatbread with toppings baked in an oven. As pizza became
more popular throughout the world, Neapolitans became nervous. What
would happen to their style of pizza in the midst of pizzas topped with ham
and pineapple, pizzas topped with sausage and potatoes, or pizzas topped
with sushi? Concerned pizza-makers formed the Associazione Verace Pizza
Napoletana in 1984 to protect Neapolitan-style pizza. The VPN success-
fully got Neapolitan pizza recognized as denominazione di origine controllata,
which meant it was certified as authentic. To qualify for authentic status,
pizzas had to be made and cooked in a certain way, from specific ingredi-
ents. Pizza makers who comply with all the rules receive membership in
the association and can advertise this fact to their customers.
Another important set of rules about making and eating food comes
from the major religions of the Mediterranean region: Christianity, Islam,
and Judaism. In particular, Muslims and Jews still maintain dietary laws
that prohibit them from consuming some foods and that dictate how
foods are to be prepared for human consumption. All three religions en-
courage the consumption of specific foods and dishes on special occasions,
holidays, and rituals (see chapter 6), whether as a means of bringing the
community together or reminding participants of their faith. Given that
the Mediterranean Sea is the meeting place for three of the world’s major
religions, it is not surprising that many food choices are acts of faith as
well as acts of consumption.
More recently, demographic changes have played an important role
in remaking food habits, as younger generations from the region rely on
more prepared and “fast” foods and their attitudes toward these foods is
markedly different from those of the older generations. Younger people
are more likely to think about convenience and food trends when choos-
ing what to eat. Older consumers are less sure about these American-style
trends in eating (McDonald’s restaurants, microwaveable frozen food),
and some people have protested the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant.
Others have formed organizations to revere and protect native foods and
more traditional food habits. The widening generation gap in eating hab-
its has led to much discussion about diet and health in the Mediterranean
Historical Overview 21

region, as doctors and nutritionists examine the consequences of a new

Mediterranean diet that contains more meat, fat, salt, and sugar.
In part, food habits and dietary choices are changing because of the
region’s economy, which in many places is now based firmly on tourism.
Tourists from around the world flock to the Mediterranean to go to the
beach or to see the many cultural attractions. The islands in the Mediter-
ranean Sea become inundated with tourists, who, among other things,
want to enjoy the comforts of home, including food. The Balearic Islands,
for example, receive more than 6 million tourists a year, with almost half
of the tourists coming from the British Isles. The tourism industry has be-
come the major source of employment on most of the islands, which used
to be major exporters of figs, apricots, almonds, and potatoes. As a conse-
quence, the Islands are dotted with British restaurants and pubs. A typical
breakfast on the island of Majorca used to be a simple meal of fruit, bread,
and coffee. Now, restaurants and cafés offer a British breakfast of eggs,
bacon, sausage, beans, tomato, toast, marmalade, and tea. Even one of the
most unspoiled of the Mediterranean Islands, Corsica (France), with a
population of about a quarter million people, receives well over a million
tourists a year. Tourism brings in a great deal of money, but it also affects
the environment, as native populations shift economic priorities toward
building and accommodating guests, sometimes at the expense of local
agricultural production. This shift affects attitudes toward food, as islands
and other regions have to import more food because they are growing less.
And although there are only a few studies of the impact of tourism on na-
tive food habits, preliminary findings suggest that native consumers will
buy and eat the foods imported for British tourists, foods like soda, chips,
beer, and candy bars.
Tourism, like immigration, colonization, and trade, is the latest histori-
cal process or event that brings diverse populations together in the Medi-
terranean. Mediterranean cooks are a cosmopolitan lot, willing to embrace
new foods and new ways of preparing foods. They have had this attitude
for centuries, but today, many new foods and ideas about food are coming
from outside the Mediterranean region altogether. This has caused some
concern among chefs, small farmers, doctors, and others because they fear
these external influences will cause the Mediterranean ways of cooking
and eating to become less important and even obsolete. The question on
the mind of many people in the region is how well Mediterranean cuisine
will survive in an era of globalization. In some respects, the globalization of
tastes had led to greater interest in local food culture. American fast food
restaurants and British pubs have prompted many people in the region to
rediscover their Mediterranean culinary roots. There has been a revival of
22 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

interest in peasant cooking, for example, and restaurants and small hotels
now cater to regional culinary traditions. Local and national governments
have taken action. On the local level, food fairs and celebrations (see
chapter 6) allow tourists and natives to mingle and learn about local food
culture. Nationally, small farmers and food artisans receive more protec-
tion, either in the form of subsidies or by having certain foods labeled as
distinctive or authentic. Local, regional, and national authorities have
acted to protect the environment and control the impact of tourism.
It remains to be seen whether people in the Mediterranean will alter
their attitudes toward food significantly in the age of globalization, fast
food, and agribusiness. Debates and conversations about this matter take
on a tone of urgency, in part because of the assumption that for centu-
ries, Mediterranean cuisine has remain unchanged, as permanent a fix-
ture of the region as the sunny beaches and rocky hillsides. This book
argues that this assumption is both accurate and misleading. Some foods
and dishes have been around for centuries, and Mediterranean cooks and
diners have dedicated themselves to making a set of ingredients into a
variety of tasty meals and snacks. Yet these same cooks and diners have
been open to change, from new ingredients, to the new preparation tech-
niques, to thinking in new ways about the same old ingredients. This cu-
rious blend of tradition and innovation characterizes food culture in the
Mediterranean, making it a set of practices and attitudes that combines
diversity and simplicity, hard work and spontaneity, religious dedication
and playful enjoyment. Perhaps the most important aspect of food cul-
ture in the Mediterranean is the sheer dedication to, and enjoyment of,
food throughout countries as diverse as Egypt, Spain, Israel, Turkey, and
Greece. People in the region spend a lot of time thinking about, buying,
preparing, and eating food. Mediterranean cuisine has become interna-
tionally appreciated, not simply because it tastes good (although that is
certainly the case), but also because it embodies the environment, cul-
ture, and history of many populations around the Mediterranean Sea.

NOTES
1. Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti, Meals and Recipes from Ancient Greece (Los
Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005), pp. 1–2.
2. Oswald Rivera, The Pharaoh’s Feast: From Pit-Boiled Roots to Pickled Her-
ring, Cooking Through the Ages with 110 Simple Recipes (New York: Four Walls
Eight Windows, 2003), pp. 18–19.
3. Betty Wasson, The Mediterranean Cookbook (Chicago: Harry Regnery,
1973), p. 9.
Historical Overview 23

4. Oswald Rivera, The Pharaoh’s Feast, p. 61.

5. Sheilah Kaufman, Sephardic Israeli Cuisine: A Mediterranean Mosaic (New
York: Hippocrene Books, 2002), p. 22.
6. Robert Fox, The Inner Sea: The Mediterranean and Its People (New York:
Knopf, 1993), p. 8.
7. For a collection of multiethnic recipes from the city, see Daniel Young,
Made in Marseille (New York: HarperCollins, 2002).
 2
Major Foods and Ingredients

Mediterranean cuisine is incredibly diverse: the sweet and sour flavors of

Sicilian dishes contrast sharply with the mellow flavors of Turkish spe-
cialties and the complex spices that characterize North African cooking
are not found in Greek or Cypriot cuisine. In this sense, Mediterranean
food culture is as diverse as the societies of the Mediterranean itself. Yet
there are several key ingredients or foods that unite the food culture of
the region. Today, the phrase “Mediterranean diet” calls to mind foods
like olive oil, fish, pasta, bread, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables.
Since ancient times, the Mediterranean diet was based on cereals, le-
gumes, fish, and produce. Historians frequently describe how the great
civilizations of the past—Phoenician, Carthaginian, Greek, Roman,
Arab—have exerted unifying influence on philosophy, technology, and
architecture in the Mediterranean region. Without a doubt, these civi-
lizations also influenced food culture as well, and thus there are more
similarities than differences in the kinds of ingredients used by cooks
throughout the Mediterranean.

GRAINS
Wheat is the most important grain throughout the region, although
barley, millet, and rice are also grown in the Mediterranean. Histori-
cally, grains like emmer (a bread grain of ancient Egypt) and barley were
the most important grains in the region, but wheat now reigns supreme.
26 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Emmer. © J. Susan Cole Stone.

Wheat is grown in Spain, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Tunisia, and Syria.

Wheat first appeared as a crop among farmers more than 10,000 years ago
and has been the major food for the Mediterranean peoples since ancient
times. Hard or durum wheat is the preferred type of wheat, which makes
a high-quality, high-protein flour called semolina flour. According to
ethnobotanists, durum wheat goes back to the Neolithic era and was
probably imported to the Mediterranean from the Middle East. Softer
grains of wheat are grown in the Mediterranean and used for foods like
bread and pasta, although much of these grains are grown for export.

Bread
It is hard to overestimate the importance of bread throughout the
Mediterranean region. It is consumed daily and yet in some rural soci-
eties throughout the region, it is treated with a kind of reverence and
gratitude that may seem unusual or extreme to Americans and other
Western consumers. There are historical reasons for this reverence.
Over the centuries, bread was regarded as the most important food, so
much so that authorities (churches, governments, rulers) learned to
carefully monitor and control the availability and price of flour and
bread. If either flour or bread became too expensive or was excessively
taxed, citizens would protest and even loot bakeries and flour mills. In
some regions of the Mediterranean, notably North Africa and the Mid-
dle East, the price of bread is still a political issue and high bread prices
in countries like Egypt, where much of the population lives at or near
the poverty line, threatens the very existence of the population. Bread
Major Foods and Ingredients 27

prices are less of an issue in countries where the economy is stable and
standards of living are high. Today, most bread is purchased in a store
or bakery, although in more traditional places it is still made at home or
in communal ovens. On holidays or for special occasions, bakers make
elaborate breads, often braided or sculpted, that serve as reminders of
bread’s special place in the Mediterranean diet. Bread is cooked in all
kinds of ways, whether in a conventional or wood-fired oven, on the
hearth, or on a griddle.

Flatbreads
Flatbreads are just that—flat breads that are made with or without some
form of leavening. They are usually baked but are also made on the griddle
or other hot surface, and some flatbreads are fried or deep-fried in oil. The
list of flatbreads consumed throughout the Mediterranean is endless: pita,
lavosh, pide, pizza, focaccia, to name but a few, and every region within the
Mediterranean seems to have its particular kind of flatbread. These breads
can be used for dipping, as the pita is used in the traditional meze (appetiz-
ers), or they are topped with ingredients and then baked to make a meal,
like the Italian pizza. Breads like pita or focaccia are the basis for sand-
wiches, as they can be stuffed with lots of ingredients and then consumed
for a meal or snack. Related to the flatbread is phyllo dough, very thin lay-
ers of batter that are never consumed by themselves but always combined
with other ingredients. Phyllo dough is layered with spinach to make the
Greek spanakopita, or filled with meat or vegetables to make Syrian bou-
reki or Turkish borek. In addition to savory dishes, desserts can be made
with phyllo dough. Perhaps the most famous dish is baklava, dough lay-
ered with honey and nuts, that is eaten in Greece, Turkey, and Israel.

Baklava
Pastry
1 pound butter, melted
1 pound phyllo dough
1/2 pound walnuts
1/2 pound almonds
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
28 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Syrup
1 cup honey
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon of grated lemon rind

Combine syrup ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for

15–20 minutes. Strain and set aside. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix sugar, egg,
cinnamon and allspice in a large bowl. In a food processor, coarsely grind
the walnuts and almonds together. Add to sugar, egg, and cinnamon mixture.
Brush a 13 × 9 × 2 pan with melted butter. Lay a sheet of phyllo dough, brush
with butter, then lay another sheet of phyllo dough, and repeat until there are
a dozen layers of phyllo dough. Spread a thin layer of nut mixture of top of
the layers, cover nut mixture with another layer of phyllo dough, brush with
butter and cover with another layer of nuts. Repeat until the nut mixture
is used up. Cover with remaining phyllo dough sheets, brushing each sheet
with melted butter. Cut the top of the baklava into triangles. Bake 1 hour
until browned. Remove from oven and pour prepared syrup over baklava. Cool
thoroughly before serving.

Leavened Bread
Leavened bread is made with some sort of rising agent, usually yeast,
and baked in an oven. Throughout the Mediterranean, bread is often
made with durum wheat flour. Sometimes the flour is coarsely ground and
the resulting bread is thick and chewy, as with so-called peasant breads or
semolina bread made in southern Italy. More refined flour makes whiter,
fluffier bread that was and still is sold for a higher price than “peasant”
bread. Historically, consumers were defined economically and socially by
which kind of bread they could afford. Bread dough can also be flavored
with different ingredients such as olives, rosemary and other herbs, or
spices like anise, which is an ingredient in a type of bread consumed in
Morocco. Leavened bread is eaten by itself or to accompany a dish like
salad, soup, or stew (the bread crust can be used for sopping up broth or
dressing). Throughout the western Mediterranean region, toasted bread
topped with various ingredients makes a satisfying appetizer or snack;
Italian crostini and bruschetta have become popular worldwide. Stale
bread is also an important ingredient in Mediterranean cooking, as it is
made into salads or soups; grated into sauces, meatballs, or dumplings;
and even used in deserts like Spanish torrijas, the Sicilian budino, and
Turkish pudding.
Major Foods and Ingredients 29

Pasta
Wheat flour is made into a paste with water, salt, and sometimes egg,
rolled out into a shape, cut, and sometimes dried. The resulting noodles
or pasta as we now know it are boiled, drained, and served with a sauce
or tossed with other ingredients. Pasta dishes are best known in Italy,
but they are also consumed throughout Turkey, southern France, and
Greece. In these regions, pasta is served boiled, or it is sometimes baked
in a casserole. In Spain, pasta is cooked in its own broth or sauce and
the noodles are called fideos or fideus. Historians argue about the origins
of pasta, specifically whether it was first made in Asia or the Middle
East, but it seems likely that Mediterranean cultures learned about pasta
from Middle Eastern traders. For centuries, pasta was made at home
until the nineteenth century, when industrial production made quick
work of a time-consuming task. Because pasta is made with finely milled
flour, it was a relatively expensive food and eaten only on Sundays (by
Christians) or on special occasions, until mass production methods and
a higher standard of living put pasta within the reach of everyone’s food
budget. Some people still make pasta at home for special occasions, but
most consumers purchase dried pasta in stores and supermarkets. Be-
cause pasta can be combined with so many other ingredients, it is an
extremely versatile dish; and because pasta is inexpensive to buy and
make, it remains one of the most popular dishes in the Mediterranean
region and has become one of the most popular dishes throughout the
world.

Couscous and Bulgur

Couscous is more popular in North Africa and in the eastern
Mediterranean and is usually in a dish where it is mixed in with other
ingredients to make an entire meal. It can also be served as an accom-
paniment to other dishes in a meal. Couscous is commonly, and mistak-
enly, referred to as a grain, but it is actually a technique of making the
food. A semolina flour mixture made from durum wheat is placed in the
bottom of the dish, dampened with water and stirred by hand to produce
small “grains” or nuggets of flour. Alternately, couscous can be made
by wetting the palm of the hand and dipping the hand into a bowl of
semolina; the hands are then rubbed together gently so that small grains
form. Once the grains are formed they are allowed to dry. Couscous is
steamed over a broth and, like pasta, couscous is now mass produced and
available in shops and supermarkets in the Mediterranean, although it is
30 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

not precooked as it is in the United States. Bulgur is a cereal food made

from wheat, most often durum wheat. The wheat is parboiled, dried, and
then the husk is removed; the grain is then cracked. Frequently, bulgur is
referred to as cracked wheat, but it differs from cracked wheat in that it is
parboiled and the wheat bran is removed. Bulgur is widely used in Turk-
ish cuisine, where fine bulgur is used to make kibbeh (ground bulgur and
meat), and coarse bulgur is used to make tabbouleh (a bulgur, tomato,
parsley and mint salad). Bulgur is also used to make pilaf or pilav, in
which the grain is mixed with onions, tomatoes, and peppers, sautéed in
butter, and then boiled in meat stock. Turkish people drink boza, which
is made from bulgur and rice that are left to ferment before being served
with cinnamon or roasted chickpeas. For those not brought up on it, boza
is an acquired taste.

Rice
Rice came to the Mediterranean from the Middle East, and today it
is cultivated intensively in Italy, Spain, France, and Turkey. In many
regions of the Mediterranean such as Syria, Morocco, Greece, and Tur-
key, rice is used as an ingredient in dishes or to stuff vegetables or
meat. In the eastern regions of the Mediterranean, such as Turkey, rice
dishes called pilavs are prepared with saffron, nuts, and/or legumes and
accompany other dishes in the meal. In Italy, rice is used as the cen-
terpiece of a dish called risotto, in which short-grained rice is cooked
in a seasoned broth, giving the rice a creamy (some say mushy) consis-
tency. Rice croquettes are popular throughout Italy and especially in
Sicily, where they are filled with different sauces and deep fried. On
the Mediterranean coast of Spain, rice is the main ingredient for the
famous Catalonian dish paella, which consists of rice, chicken, sau-
sages, shellfish, fish, artichokes, tomatoes, peppers, peas, garlic, and
seasonings including saffron, which gives the dish a distinctive yellow-
ish color. Paella can also be made with more exotic ingredients such as
rabbit or snail.

VEGETABLES
In addition to cereals, which characterize the Mediterranean diet, fresh
vegetables play an important role in both everyday fare and fancy dishes.
Because meat and fish can be expensive and because they spoil quickly,
vegetables have played a major role in Mediterranean cuisine as a meat
substitute. They are frequently considered more of a main dish than a side
Major Foods and Ingredients 31

dish. Considerable amounts of creativity and inventiveness have gone into

vegetable recipes, whether cooks have combined vegetables with unusual
seasonings or ingredients, or whether they have tried to give vegetables
the appearance, texture, and taste of meat. Many of the vegetables that
now characterize Mediterranean cuisine were imported from elsewhere:
for example, tomatoes and peppers came from the New World, whereas
eggplant came from Southeast Asia. It seems that cooks embraced even
imported vegetables and applied the same care and creativity to them that
they applied to their native produce.

Olives
In many people’s minds, no food characterizes Mediterranean food
more than the olive. Certainly, olives have a long history in the region.
Their cultivation goes back to ancient Egyptian and Minoan cultures,
and the ancient Greeks and Romans used olives and olive oil in their
cuisine. Olive trees live a particularly long time, some for hundreds of
years, and they seem to thrive in the rocky soil of the Mediterranean.
The fruit of the olive tree is picked at various stages of ripeness, de-
pending on what the olive will be used for: unripe green olives, mature
black olives, and the green-brown or rose-green stages in between ripe
and unripe. Curing or preserving is necessary and the most traditional
means of curing olives is to dry them in the sun and rub them with a bit
of oil to preserve them. When the olive shrivels in the sun, the flavor
becomes more concentrated. Olives can also be cured in salt brine or
brine flavored with vinegar, citrus juice, olive oil, or a combination
of ingredients like oil and vinegar. The olive is split and soaked in
cold water first to take out the bitterness; this process allows the bitter
oleoeuropein to leech out of the olive. Given the variety of preparation
and the variety of olive trees, it is not surprising that olives come in all
different shapes and sizes: Nicoise olives from North Africa (not Nice,
France) are small, sweet, and black; Italian Bella di Cerignola olives are
large, green, and tart; Greek kalamata olives are smallish, oval, and
purple from being steeped in a red-wine vinegar. Most olives are sold
in jars or are available in bulk in markets and stores or sold by street
vendors in paper cones. In addition to producing olives for consum-
ers at home, Mediterranean olive farmers also produce a significant
number of olives for export around the world. Some of these olives,
like the “California-style” olives (these are green olives that are turned
black by being soaked in a lye solution), are industrially produced and
canned.
32 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

A Palestinian woman sorts olives by

hand in the West Bank village of
Awrta. While some aspects of olive
production are mechanized, some
farms still rely on human labor. AP
Photo/ Nasser Ishtayeh.

Olive Oil
Olive oil is another key ingredient for Mediterranean cuisine that has be-
come known the world over and is now produced for domestic consumption,
as well as for export. Consumers outside the Mediterranean usually think
of olive oil as an Italian product, but it is made in Spain, Greece, Tunisia,
Lebanon, and Turkey, as well as in Italy. Before the global boom in demand
for olive oil, many governments throughout the Mediterranean carefully
controlled olive oil production, so much so that little oil was available for
domestic consumers, who had to make do with margarine or vegetable oil.
Now, olive oil production for a world market has done much to liberalize
the growth of olive trees and oil production, so much so that in many coun-
tries, the government has loosened regulations, and so olive oil is avail-
able to consumers everywhere in the region. To make a liter of olive oil,
about 11 pounds (5 kilograms) of olives are needed. The olives are crushed,
and pressed, and then the oil is separated from the olive pulp and pits and
stored in tanks or jars. Sometimes the oil is filtered before being stored.
Extra-virgin olive oil is a more expensive grade of oil whereby the oil is
pressed within 48 hours of harvest, and the oil is obtained in one pressing
Major Foods and Ingredients 33

at room temperature. To qualify for the label of extra-virgin, olive oil must
have 1 percent or less of free oleic fatty acid (a measure of oxidation in the
oil), and the oil must pass a taste test and not have any defects of taste or
aroma. Virgin and light olive oil are refined oils that have a lighter taste
and aroma than extra-virgin oil, but they are not light oils in the sense
that they have fewer calories than other types of olive oil. Pure olive oil is
heavily processed, sometimes with multiple pressings, and the resulting oil
has no taste or aroma (sometimes extra-virgin oil is added to give it some
taste). Historically, olive oil has been used for medicine, cleaning skin, and
for oil lamps in addition to using it for cooking and seasoning food. Jewish
populations in the Mediterranean began cooking with olive oil because it
contains no animal ingredients (pareve) and therefore can be used to make
dishes in compliance with kosher dietary laws.

Peppers and Tomatoes

Peppers and tomatoes are considered classic Mediterranean foods, but
both were imported from the New World during the era of the Columbian
exchange. Mediterranean populations were already familiar with black
pepper when Christopher Columbus brought back a red fruit he called
a pepper. Red peppers became extremely popular because they could be
grown easily in the Mediterranean climate and were a less expensive alter-
native to black pepper that could provide the right amount of spicy taste
for less money. Peppers are used in all kinds of dishes, but they are perhaps
best known for their use in sauces or condiments. In Tunisia, peppers are
ground up in a fiery sauce or paste called harissa, which is added to many
foods and dishes to give it extra punch. In southern France, a red pepper
sauce called rouille is used to season dishes and add flavor to fish soups and
stews. The popularity of peppers is evidenced by its use in even the most
exotic dishes, from a Syrian dish called muhammara, a dip made from red
peppers, walnuts, and pomegranate, to pepper ices and ice creams in south-
ern Italy. Unlike the pepper, which quickly became popular in the region,
the tomato took a longer time to become established after it was introduced
to Spaniards by Hernando Cortès after he discovered it in the New World
in 1519. Originally, tomatoes were brought back and grown as ornamen-
tal curiosities. Most Europeans thought tomatoes were poisonous, most
likely because the varieties of tomatoes available were quite sour. Once
Mediterranean farmers began cultivating tomatoes, they produced sweet
fruit, probably because the soil is rich and ashy in many locations where
tomato cultivation occurred. Nonetheless, it took about two centuries for
tomatoes to be commonly used, at least according to evidence in printed
34 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

cookbooks. Now, tomatoes are practically indispensable to Mediterranean

cuisine. Dishes that have become universally popular—pizza, gazpacho,
pasta sauce—have tomatoes as their primary or characteristic ingredient.
Like peppers, tomatoes can be dried and kept for a period of time before
being used in dishes. The resulting tomato taste is more concentrated and
therefore used more sparingly in recipes. In Sicily, tomato purée is salted
and dried out until it becomes like a paste or even like molding clay (it is
called ’u ‘strattu in Sicilian dialect), it is then kept in jars and used to pro-
vide a powerful tomato taste in dishes.

Harissa
12 dried chili peppers
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground caraway seed

Remove seeds from peppers, cut into slices, and soak in warm water for 30–45 min-
utes. Drain excess liquid and squeeze peppers dry. Put peppers and other ingredients
in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. This can be kept in the
refrigerator in a sealed container for two weeks. Use as a paste to add heat to dishes
or water down to make a sauce.

Eggplant
Originally from Southeast Asia, the eggplant was brought to the Medi-
terranean via the Middle East. Eggplant is considered a “poor man’s meat”
because it can be prepared in many ways so as to resemble meat. One of
the reasons eggplant is so versatile is that it has no strong taste, but it tends
to absorb the taste of other things. Therefore eggplant is usually prepared
in a dish with other ingredients or seasonings. For example, eggplant can
be sliced and baked in a casserole-type dish like Greek moussaka or Italian
eggplant parmesan, or it can be diced up and mixed with other vegetables
like the southern French ratatouille or the southern Italian pasta dish
called pasta alla norma (pasta in a sauce made from tomatoes, eggplant,
olive oil, basil, and hard ricotta cheese). In the eastern Mediterranean
region, eggplants are stuffed or filled or mashed up with tahini (sesame
sauce) for a dip. A famous eggplant dish in Turkey is called imam bayildi,
Major Foods and Ingredients 35

or “the cleric fainted,” in which the cooked eggplant, onion, and tomato
were so tender that they melted in a cleric’s mouth; hence the cleric faints
or loses consciousness because of the delicious taste, or possibly because
he ate too much of it. In the Catalan region of Spain, eggplants are even
fried and eaten as a kind of dessert accompanied by sugar or honey.

Fried Eggplant with Honey

2/3 cup flour
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch salt
Olive oil for frying
3–4 small eggplants, peeled, sliced, and cut into strips
Honey

Mix the flour, water, baking soda, and salt together. Dip eggplant slices into the
batter and fry in olive oil (oil should be 3/4 to 1 inch deep and heated to at least
350ºF). Fry until golden brown, then turn and fry on the other side. Drain on
paper towels and drizzle with honey.

Greens
All kinds of greens are eaten throughout the Mediterranean: lettuces
of all types, arugula, radicchio, spinach, and some herbs. Greens can be
mixed together in a salad. A popular version is the French mixed green
salad, a combination of arugula, radicchio, frisée, and mâche, dressed with
a bit of olive oil and a squirt of lemon juice. In France and Italy, green sal-
ads are usually eaten at the end of a meal because they are simple and re-
freshing. There is great variation throughout the Mediterranean when it
comes to making salads. In the eastern Mediterranean, for example, many
salads consist of a variety of foods, not just greens: yogurt, cucumbers, to-
matoes, legumes, or chopped vegetables. Of course, diners in the eastern
Mediterranean will eat green salads as well. Sometimes greens are braised
and seasoned and served as a vegetable accompaniment to the main dish.
Spinach and radicchio are favorite side dishes. Greens can also be used
in soups and stews, or as part of a main dish or appetizer. In Greece and
Turkey, spinach, sometimes accompanied by cheese, is layered between
phyllo dough or encased in phyllo dough, to create triangles of filled pas-
try, eaten as appetizers or as a quick snack. Because the Mediterranean
climate is so mild, fresh local greens are available year-round.
36 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Artichokes
Artichokes are a prickly, round vegetable that are popular in Italian,
North African, and Turkish cuisine. They can be eaten by themselves
steamed (and served with a garlic and oil dip), fried, or pickled. They
are also cooked with other vegetables, or they can be hollowed out and
stuffed with meat, breadcrumbs, or vegetables. Hearts of artichoke, the
tender leaves in the center, are considered particularly tasty and are used
in dishes, preserved in oil or brine, or breaded and fried. Artichokes are
also chopped and eaten raw as a salad.

Onions
One of the oldest vegetables in the world (cultivated in prehistoric
times), onions were used by ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.
Along with garlic and chickpeas, onions were a staple of ancient diets.
Today, onions are used as both an ingredient and a seasoning in Mediter-
ranean cooking throughout the region. As a seasoning, onions are sautéed
in olive oil to flavor the oil before other ingredients are added to the dish.
As an ingredient, onions are eaten raw in salads or cooked with meat,
vegetables, rice, or eggs.

Potatoes
White potatoes were originally grown in South America and were
brought to Spain in 1539 by returning conquistadores. They then fol-
lowed the same route of popularity as the tomato, first becoming popular
with Italian peasants and then moving toward the eastern Mediterranean
and south to North Africa. They are hardy and easy to grow, even in the
rocky Mediterranean soil. Although not as popular in the Mediterranean
as they are in central and eastern Europe, as well as the British Isles, po-
tatoes are prepared in many ways and are used in a variety of dishes. They
are invaluable as a way to thicken stews and soups, and they are frequently
roasted with a little bit of olive oil, salt, and fresh rosemary and served as
an accompaniment to grilled meat. In the eastern Mediterranean, potato
pancakes are a savory appetizer, accompaniment, or main dish.

Carrots
Carrots are a particularly versatile vegetable in Mediterranean cooking.
They grow nearly everywhere in the region, and they do not require rich
soil or lots of water. They are frequently mixed with meats, legumes, and
Major Foods and Ingredients 37

other vegetables in dishes that call for a sweet taste. Because of their sweet
taste, they are particularly suited for the complex flavors in North African
dishes and the sweet-sour cuisine of Sicily. In Morocco, carrots are sau-
téed with sugar, spices, currants, and fresh herbs to create a tangy salad.

Okra
Okra is a actually a fruit, but is considered by most cooks as a vegetable.
At least it is used in many savory vegetable side dishes and in soups and
stews, particularly in North African cooking. A member of the mallow
family, okra was first used by the Egyptians as a way to thicken food. A
related food that ancient Egyptians used was melokiyah, also a member of
the mallow family. It is a spinach-like plant that gives off a strong and
unmistakable odor when cooked. Melokiyah is still used in making soups in
Egypt and in Tunisia. It is dried and stored in powdered form, to be added
to soups and stews.

Cardoons
An edible thistle, the cardoon looks like celery. It is native to the Medi-
terranean region and was cultivated and eaten in ancient Rome. Today, it
is popular in France, Spain, and Italy. Cardoons are eaten raw in a sauce
of olive oil, anchovies, and garlic; or they can be cooked and eaten, usu-
ally braised. When they are cooked, cardoons taste something like a cross
between celery and artichokes.

Broccoli and Cabbage

Broccoli originated in the Mediterranean region and grew wild there.
Originally, people ate the stems but not the flowering heads (what con-
sumers like to eat now). Italians claim broccoli as their own and the
name comes from the Italian brocco or “sprout.” Broccoli can be steamed,
braised, stewed, and boiled. A relative of broccoli, known as broccoli
rabe, is also popular. Rabe has dark green leaves and its stalks look like
broccoli, but it tastes more bitter or pungent than broccoli. Wild cabbage
also grew in the coastal areas of the Mediterranean. In ancient times it
had a longer stem, which was the part that was eaten. Ancient Romans
cultivated cabbage to have a larger, rounder head. Cabbage used to be
popular among peasants because it could keep for a long time, especially
in cooler weather. Although ancient Greeks and Romans liked cabbage
for its medicinal qualities, cabbage was never highly regarded by other
38 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Mediterranean populations, probably because it smells when it is cooked

and it is difficult to digest. Cabbage is used in stews and soups, as well as
some layered cooked dishes, and it is sometimes consumed raw in salads.

Asparagus
Asparagus was cultivated by the ancient Greeks and was prized by the
ancient Romans, both for its taste and its medicinal properties (it was
thought to improve kidney function). The vegetable can be either green or
white. White asparagus, popular in Spain and France, is produced by heap-
ing soil on the growing stalks to inhibit chlorophyll production, hence the
white appearance or color. Asparagus is grown extensively in France and
Italy, where it is served as an accompaniment to the main course, steamed
and dressed with a simple sauce. It is also used in pasta and rice (paella,
risotto) dishes, and can be eaten cold in salads or appetizers.

Legumes
Legumes, like lentils, chickpeas, and fava beans, are as important to the
Mediterranean diet as olives and wheat. Originally, these vegetables grew
wild throughout the Mediterranean until they were domesticated. Because
they are inexpensive, filling, and nutritious, legumes are often referred to
as “food of the poor,” or “poor man’s meat.” Although many consumers
can now afford meat and other foods, legumes have remained extremely
popular; they are eaten by every religious faith in the region and by every
ethnic and economic group. Frequently, legumes are served alone or they
are seasoned. Legumes prepared in different ways are a popular ingredient
for dips and sandwiches: hummus is a dip made with chickpeas, lemon,
garlic, and tahini. Mashed, fried chickpeas are called falafel, a specialty
found throughout the Levant. Ful medames is another popular dish made
with fava beans, garlic, tahini, and eggs, meat, or tomato sauce. Mediterra-
nean cooks also use legumes in soups and stews to make them heartier and
more flavorful; legumes are thought to go quite well in dishes with salted,
fatty meats. Legumes can be dried out and thus keep for a long time. Be-
cause dried legumes take a long time to cook, people in North Africa use a
special pot, with a wide bottom and a narrow neck, for cooking. The pot’s
shape allows steam to condense on the sides and slide back down to the
bottom, tenderizing the dried legumes more quickly than would boiling in
a standard pot. This kind of pot, the tajine, is also the name of a famous
Moroccan stew, where legumes are combined with meat, vegetables, and
seasonings. A more modern method of cooking is to use a high-pressure
Major Foods and Ingredients 39

cooker. Legumes like chickpeas can be ground up and made into a kind
of flour. Chickpea flour is used to make crepes, called socca, in southern
France, or fried “bread” patties, called panelle, in Sicily.

Chicken Tajine
5–6 boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped
3 tablespoons flour
2 medium onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
8 ounces dried apricots
2 cans chopped tomatoes (or use three to four fresh tomatoes)
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until soft and translucent. Remove from heat.
Add broth and gradually stir in flour. Add tomato paste and honey and stir until
mixed together. Add spices and mix. Add apricots, chopped tomatoes, and chick-
peas. Mix well and put in a crock pot. Cook in crock pot 2–3 hours, depending
on the size of the chicken chunks. Serve with fresh chopped cilantro or coriander
on top and serve with couscous.

FRUITS
Fruits occupy an important place in the Mediterranean diet. Like fresh
vegetables, fruits are usually less expensive than many other foods, and some
fruits (citrus, for example) grow well in the sunny, dry climate. Foreign trav-
elers from the eighteenth century to the present observed an abundance of
fruit, in some areas oranges and lemons were left to rot because people could
not eat all of them. Fresh fruit is popular as a last course in a meal, served
along with nuts, cheese, or a bit of bread. It is also eaten raw as a snack and
even unripe fruit can be eaten with a little bit of salt. Fruit is also used in
cooked dishes, either as an ingredient in a meat or vegetable dish.
40 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Citrus
Citrus fruits such as lemons, oranges, and citron (which looks like
an overgrown lemon) grow in abundance in most parts of the Medi-
terranean. It is not unusual to see orange or lemon trees in people’s
yards or in public parks or growing wild by the side of the road. The
juice of oranges and lemons is used for cold drinks, including lemonade,
and citrus fruits are sweetened with honey or sugar and used in desserts
like cakes or puddings. Citrus fruit and juice are also used in salads and
soups. Oranges are mixed with chopped onion, fennel, or artichokes in
a sweet-sour salad in southern Italy and North Africa. In Greece and
Cyprus, lemon flavors a soup called avgolemono. Citrus juice is also a
staple ingredient for salad dressings, sauces, and as an accompaniment
for fish. And in North Africa, lemons are salted and preserved for use in
many dishes.

Avgolemono
7 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup rice or orzo
4 eggs
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Bring stock to a boil. Add rice or orzo and simmer covered for about 20 minutes
or until rice is cooked. Lightly beat the eggs in a medium bowl. Add two cups of
the hot broth to the eggs and stir constantly. Pour mixture in the bowl into the
soup pot. Cook for a few minutes until soup thickens. Remove from heat and stir
in lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Melons
All kinds of melons are cultivated and eaten throughout the Medi-
terranean: cantaloupe, muskmelon, and other varieties are eaten for
breakfast, for dessert, and even as a first course, combined with cheese
or cured meat (as in the famous Italian dish, melon with sliced pro-
sciutto, an Italian ham). Watermelon, which probably originated some-
where in Africa, is also a popular fruit. It is eaten plain, or it can be used
in salads to provide a sweet balance to spicy or sour ingredients. Wa-
termelon ices and drinks are good thirst quenchers in the summertime.
Sicilians make a type of pudding from watermelon juice, also popular
in the summer.
Major Foods and Ingredients 41

Dates
One of the oldest plants in the world, the date palm, found throughout
North Africa and in the eastern Mediterranean, bears fruit that is eaten
fresh or dried. For Muslims in the region, dates have a special significance,
given that the prophet Muhammed liked them and broke his Ramadan fast
with a date. Dried dates are sweet and are frequently consumed as a candy-
like snack or for dessert (especially when they are stuffed with nuts). Some
prefer dates stuffed with cheese or meat for a sweet/savory snack, whereas
other cooks add dates to lamb or chicken to give the dish a sweet taste.

Figs
Figs have been cultivated for thousands of years. Originally from
Southwest Asia, figs became a popular fruit in the Mediterranean basin
in ancient times. Ancient Romans fed figs to gladiators, to give them
quick energy. Packed with sugar, figs are small, pear-shaped, and have
many seeds inside. They are grown commercially, for domestic use and
for export, and many households have a fig tree in the garden for per-
sonal use. Figs are eaten fresh in season, accompanied by sweet white
cheese, or a glass of sweet wine. They can also be used as an ingredient
in stews (some Moroccan tajines use figs), or meat and vegetable dishes,
especially in North Africa. They can be preserved in many ways; they
are stewed and made into sweet fig preserves or jam, a popular breakfast
treat. Figs can also be dried and eaten later. For centuries, dried figs were
a staple food among Mediterranean peasants and were known as poor-
man’s food.

Pomegranates
Cultivated throughout the eastern Mediterranean, pomegranates are a
juicy fruit that contain a lot of seeds. Pomegranate juice varies in acid-
ity between sweet, sweet-sour, and sour. Sweet juice and sweet-sour juice
are used to make beverages, syrups, jellies, ices, and other desserts. Sour
pomegranate juice is used more like vinegar or lemon juice in marinades,
salad dressings, and other recipes.

Nuts
Nuts of all kinds are popular in the Mediterranean: hazelnuts, pine nuts,
pistachios, walnuts, and almonds are perhaps the most widely consumed.
42 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Preparing tajines in Casablanca, Morocco. AP

Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar.

Nuts are eaten in all kinds of ways: fresh off the tree, toasted, fried, baked,
ground, or prepared in both savory and sweet dishes. Nuts and seeds are
ground up and made into pastes or “butters”; the most popular is tahini,
a sesame-seed paste that is an important ingredient in many of the meze-
style dishes in Greece, Turkey, and throughout the Levant. Italian pesto
or French pistou is a versatile paste made from basil, garlic, and ground
pine nuts. Nuts are even used to make drinks. Almond milk is a popular
drink in the eastern Mediterranean and is made by grinding almonds and
sugar into a paste, adding milk, more sugar, and orange-flower water. The
mixture is then passed through a sieve or strainer and then drunk at room
temperature.

MEAT
Although there were pockets of great wealth in the Mediterranean
region, the majority of the population remained at subsistence level for
Major Foods and Ingredients 43

centuries. Farmers, shepherds, fishermen, and other agricultural laborers

preferred to sell more expensive foods such as eggs, dairy products, and
meat, rather than consume them. Urban artisans and later factory work-
ers often could not afford to buy meat with their meager earnings. Today,
standards of living have improved and intensive production methods have
put meat, poultry, and fish within the economic reach of most citizens in
the region. Still, old traditions die hard and consumers tend to use what
is on hand (sheep, pigs, fish) and use everything in or on the animal.
Pigs and tuna are perhaps the best examples of how thrifty Mediterranean
cooks can be when it comes to using everything at hand. The two most
popular ways meat of all types is prepared are grilling (in shawarma, gyros,
or kebabs) and stewing (the Moroccan tajine is perhaps the best known
example of a meat stew).

Lamb
Lamb is the most popular meat in the Mediterranean region and is
grilled, braised, stewed, and baked. One of the most popular ways of serv-
ing lamb is something called shawarma in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel;
gyros in Greece; and doner kebab in Turkey. Lamb meat is sliced into
wide pieces, marinated, and then threaded on a long skewer in between
slices of fat. The skewer then rotates over a vertical grill for two or three
hours until the meat is cooked through. As the meat is cooking, the
outer layers can be sliced off and eaten as a meal or stuffed into flatbread
for a sandwich. Grilled lamb is also popular as kebab, in which small
marinated pieces of meat are put on skewers and grilled. In Lebanon and
Syria, a dish called kibbeh is made from a paste of ground lamb, bulgur
wheat, onions, and seasonings. And in Turkey, little meatballs called
kofte are made from ground lamb mixed with onion and seasonings. For
Muslim and Jewish populations, lamb sausage is an alternative to pork
sausage.

Shawarma in pita. © J. Susan Cole Stone.

44 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Fish
Fish is one of the hallmark foods of Mediterranean cuisine, especially in
Greece, Spain, Turkey, and Italy. Mediterranean people eat all kinds of fish:
bonito, blue fish, turbot, mackerel, monkfish, and swordfish. These fish are
broiled, grilled, baked, stewed, and used in soups. The most popular fish are
tuna and cod. Tuna fishing goes back to ancient times and the fish is com-
monly referred to as “the pig of the sea” because one can eat every part of it,
although the best cuts are from the underbelly. Tuna fishing was a mainstay
of Mediterranean economies for centuries. Barrels of salted tuna were ex-
ported and in the twentieth century; tuna was preserved in oil and canned
for export. Recently, tuna has become scarce and the Mediterranean Sea is
running out of tuna because of the shift from traditional methods to long-
line fishing and factory ships, both of which can harvest much more and
usually do so for export. Salted fish like herring, sardines, anchovies, and
cod were traditionally consumed by the poor, frequently in amounts so
small that the fish acted more like a seasoning for a dish, rather than consti-
tuting the main course. Salted cod, known as bacallà in Spanish or baccalà in
Italian, is known for its dense texture and more intense flavor. Once eaten
by the poor as cod balls or chopped up in stews, salted cod is now something
of a rarity and is usually reserved for special occasions like holidays.

Seafood
Seafood of all types is popular near the shores of the sea: oysters, clams,
lobsters, prawns, mussels, squid, and octopus. Seafood can be steamed and
served plain or with seasonings. Alternately, it can be made into a more
exotic food such as midye dolmasi, Turkish stuffed mussels made with rice,
raisins, pine nuts, and seasonings. Seafood is used in making Spanish pa-
ella and also goes into making any number of fish stews and soups served
throughout the region. Snails, known as cargols or caracoles in Spain, escar-
got in southern France, or lumache in Italy, need to be cleaned or purged
(usually by being fed herbs or grain) before being cooked, but they are
used in stews and soups. In Morocco a seasoned snail soup called babouch
is sold as street food.

Poultry
Poultry, especially chicken, is popular throughout the Mediterranean.
Like lamb, it is eaten grilled, in kebabs or in shawarma. It is also stewed
in Moroccan tajines. Turkey, duck, pigeon, and quail are also consumed
in the region.
Major Foods and Ingredients 45

A fisherman sorts fish off the coast of Spain. The European Union has imple-
mented fishing limits to keep Mediterranean waters alive, but fishermen complain
these policies are destroying their livelihoods. AP Photo/Jasper Juinen.

Pork
Pork is prepared and consumed by Christian populations in the region,
in the form of sausage, ham, bacon, and preserved meats. As with tuna,
every bit of the pig is used: livers are fried up and eaten; pig’s feet can be
boiled, stewed, or fried; and bits of meat from the pig’s head can go into
sausage. Italian ham, called prosciutto, is an international gourmet spe-
cialty, as is the Spanish sobrassada, a paté-like sausage that can be spread
on bread.

Camel
Camel is favored in North Africa, especially in Egypt, where special
markets sell the choicest parts of the animal. The flavor of camel is close
to that of beef. The meat is bright red and the fat is translucent. Camels
are usually slaughtered for meat between the ages of two and four; other-
wise the meat becomes too tough and therefore requires a longer cooking
time. A mixture of grated onion, salt, pepper, and cumin is rubbed into
the meat to tenderize it and give it flavor. Tougher cuts of meat are boiled,
46 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

then mixed with rice to make meatballs, or sometimes camel fat is added
to tomato juice for a flavorful drink.

DAIRY
Mediterranean consumers are fond of dairy products: Greek yogurt
is famous all over the world, as are Italian and French cheeses. Unlike
North America, where dairy culture consists mainly of cow’s milk prod-
ucts, Mediterranean dairy products tend to come from sheep and goats,
animals that were, and to some extent still are, fundamental to a more no-
madic lifestyle. Although shepherding is giving way to more industrialized
forms of food and clothing production, dairy products made from sheep
and goats still remind us of their special place in the rocky geography of
the Mediterranean region.

Milk
Cow, sheep, and goat milk is popular either as a beverage or used in
recipes. Milk puddings are known throughout Lebanon, Syria, and Tur-
key; the puddings are seasoned with flavors like orange-flower water and
topped with pistachios, raisins, or dates. Throughout the eastern Medi-
terranean, a clotted cream called qashta is thick enough to be cut with a
knife; it is used as a topping or filling for pastries and other deserts.

Cheese
Cheese is made from goat, sheep, or cow’s milk; and in parts of southern
Italy, water buffalo are raised to produce the best soft mozzarella cheese
melted on to pizza or used in various appetizers. Although all kinds of
cheeses are made, the hard, salty cheeses keep the longest and therefore
have been the most traditional cheeses from the region. Greek feta cheese
is now known around the world as an important ingredient in Mediter-
ranean cooking, as is mozzarella from Italy and to a lesser extent, halloumi
cheese from Cyprus, a sheep’s milk cheese eaten as fried slices for break-
fast, used in salads, or stuffed inside pasta.

Yogurt
Yogurt consists of fermented milk, which is sometimes sweetened. There
has been a long-simmering dispute among yogurt’s fans as to whether
Arabs and Turks invented the food, but all kinds of yogurt are consumed
Major Foods and Ingredients 47

throughout the Mediterranean region. Yogurt is made from cow’s milk

and goat milk. It can be eaten or used as a condiment plain, or it can
be blended with water or juices to make a drink. It is also seasoned with
spices for dips in a traditional meze; a popular Greek dip is tzatziki, yogurt
mixed with garlic and cucumber. In Greek, Turkish, Lebanese, and Syrian
cuisine, yogurt is added to meat or vegetable dishes, or it is combined with
honey and fruit for a dessert. In Turkey yogurt is made into a savory soup
called yayla corbasi. In supermarkets across the region, sweetened flavored
yogurt is now sold as a breakfast or snack food.

Yogurt Soup
6 cups broth, chicken or vegetable
1/2 cup uncooked rice
2 cups plain yogurt
1 egg
2 tablespoons flour
Salt

Bring broth to a boil in a large soup pot. Add rice and reduce heat. Simmer
for 20–30 minutes until rice is done. While rice is cooking, make a sauce by
mixing together yogurt, eggs, and flour in a saucepan on low heat. Cook until
the mixture starts to bubble. Remove from heat and add to cooked rice soup.
Stir constantly for another few minutes until blended through. Add salt to
taste and serve. Drizzle soup with olive oil or melted butter, chopped parsley
or mint.

DRINKS
Wine
Wine or fermented grape juice was consumed by ancient Greeks, who
considered beer or milk drinking to be signs of barbarism. Wine was
adopted by Christians and thought to be essential for mass, given that
the consecration of red wine transformed it into the blood of Christ
during the rite of Holy Communion. Thus wine consumption took
root wherever Christianity was popular in the Mediterranean region,
as its use was endorsed by the Church. Wine was also one of the most
important items for trade in the sea. The environment of the Medi-
terranean region, specifically the hot dry summer climate, means that
the kinds of wines that are produced are very heavy; thus some parts of
the Mediterranean (Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Israel) were not known
48 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

for producing very good wine, whereas other regions were thought to
make good wine (Spain, France, Italy, Lebanon). Technology allowing
for greater control over the fermentation process has evened out the
results somewhat, and now wines from all over the Mediterranean are
considered quite good. Although alcohol is forbidden for Muslims, wine
is made in countries with significant Muslim populations and exported;
wine and other alcoholic beverages are sometimes consumed in private,
for example, in homes or in social clubs or nightclubs. In countries with
large Muslim populations, alcohol consumption is a political issue, espe-
cially when governments are urged to take stricter measures against the
production and sale of alcoholic beverages like wine. And in countries
with large Christian and Jewish populations, alcohol consumption is
also a problem and threatens to become a political issue. Although these
regions have held a liberal attitude toward alcohol consumption, the

Grapes throughout the Mediterranean

are tended and harvested by hand. Here,
a woman picks grapes in southwestern
France. AP Photo/Bob Edme.
Major Foods and Ingredients 49

recent rise in teenage drinking and alcohol-related driving deaths has

spurred considerable debate over whether governments need to more
strictly control alcohol consumption.

Water and Mineral Water

Before the craze for bottled water went global, populations in the west-
ern Mediterranean had been drinking special mineral waters in bottles
since the late nineteenth century in order to cure all kinds of ailments, aid
digestion, or, in some locales, as a replacement for an unsanitary public
water source. There was a dramatic increase in bottled water consump-
tion after World War II in the region, as incomes steadily rose, and with
more expendable income, consumers chose bottled water over tap water.
Today, bottled water is available in natural or in a slightly carbonated
form and throughout the Mediterranean; it is offered for sale in cafés, bars,
and restaurants. In restaurants, patrons are unlikely to get a glass of tap
water served with the meal; instead they must order a bottle of plain or
carbonated mineral water.

Coffee
Coffee is a favorite beverage throughout the region and is served in a
variety of ways, from the strong cups of espresso in Italy to the weaker,
but very thick, Turkish coffee that is served with the coffee grounds still
in the beverage. In bars and cafés where coffee is served strong, it is usu-
ally served in a small cup or glass, accompanied by a glass of water. In
addition to being a morning beverage, coffee is consumed after a meal
and is thought to aid digestion. It is also a social drink and has been
for centuries, as evidenced by the proliferation of cafés and coffee bars
throughout the region. In Syria and Lebanon, coffee is served with sea-
sonings such as cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, or rose water. Whether
weak or strong, coffee is sweetened with sugar but is seldom served with
milk or cream.

Tea
Tea is brewed English-style in some cafés and at home, but it is more com-
monly consumed as a kind of infusion, meaning tea leaves are combined
with other ingredients—herbs such as mint or chamomile, or spices like
cardamom or cloves. In the eastern Mediterranean, mint tea is very pop-
ular and in Turkey, tea is more popular than coffee and constitutes the
nation’s “pick-me-up” beverage.
50 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Soft Drinks
Popular soft drinks include lemonade, drinks made with fruit syrups,
yogurt drinks, and fruit juices. Soft drinks are available at every café and
bar, and some are also available in bottled form at markets and supermar-
kets. Carbonated beverages like Coca-Cola have been in the region since
the American Coca-Cola company set up bottling operations after World
War II, but only after popular resistance. Because Coca-Cola and other
American beverages spark economic and nationalist protest, there have
been sporadic attempts by various Mediterranean nations to compete with
Coke. Most recently, Muslims in France launched Mecca Cola, Turkish
people can drink Cola Turka, and inhabitants of the French island of
Corsica drink Corsica Cola. Although these beverages are popular on a
regional or local level, they have yet to threaten Coca-Cola’s dominance
in the international carbonated beverage market.

SEASONINGS
The dominant seasonings in Mediterranean cooking are salt, herbs,
and spices. Although many herbs and spices are used in the preparation
of food—too many to count—Mediterranean dishes are not considered
spicy, at least not in the sense that they are spicy-hot. Rather, herbs and
spices are considered essential for making the flavor of a dish more com-
plex or intense. The use of spices, many of which originated in Asia, dates
back centuries, given the Mediterranean’s history as a center for trade.
Meanwhile, many of the herbs used in cooking are native to the area and
thus a great premium is placed on fresh herbs. And last, perhaps an un-
usual and ancient characteristic of Mediterranean seasonings is the use of
other foods like fish or fish products to enhance the flavor of a dish.

Salt
Commonly referred to as the inner sea, the Mediterranean is a nearly
enclosed body of water. Because little fresh water enters the water, the
sea is very salty; the dry climate contributes to this situation by creat-
ing a constant state of evaporation and therefore high concentrations of
salt in the water. Not surprisingly, Mediterraneans have collected salt by
drying out sea water and “harvesting” salt. Salt collection goes back to
ancient times and because salt was so important, not just as a seasoning
but for preserving all kinds of food, it was frequently taxed and controlled
by authorities. Because so much Mediterranean food is preserved in salt,
Major Foods and Ingredients 51

cooks are careful to wash the excess salt off most foods before cooking or
using them. There is an unusual method of cooking meat, fish, and veg-
etables that involves encasing food entirely in salt and then baking it. A
hard crust forms around the food, keeping the food juicy but not making
it too salty. Despite the industrial production of salt, salt is still collected
out of evaporated sea water and “sea salt” is favored by many for its pure
taste and for its magnesium content. French sea salt, especially fleur de sel
(flower of salt), is prized by gourmets around the world because of its taste
and because it is harvested entirely by hand and therefore scarce.

Garlic
Garlic is a small white bulb that grows underground and can be found
all over the Mediterranean region. It is added to dips, sauces, meat dishes,
fish, vegetables, couscous, rice dishes, and pasta. It can also be roasted
and eaten as a kind of spread, or consumed raw in salads. In parts of the
western Mediterranean, garlic and olive oil are blended to make a simple
multipurpose sauce. In Catalonia, this sauce is known as allioli, or Catalan
catsup, and in southern France, it is called aioli. In northern Italy, a peas-
ant dish called bagna cauda features a garlic, oil, and anchovy “fondue” for
raw or cooked vegetables.

Cinnamon
Cinnamon is an ancient spice, imported to the Mediterranean from
Sri Lanka and India, via Egypt. Its use is described in the Bible for scent-
ing clothes and bedclothes. For centuries, cinnamon was used as a spice
and as a medicine. Even today, scientific studies claim cinnamon has an-
tioxidant properties and may help with the common cold. In cooking,
the spice is used in ground form or the cinnamon stick, or bark, is added
whole to the dish and then taken away before serving. Cinnamon is used
to flavor sweet dishes and coffee, but it is also used to flavor meat, tomato
sauce, and fish dishes.

Saffron
Saffron is a highly prized and expensive spice that has a light flavor
and gives dishes a vibrant yellow or reddish-yellow appearance (Spanish
paella, for example, has saffron in it). Saffron consists of the dried stamens
of the Saffron Crocus; about 150 crocus flowers yield 1 gram (less than
one ounce) of dried saffron threads. The crocus originated in Asia and
52 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

was first cultivated in Greece. Today the Saffron Crocus is cultivated in

Catalonia, Spain and Tuscany, Italy, although the majority of the world’s
saffron is imported from Yemen. Saffron is an expensive spice because the
flowers must be hand-picked—a very labor-intensive process. The spice is
so prized that there is a thriving market of counterfeit saffron made from
crocuses and other substances.

Oregano
Oregano is an herb that is native to the Mediterranean region; it re-
quires little care and thrives in rocky soil. Used fresh or dry, oregano is
found in Greek and Italian cooking. Its slightly bitter taste goes well with
pickled or preserved foods, as well as in hot and spicy dishes. Oregano is
perhaps best known for its use in Italian tomato sauce, Greek salads, and
pizza, although it is also used in many vegetable dishes and as a seasoning
for grilled meat.

Spice and Herb Blends

Personal mixes of herbs and/or spices are common in the eastern Medi-
terranean region and in North Africa. Individuals or families make their
own blend and store them at home to add to dishes. Spice and herb blends
are also commercially prepared and available for purchase in stores and
markets. Spice blends are especially popular in North African countries,
where individuals and families take pride in their own particular blend of
spices to season all kinds of dishes. An increasing number of consumers,
however, buy their spice blends from commercial vendors. Perhaps the
most famous herb blend from the Mediterranean region is the southern
French Herbes de Provence, a blend of dried basil, bay leaf, thyme, and
sometimes lavender; it has been manufactured and exported since the
1970s for interested cooks around the world. Spice and herb blends can
be added directly to the dish, or they can be used in a form that the French
call the bouquet garni, a mix of herbs that is tied up in a porous cloth,
added to the dish, then removed before serving.

Capers
Capers are the flower buds of the Capparis spinosa shrub, a small flower-
ing bush that is native to the Mediterranean region. The plant grows best
in rocky soil near the sea, and the immature flower buds are harvested
by hand, dried, and packed in salt or cured in vinegar or brine. Capers
Major Foods and Ingredients 53

are cultivated and exported from France, Spain, Italy, Algeria, Greece,
and Cyprus. The most sought-after capers are grown on the small Italian
island of Pantelleria because they are large and have an intense flavor.
Capers have a pungent, peppery taste and they are added to a variety of
dishes in Spanish, Italian, Greek, and French cuisine.

Fish Products
The use of small fish and fish products goes back to the ancient food
known as garum, or fish sauce, produced in ancient Greece and Rome.
The innards of fish such as anchovies, mackerel, or tuna were crushed and
cured in brine and left to liquefy. The actual taste of garum was supposedly
light, but the production process created such a foul smell that it was care-
fully regulated by authorities so as not to offend people. The modern ver-
sion of garum is perhaps the anchovy, a small fish that is usually preserved
in oil or brine. When used in recipes, anchovies are sometimes ground up,
or the liquid they produce is used to dress pasta or salads. And in southern
France, a delicacy known as pissala is a paste made from tiny fish (now
illegal to harvest, so anchovies or other fish must be substituted), was
layered with salt and left to ferment. The paste gave the French version
of pizza, pissaladière, a characteristic fishy taste. Throughout the Mediter-
ranean, cooks season their food with fish roe (eggs). The roe of tuna or
gray mullet are removed, salted, pressed, and dried. It is then coated in
wax to preserve it and sold in bricks, or the brick is grated and bottled.
The roe is called bottarga in Italian, boutarekh in Egyptian Arabic, putargo
in Turkish, poutargue in French, and avgotáracho in Greek. Bottarga can
be eaten by itself as an appetizer, but it is frequently used in many dishes
as a salty seasoning.
 3
Cooking

Many cookbooks about Mediterranean cuisine emphasize how relaxed

and casual the process of cooking food is. Cookbooks feature glossy pho-
tographs of sunny beaches and olive groves, and the introductory text
usually highlights the simplicity and freshness of ingredients and dishes.
Although these books try to distinguish what is unique or interesting
about Mediterranean cuisine, readers might get the impression that peo-
ple in the Mediterranean go out to their gardens, pick a few ingredients,
and throw them in a pot to create a delicious meal. This may be the
case on occasion, but it is perhaps more accurate to think of Mediter-
ranean cooking as a complex process of measuring ingredients in exact
proportion to achieve a particular kind of taste. Although it is easy to
throw together a salad or a sandwich, it is much more time-consuming
and complicated to put together a Moroccan tajine or a French bouil-
labaisse. Cooking across the Mediterranean involves a lot of preparation
in the form of shopping for or storing certain foods to be used later, and
the actual preparation of the dish, or multiple dishes, can be complex
indeed.
Cooking is not only a potentially complicated task, it is a necessary
and ongoing process. People throughout the region are known for their
hospitality, and cooking is perhaps the most common way to express it.
Families, including extended family, might dine together three times a
day; guests and neighbors might come over for dinner; special meals mark
significant life events and holidays. It is not surprising, then, that people
56 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

spend a great deal of time thinking about, and preparing, food for family
and friends.
For many people, cooking is more than a skill to learn in order to stay
alive or eat well. It can be a means of expressing love for one’s family or a
way to demonstrate one’s fitness for marriage and a family. And for people
who cook professionally, whether in hotels, restaurants, or street market
stalls, cooking is a way to earn a living. Cooking is also a way that people
relate to other people in the Mediterranean. People throughout the region
not only define themselves and their relationships through cooking, but
they see cooking as an important and distinctive feature of their societies.
People in the Mediterranean are quick to offer a snack or home-cooked
meal to friends or even strangers. The process of cooking matters; indi-
viduals may buy something like pizza or a sandwich for a quick snack, but
they are not content to pop a frozen meal in the microwave or to throw
together a sandwich for a meal, at least not on a regular basis. Cooking,
like hospitality, not only defines the Mediterranean diet, but who people
in the Mediterranean are and how they relate to each other.
Of course, social and economic influences continually reshape food
habits, and some people in the Mediterranean are changing their perspec-
tives on cooking. Among the younger generations (university students,
young families), microwave ovens and frozen foods are considered use-
ful and convenient. Because of changing family structures in the Medi-
terranean (larger multigenerational families have given way to smaller
nuclear families), there are fewer older family members nearby who pass
down information about how to cook or who share favorite recipes from
the past with their children and grandchildren. New work patterns and
expectations make it difficult for factory workers and office workers alike
to come home for a multicourse lunch. Shifting relations between men
and women have recast expectations of who will do the cooking and how
much cooking will go on in the household. And a growing number of
chefs are trying to breathe new life into old favorite dishes by making
them lighter and more healthful. These changes have occurred at an un-
even pace throughout the region, and it is difficult to say whether these
changes have significantly affected the role and significance of cooking in
everyday life. What does seem clear is that the role of cooking in people’s
lives is currently being redefined.
This chapter first looks at who does the cooking in the household, res-
taurant, or market stall. Both men and women share the task, although it
generally falls within women’s responsibilities to do most of the cooking
at home. Men do cook, either in public or private, but defining cooking as
a male task depends on the type of dish being prepared, as well as the place
Cooking 57

it is prepared; it also depends on the dominant attitudes toward cooking as

a form of housework. Next, this chapter explains the rather unique places
and spaces for cooking in the Mediterranean. Kitchens can be anywhere:
inside an apartment building or house, outside in a courtyard or on the
street, and even in the middle of the desert! Although the Mediterranean
kitchen is sometimes small and sparsely appointed, it is a place of constant
activity, given the workload Mediterranean cooks and chefs must bear if
they are always cooking for friends, family, and guests. Learning to cook in
such a kitchen, then, means learning to organize space and time. Learning
to cook also means understanding how to work with a few basic ingredi-
ents to produce many different types of dishes. Because so many Mediter-
ranean dishes are based on the principle of “cooking with little,” cooking
involves a lot of thinking about the proper mixture of ingredients and a
lot of preparation to store, preserve, and make the most of the ingredients
on hand. Last, this chapter charts the recent social, cultural, and eco-
nomic changes that have shaped contemporary food habits in the region.
The most noticeable, and most controversial, change in food habits is a
greater reliance on food that is already prepared (frozen foods, fast food,
convenience foods). Some consumers worry that these recent changes are
unhealthy. They also worry that young and future generations will not
regard cooking with the same respect and understanding as have older
Mediterranean cooks.
It is too early to measure the full impact of recent changes in Mediter-
ranean food habits, but it seems clear that cooking is still an important
activity. Whether it is done at home, on the street, or in the middle of
the desert, cooking powerfully shapes attitudes toward food and defines
relations among people across the region. Although it is sometimes dif-
ficult or time-consuming work, cooking is also entertaining, fulfilling, and
meaningful.

WHO COOKS?
Determining who does the cooking in various parts of the Mediterra-
nean depends on what kind of meal is being prepared, as well as where it is
being served. In other words, there is no general rule regarding who cooks
what, given the diversity of cultural practices and traditions throughout
the region. In Western countries, feminist scholars have found that there
is a “culinary hierarchy” that assigns more visible status and social value
to public and professional cooking, usually, but not exclusively, performed
by men. Private cooking in the home merits less status and frequently
falls under the category of “housework,” to be performed, usually but not
58 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

exclusively, by women.1 This culinary hierarchy is slowly giving way to a

more equitable division of labor within the kitchen, but in western Medi-
terranean countries, it still holds true that many four-star chefs are men
and in many households, women do more housework, including cooking,
than do men. The culinary hierarchy is not a hard-and-fast rule, then, but
its presence indicates that different cultural values are assigned to differ-
ent types of cooking.
Western assumptions about the gendered nature of cooking as an aspect
of housework do not hold up to the diverse cultural practices through-
out the Mediterranean, particularly in the eastern and southern regions.
As chapter 5, “Eating Out,” describes, much of the street food (snacks
and meals that are prepared, sold, and consumed on the streets, popular
in the North African and Middle Eastern regions of the Mediterranean)
consumed in the Mediterranean is prepared and sold by men. One might
assume, then, that for some reason, women are discouraged from cooking
food that will be sold in the public sphere. And one might assume that the
top professional chefs in hotels and restaurants in these regions are men.
Yet in Morocco, women are esteemed as the best chefs in restaurants, so
much so that locals will check to see if a woman is cooking in the kitchen
before eating at a restaurant!
It is difficult to generalize about the gendered nature of cooking, as it
seems to be divided between men and women depending on the type of
food being prepared and where the food is being served. Women through-
out the Mediterranean tend to do the cooking in the private sphere of
the home, especially on holidays and special occasions that call for elabo-
rate preparations and special ingredients. It is difficult to say that this
type of work is somehow not valued because a woman performs the task;
cooking for one’s family or guests is regarded both as a significant obli-
gation and achievement. Women consider cooking to be an important
duty, but it is more than a duty or obligation; cooking can be considered
an art and it is a point of pride to be able to prepare a tasty dish for ex-
tended family or for company. Women also understand the importance of
more specialized tasks such as bread-making. Since ancient times, women
have been involved in milling flour and preparing and cooking bread, a
time-consuming and sometimes difficult task. A certain amount of so-
cial status was assigned to this task, however, given that bread was the
chief staple of the Mediterranean diet. And, for Christians and Muslims,
bread contains God’s blessings and is of symbolic and cultural signifi-
cance as well. Today, commercial bakeries and bread-making factories
have largely replaced women’s work in this area; anthropologists studying
the industrialization of bread-making in the Mediterranean have noted
Cooking 59

that women experienced a loss of status when their jobs were taken over
by machines and factory workers. Anthropologists believe that the duty
of bread-making raised women’s status in society. When these tasks were
taken away from them, women felt a loss and experienced nostalgia;
cooking at home was not the same anymore.2 Thus good cooking is more
than just following recipes; it is a socially valued process to shop, prepare,
and present meals for families that do not eat prepared foods or eat out
much. This workload is compounded in some cases by having to work
within a limited budget or within the confines of a small kitchen with
few appliances.
In the United States and other parts of the world, prepared food is rela-
tively inexpensive, convenient, and available. Consumers may prefer to
buy frozen meals or fast food meals rather than cook for themselves, par-
ticularly if they regard cooking as a chore. Similarly, working families and
single people might opt out of cooking at home because of the time and
preparation needed to prepare attractive meals. Mediterranean consum-
ers view cooking from a slightly different perspective; they do not regard
it as a chore or an inconvenience but as something that fills an impor-
tant social and nutritional need. For example, Greek university students
studying in the United Kingdom prefer to cook in their dormitories rather
than eat sandwiches or fast food. They see cooking as an important way
to nourish themselves, provide better tasting food, and continue family
traditions they experienced at home in Greece. And in some North Af-
rican countries, people hesitate to dine out in restaurants, preferring a
home-cooked meal in someone’s house to a fancy meal out. Cooking has
a different status, then, as an activity that is both necessary and desired.
Women who cook at home and men who cook outside the home have an
important obligation to prepare satisfying, healthy, and tasty dishes.

COOKING IN THE KITCHEN AND OUTDOORS

The warmth of the Mediterranean climate necessitated a house struc-
ture that was more open, and most houses in rural and urban areas were
built around a central outdoor courtyard. Since ancient times, food was
usually prepared in the courtyard, whether women roasted or grilled foods
there or finished important tasks like pickling and preserving. In more
populous areas, houses had indoor kitchens, but cooking was still done
over an open hearth. In ancient Egypt, the kitchen was well ventilated,
with a covered clay oven for baking; inside the oven were shelves for plac-
ing containers at different levels. In ancient Rome, meals were cooked in
a cauldron or pot set over a fire, or they were cooked in vessels set on a
60 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

gridiron. Because of the open fire, indoor kitchen areas were well venti-
lated, either through a hole in the ceiling or a vent in the wall. In more
densely populated areas, houses lacked cooking facilities and ancient Ro-
mans would go to outdoor communal kitchens to prepare their meals.
Today, in rural regions of the Mediterranean (especially in North Af-
rica), some houses do not have an “official” kitchen. Instead, people cook
in an inner courtyard of the house, either over an open fire (for roasting
or grilling) or in a barrel-shaped oven (known as a tandir, tandoor, or
tanuur), well suited for baking bread. In Turkey, flat loaves of dough are
stuck to the wall of the tandoor; they then drop off when they are crusty
and baked through. In urban and suburban regions of the Mediterranean,
the inner courtyard may exist in a house, but most of the cooking is now
done in a kitchen. Porous boundaries still remain between the indoors
and the outdoors, however. For example, where people still tend small
gardens for herbs and vegetables, the indoor kitchen is usually connected
to the outdoor garden. Another type of kitchen found in Sardinia is called
a cucina rustica, which is not a kitchen per se but an area in the back of the
house, partially covered, which opens to an outdoor courtyard. The cucina
rustica has a fireplace and a large table; this area used to be a space for pre-
paring food. Cooks would do everything from butchering a pig to making
pasta in this spacious area. Today, many Sardinians have converted these
spaces into large dining rooms, work areas, or family rooms by enclosing
the outdoor portion, remodeling and refurbishing the more rustic aspects
of the space.3
The average Mediterranean kitchen seems small and sparsely appointed,
at least compared with the average American kitchen. In Catalonia, es-
sential items are few: a cassola or clay casserole, a paella pan, a mortar and
pestle. In North Africa and throughout the eastern Mediterranean, cooks
make do with a few good knives, pans, steamers, a pressure cooker or ta-
jine, mixing bowls, and serving platters. In North Africa, many women
cook in small kitchens where little space is wasted. The kitchen may lead
to an outdoor courtyard and usually there is one table or counter for prep
work, a charcoal brazier, a gas or electric stove, a refrigerator and a freezer.
In eastern Mediterranean countries such as Turkey, most food is cooked
over an open fire (grilling and roasting) or on the stove top; there is little
need for the oven, except to make baked desserts. Most bread is purchased
in stores or in bakeries.
There are few high-tech appliances like blenders, microwaves, and mix-
masters in the average Mediterranean kitchen. This is more a matter of
preference than necessity. Although many high-tech tools and appliances
are available in stores and the standard of living in many parts of the
Cooking 61

Mediterranean is high enough for consumers to afford them, most cooks

prefer to grind food with a mortar and pestle, not a food processor, or they
will have a microwave oven but use it less often than would an Ameri-
can cook. Mediterranean cooks have always been able to turn out highly
sophisticated meals using little equipment. Growing up in Egypt during
World War II with her wealthy Egyptian grandmother, food memoirist
Collette Rosant remembered the sparse yet efficient kitchen that the ser-
vant used. Even though the kitchen was stocked with all the latest tech-
nology (a refrigerator, a gas oven), the cook used very little to assemble
rich, extravagant meals:

I spent a lot of time with Ahmet in the kitchen despite my grandmother’s admo-
nition that this was not the place for une jeune fille de bonne famille. The kitchen
was very large, with two windows overlooking the back garden. There was a wide,
deep stone sink with a copper faucet, and a large counter with bowls of limes and
lemons and jars of spices. On the floor near the window were “primus” kerosene
burners on which most of the cooking was done. A large refrigerator dominated
the corner of the kitchen, and on the opposite corner was a large gas oven for
baking. Near the counter were a couple of high stools where I would often sit
watching Ahmet prepare lunch or dinner, or just put up pickles for the family.4

Cookbook author Fiona Dunlop traveled the countries of North Africa

to collect recipes and cooking tips. She noted in many cases that most of
the women (and a few of the men) she met worked in extremely small
quarters with only a few appliances and utensils. Even the wealthier fami-
lies she met had smallish kitchens in their apartments or houses, especially
in urban areas where space comes at a premium. A small kitchen can be
difficult when a cook is trying to make a large meal for company; access
to an outdoor cooking space like a courtyard makes the process flow more
smoothly. A small kitchen can also be a problem for Jewish cooks trying
to follow kosher dietary rules, which call for separating meat and dairy in
the preparation of meals. In practical terms, this translates into keeping
different cooking utensils and plates in limited space and making sure
the sink is emptied out between the washing of dishes and utensils. Small
kosher kitchens require the cook’s attention and organizational skills so
that the family does not eat something forbidden or so that the meal is not
rendered unsuitable for consumption by carelessness.
There are, of course, elaborate kitchens in the homes of the wealthy or
in luxury restaurants and hotels. The most elaborate kitchens in history
were located in the eastern Mediterranean during the time of the Otto-
man Empire. Turkish cuisine in the palaces of the Sultans became more
elaborate and ritualized. Whereas the early sultans ate simply and often
62 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

in the company of ministers of state, it became customary for the sultan

to eat more elaborate dishes, in isolation, after the conquest of Istanbul
in 1453, an event that marked the transformation of the Ottomans into
a world power. The staff of the palace kitchen ballooned, from a modest
200 persons at the end of the sixteenth century to more than 1,370 per-
sons by the mid-seventeenth century. Within this enormous staff, an
elaborate hierarchy of responsibility developed. Supervisors oversaw the
creation of all sorts of dishes, and all work was broken down according to
the type of food prepared, as well as the person who was going to eat it.
The sultan and his immediate family had their own cooking staff of 12
who worked in a separate kitchen from the rest of the staff, who fed be-
tween 5,000 and 10,000 people in the palace every day. Not surprisingly,
the grocery lists were huge: in 1661, one list showed that 36,000 bush-
els of rice, 3,000 pounds of noodles, 500,000 bushels of chickpeas, and
12,000 pounds of salt were used in the palace. In 1723, the annual meat
supply for the palace numbered 30,000 head of beef, 60,000 of mutton,
20,000 of veal, 200,000 of fowl, and 100,000 pigeons.5 The preparation
of each type of food or dish (soups, pilafs, vegetables, fish, bread, pastries,
candies, jams, syrups, drinks) was treated as a separate and meaningful
art. As one Turkish food expert noted, “so thoroughgoing was the spe-
cialization practiced in the palace kitchens that by the mid-eighteenth
century the preparation of each of six varieties of halvah (a sweet made
from sesame paste) had been entrusted to a separate master chef, assisted
by a hundred apprentices.”6
Not every kitchen was as elaborate as those of the Ottoman sultans.
Most peasants made do with a cauldron on an open hearth, and in some
regions, kitchen facilities were not available. In parts of rural Tunisia, a
Tunisian tajine (a baked stew; see chapter 4) is still made outside. The
cook puts an earthenware dish filled with the tajine over lighted olive
wood. The pan is then covered with a flat plank and hot coals are piled
on top. The nomadic Tuaregs of Libya and southern Algeria used to bake
tgilla, or “ash bread” in a shallow hole in the sand. Once a staple of the
Tuareg, tgilla is now made mostly on long trips or for special occasions.
Whether the kitchen is in the desert, on a hill by the sea, or in a crowded
city, it is usually considered the most important place in the home. Peo-
ple across the Mediterranean region love a home-cooked meal; in many
places, restaurants are reserved for tourists because one can always make
something tastier at home. Emigrants, students, and travelers who leave
the region will pine away for home-cooked meals or the foods they can
buy only in their native country. One study of Greek university students
studying in the United Kingdom found that they frequently not only took
Cooking 63

ingredients (olive oil, feta cheese) with them back to school, but they took
entire cooked meals in their checked baggage or on board planes return-
ing to the United Kingdom! One student even brought back 16 kilograms
(about 35 pounds) of meat to London:
I go to Greece almost every month because I want to see my boyfriend. Every
time I carry back food. Last time I brought 16 kg of meat. Not only mine; my
friend asked me to bring some for her too. I shape the meat in small portions
in cellophane, freeze it and bring it over frozen. I also brought cheeses . . . I put
everything in the suitcase among my things.7

Greek students were generally reluctant to try meats or cheeses not pre-
pared in Greece, so attached were they to the flavors of home. Although
Mediterranean kitchens may look small and simple to the unknowing eye,
they are nonetheless significant places to both cooks and eaters. First and
foremost, kitchens are places where one learns and then practices particu-
lar methods of meal preparation, but they are also places where women
and some men express their concern for the health and well-being of their
family and friends.

LEARNING TO COOK
Recipes and cooking methods are usually transmitted orally. There is
not the same mass market for glossy cookbooks and “how-to” books in
the Mediterranean as there is in the United States, although there has
been a great deal of international interest in the Mediterranean diet (see
chapter 7) and the dishes that make up Mediterranean cuisine. One Tu-
nisian woman, now considered a good cook, described how she learned at
an early age about cooking because the ability to cook was tied closely to
the prospect of finding a good husband:
I first learned to cook from my mother . . . and since then I’ve collected ideas
chatting with women friends—we share tips and recipes. I was 15 when my
mother first said, “I’ll die one day soon so you’ve go to learn cooking—NOW!”
She’d stand over me and hit me if I got it wrong, saying “You won’t find a hus-
band like that!” . . . I’m now trying to convince my 15-year-old daughter to
learn—though she’s doing her best to avoid it!8

Young women and an increasing number of young men usually train

under their mothers’ watchful eye. A young cook-in-training might start
by making a simple soup or stew and then progress to making part, then
all, of an entire meal. A generation or two in the past, women married
early (in North Africa, sometimes as young as 14 or 15 years) and many
64 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

now recall having to learn how to cook on their own, without a lot of
input or supervision from their mothers. Across the region, women are
marrying at later ages and many go to university, attend graduate school,
or work before marrying. Learning to cook, however, is still important so
that young women and men can learn to feed themselves.
Some experienced cooks in the Mediterranean write off the ability to
cook by explaining that the process of cooking is simple or straightfor-
ward. One Moroccan woman summed up her approach to cooking by stat-
ing that “[t]here’s no secret, you just have to get on with it! I never throw
anything away and keep all the leftovers to make a gratin or pie using
an easy pastry. You just need to know the basics.”9 Knowing the basics,
however, means really understanding how to use everything available, as
well as knowing that one must waste nothing. For centuries, the culture
of poverty throughout the Mediterranean has dictated culinary style and
form. Mediterranean culinary style relies on the need to improvise and
the ability to make something out of very little. Mediterranean cuisine
is characterized by the simplicity of ingredients and the ingenuity of the
chefs who make the dishes. In Italy, for example, pasta is garnished with
little more than olive oil, garlic, and hot pepper or a sauce of olive oil, an-
chovies, and leftover breadcrumbs. In both cases, a few ingredients bring
sharp and interesting flavors to the pasta. Or in Turkey and other parts
of the eastern Mediterranean, vegetables are stuffed with a mixture of
ground meat, rice, and seasonings to make a dish called dolma. The stuff-
ing is a clever way to stretch the supply of meat to feed more for less.

Dolma or Stuffed Zucchini

6 medium or large zucchini
1/2 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 cup white rice, cooked
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Cut zucchini in half and scoop out the inside, leaving at
least a half-inch thick shell. In a large bowl combined meat, onion, garlic, rice,
and tomato paste, oil, and salt. Add 1/3 cup water and mix well. Let mixture sit
Cooking 65

for a few minutes to allow the flavors to blend. Stuff the zucchini with the meat
mixture and place in a 13 × 9 × 2 pan or similar baking pan. Sprinkle chopped
tomatoes on top of the meat mixture and drizzle with olive oil. Add a cup-and-a-
half of water to the baking pan and cover tightly with foil or, if using a casserole
dish, the fitted lid. Cook in the oven for 35–45 minutes, checking the water level
to make sure there is enough to steam the zucchini. Remove from oven and let
rest for 10–15 minutes. Serve with plain yogurt.
“There is no better sauce than hunger” a Sicilian proverb states, but
this does not mean that poor people will eat whatever is in front of them,
although this certainly may be the case in many circumstances.10 Rather,
it means that poor people, whether peasants or city dwellers, will use only
a few ingredients to create everyday dishes, but those ingredients matter.
Knowing how to cook, then, means knowing what a pinch of salt or the
addition of a certain herb will bring to a dish. It also means knowing how
to chop or dice vegetables in a certain way to bring out their full flavor.
Learning to cook in this way entails understanding the exact and proper
balance among only a few ingredients. “Cooking with little” has been a
peasant method for preparing food that has been around for centuries,
although it is reinforced now and again according to contemporary cir-
cumstances. During World War II and in the postwar recovery period,
women in Italy, southern France, and in Greece had to make do with very
little. Even the most humble ingredients—cornmeal, legumes, vegetables,
innards, or sweetmeats—were scarce; and it was not unusual to see dishes
like meatballs made out of breadcrumbs or rice, or imitation green beans
made from spinach stalks. Today, rising poverty in countries like Egypt
necessitates the same skills that “cooking with little” has required over
the centuries. Under such conditions, cooking is a creative achievement
that is frequently overlooked or undervalued by historians of food and
cooking, who tend to focus on the more elaborate culinary achievements
of individuals or societies.
Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, the standard of living is higher than in
Egypt, and many consumers can afford to buy and cook whatever pleases
them, including a variety of more expensive cuts of meat, types of cheese,
and exotic produce. Still, old habits die hard and many traditional dishes
are still made and savored by the working and middle classes, as well as
the wealthy. Cooks and diners have rediscovered peasant cooking because
it tastes good, it represents more authentic regional cooking style, or it
is something unusual to try. There is also a growing interest in peasant
cooking because it is seen as a simpler form of cooking, relying as it does
on only a few ingredients and not a lot complicated cooking equipment.
Consumers living in a world saturated with goods and services might yearn
66 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

for the simple and sustainable life. The rise of the Slow Food movement
(founded in 1989), discussed later in this chapter, has brought new mean-
ing and life to cooking with little, now seen by some as a political choice
rather than an economic necessity.

THE WORK OF COOKING

Mediterranean cuisine has the reputation of being simple. Glossy cook-
books and articles in magazines tend to represent Mediterranean cuisine
as a collection of dishes that can be easily and quickly assembled out of
a few fresh ingredients. Readers of these books and articles might assume
that all Mediterranean dishes are easy to make. This assumption is some-
what incorrect, given that for some dishes and specialties, preparation
and cooking can be very time-intensive and complicated processes. Some
dishes take a long time to cook, like the Moroccan tajine. Other dishes in-
volve extensive preparation. For example, in Catalonia, Spain, a mixture
called picada is added to a dish at the very end to provide additional flavor.
To make a picada (the word means pounded), the cook uses and mortar
and pestle to grind together a mixture of garlic, parsley, nuts, toasted fried
bread, and various spices. Although this may not sound difficult, prepa-
ration of a picada adds additional steps to what might be an extensive
preparation list.
The French fish stew known as bouillabaisse looks simple enough: fish,
potatoes, and seasonings in a broth. Bouillabaisse is one of many fish stews
made in the Mediterranean; each region has a slightly different version.
In Greece, fishermen make a soup called kakavia, named after the pot
in which the soup is prepared, called a kakavi. The soup is made from
whatever fish cannot be sold on the market; the fish, along with olive
oil, lemon juice, onions, and potatoes, are cooked at a high heat until the
soup becomes a thick stew. In Sardinia, fishermen make a stew called,
zeminu out of fish, calamari, crab, clams, mussels, or whatever is on hand,
along with tomatoes, wine, herbs, olive oil, and sometimes hot pepper.
Zeminu is usually eaten with pane carasau, a thin toasted flatbread, which
is also known as Sardinian “music bread,” so named because it resembles
sheets of music. French bouillabaisse originated with fishermen throwing
their unusable fish and fish parts into a cauldron with sea water and stale
bread, boiling it all together to make a thick stew.11 Today, bouillabaisse
is a sophisticated concoction, made from select fish, potatoes, and saffron.
Making the “simple” stew involves a two-step process in which a rich fish
stock is made from a combination of fresh fish, and then the stock is used
to poach more fish, vegetables, and potatoes. Rare and expensive saffron,
Cooking 67

along with other seasonings, is added to the stock and each restaurant has
its own unique blend. French fishermen are more likely to throw together
a simple fish stew, boil it once, and then eat it. Bouillabaisse, on the other
hand, involves a sophisticated process of balancing delicate flavors. Its
preparation is both expensive and time-consuming. In the case of Medi-
terranean cooking, one must not equate simplicity with ease. Cooking
can be a lot of hard work.

Kakavia
2 medium onions, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
4 tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of fresh thyme
6–7 cups water
4 pounds of assorted fish (bass, cod, halibut, trout, pollack, whiting), sliced or cut
into chunks
1 pound of shrimp, peeled
French bread, sliced and toasted

In a large soup pot, sauté onions in oil until soft. Add tomatoes, celery, herbs, and
water. Bring to a boil and simmer one hour. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour
mixture through a sieve to strain. Return to soup pot and bring to a boil. Salt
and then rinse the fish, lower into soup and add water if needed to cover the fish.
Simmer five minutes then add shrimp. Taste and adjust seasoning. In soup plates,
put a thick slice of toasted bread and carefully ladle soup on to bread.

Mediterranean food culture values both hospitality and home cooking.

The burden, then, falls on the cook (usually the oldest woman in the
household) to work throughout much of the day. Mornings are time for
cooking and serving breakfast, which is less work in Italy, where most
Italians opt for a quick coffee and pastry on the way to work or school; but
more work in Syria and Lebanon, where families might enjoy a breakfast
consisting of several dishes, all made at home. In areas where families still
bake their own bread, mornings are a time for making the day’s or week’s
supply of bread. Making and baking bread dough can be labor-intensive,
especially if one has to work the dough, let it rest, then work it again
before ensuring the oven is at the right temperature for baking. These
68 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

tasks are frequently shared by the community in areas where bread is still
home-made. Throughout her travels in rural Turkey, one author observed
that in many places, flatbread is still made by hand:
[V]ery young girls join in the garrulous group of women who frequently gather
together for the task. Each takes a small piece of dough and rolls it out to paper
thinness, using a long, wooden pole. There may be as many as ten women work-
ing together- but usually only one in charge of the upturned dome of metal over
burning wood on which the bread is cooked. The rolled-out dough is deftly draped
over the wooden pole and passed over the chief cook, who puts it swiftly on to
the hot, greased surface, flipping it over as soon as it starts to bubble and brown.
Within a minute, the sheet of bread is cooked and transferred to a growing pile
in the corner.12

Making bread from scratch is becoming a thing of the past . . . but

not everywhere. In Morocco, for example, an estimated 80 percent of
households still bake their own bread. Women make the dough at home
then take it to the communal bake house. Waiting for the bread to bake
provides ample time to catch up on local news or gossip. Once the bread
comes out, each woman “stamps” the bread with her fingers while the
dough is still warm, marking off her family’s bread.13

An Egyptian woman with a tray of bread at a public oven in Giza. AP Photo/

Amr Nabil.
Cooking 69

Morning is also a time for shopping, especially if one wants to get the
freshest foods available at outdoor markets. Depending on the meal plan
for the rest of the day, shopping for the right ingredients could take up
much of the morning. If the cook prefers to go to the open market in-
stead of a supermarket or grocery store, shopping involves stopping at
multiple stalls and negotiating the best price for the highest quality foods.
In markets where live animals are sold, shoppers might be asked to select
a chicken or pigeon for slaughter. Shoppers might stop and chat with,
or sample the wares of, a particular vendor and if they run into family or
friends, they might have to stop for coffee or tea. For women (and some
men) who stay at home to take care of their children or grandchildren,
shopping in the open air market is a daily ritual. Working women and
men are more likely to opt for the greater convenience of grocery stores
and supermarkets.

Outdoor markets specialize in certain foods and are open

only at certain times of day. The Campo de’Fiori market
in Rome, Italy, has a variety of fresh produce and fresh
fish. AP Photo/Angelo Scipioni.
70 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Shoppers can find anything at an outdoor mar-

ket in Damascus, Syria, even pickled vegetables.
AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi.

If women are cooking for the family lunch, then late morning is the
time to start preparations for the meal. If the meal is simple—salad, a
main course of meat or fish with rice or couscous and vegetables, and
fruit for dessert—then there are vegetables to be washed and chopped,
meat to be marinated or seasoned, rice to be cooked perfectly, additional
vegetables to be cleaned, chopped and cooked, as well as a table to be set.
This may not sound like hard work, but it takes coordination and organi-
zation to ensure that the lunch is served quickly for family members who
may not have a lot of time to eat. In the early afternoon, the family cook
might be preoccupied with food to be preserved for later: meat to be salted,
vegetables to be pickled, lemons to be salted and stored, and biscuits or
cookies to be made and stored away for later. In Tunisia, cooks make and
store harissa, a fiery paste made from hot and sweet peppers, olive oil,
salt, garlic, and up to 20 different spices (some spices, like coriander and
cumin, are more common while other spices, like cinnamon or rosewater,
Cooking 71

are more unusual). Every family has its own blend and harissa is a good way
to preserve peppers that families grow in the garden. Cooks may preserve
all kinds of garden vegetables by pickling them, or they will harvest, peel,
and chop several pounds of garlic, mixing it with salt and storing it in jars
to use throughout the year. Herbs like mint can be harvested, cleaned,
and dried; a cook will then crush or grind the leaves into a fine powder, to
be used in stews and soups in the winter. If one has fruit trees in the yard,
then the family cook needs to make fruit preserves with the ripe fruit that
cannot be eaten right away. Meat is also preserved, whether in the form of
cured sausages and bacon in Italy, France, and Spain, or lamb, in Tunisia,
where cooks make kadid. Kadid is a spiced and preserved meat that is used
in recipes with lentils, bread, couscous, even scrambled eggs. Lamb meat
is cut into small strips, rubbed with coarse salt and crushed garlic and left
overnight. The next day it is wiped dry and rubbed with spices and hung
out on a line in the hot sun for several days until it is dry (at night the
meat is brought in so that the damp air will not cause the meat to mold).
Later in the afternoon, the family cook may make an afternoon snack
for children returning from school, as well as beginning preparations for
dinner. If guests are coming, then the preparation can be complicated and
involved: a variety of appetizers will be prepared, the choicest meat will
be combined with appropriate ingredients and slow cooked, vegetables in
the form of stews, soups, or salads will be washed, chopped, and properly
seasoned, and perhaps a special dessert will be assembled in advance. If
dinner is for family, then preparation time is less extensive, but this does
not mean that cooks have an easy time. If lunch is eaten out of the home,
then dinner should be more special and substantial. And for families that
do not rely on many prepared foods, much preparation time goes into the
simplest of dishes. For example, in North Africa, where the average family
eats couscous at least twice a week, if not more, then making couscous by
hand can take a lot of time out of one’s day. After dinner, there are dishes
to wash, and perhaps the family cook is already thinking about the shop-
ping list for the next day.

THE FUTURE OF COOKING

There are a host of factors—generational changes in attitudes toward
cooking, increasing numbers of women working outside the home, the
spread of fast food restaurants—that contribute to new food habits in the
Mediterranean region. Just as people throughout the Mediterranean are
worried about the individual farmer or fisherman in the face of agribusi-
ness, they are worried about the well-being of the family cook in the face
72 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

of fast food, prepared foods, and other convenience foods. Having some-
one else do the cooking is becoming an increasingly popular and profitable
trend throughout the Mediterranean. Among younger consumers (30 and
under), fast food, especially American-style fast food like McDonald’s or
Pizza Hut, is popular. When American fast food franchises first arrived in
the Mediterranean (many of them during the 1980s, which was a decade
of global expansion for several American fast food companies), they were
viewed with disdain by older consumers, although teenagers and young
adults liked to hang out in McDonald’s restaurants because it was a space
of their own and sometimes, their parents disapproved of their eating fast
food. Now the teenagers who ate at McDonald’s to rebel against their par-
ents take their children there for a quick lunch or dinner. Within a gener-
ation, then, fast food restaurants like McDonald’s or Pizza Hut went from
exotic to everyday. Although American fast food outlets have spread like
wildfire across the region, not every consumer is happy. Angry protesters
have demonstrated in front of McDonald’s restaurants and sometimes acts
of vandalism are committed. In many cases, protesters and vandals are
making a statement against the Americanization of the Mediterranean
diet, or in cases where protesters object to U.S. foreign policy (such as
the recent wars in Iraq), they target McDonald’s because it symbolizes the
United States. Consumers who object to American fast food may refuse
to eat there, or some entrepreneurs have established fast food restaurants
of their own which compete with McDonald’s. In Egypt, the fast food
chain Mo’men (the word means believer) serves chicken and beef burgers
and seafood sandwiches that are halal (permissible according to Muslim
dietary rules). Part of the restaurant chain’s mission is to support the Egyp-
tian economy, although a few restaurants also exist outside of Egypt.
Of course, the recent trend of buying prepared food or fast food is not
an entirely new phenomenon. Mediterranean consumers have been en-
joying “fast food” for a few centuries, given the region’s fondness for street
foods like pizza, doner kebab, and gyros (see chapter 5). Mediterranean
consumers who object to the most recent trends argue that fast food is less
healthy than traditional street food because it is not as fresh. Consumers
also object to the fact that most profits from restaurants like McDonald’s
and KFC line the pockets of Americans, not Italians or Turks. Con-
cerns over what is truly “Mediterranean” versus what is “American” have
fueled objections and even protest. These same concerns, however, have
prompted many people in the Mediterranean to go back to their culinary
roots and discover the traditional ways of preparing and cooking foods.
Ironically, modern technology has helped many consumers and cooks re-
discover the culinary past. The Internet provides a continuous forum for
Cooking 73

people to exchange recipes and tips for cooking, as well as information

about holiday traditions or directions to local farms that sell produce,
cheese, olive oil, or honey. And a growing number of television cooking
programs introduce viewers to the culinary traditions of their country and
their region. In Morocco, the television cook Choumicha shows view-
ers how to make interesting dishes from all the regions of the country.
Choumicha puts a distinctly modern spin on the recipes, however, by
making them lighter and healthier for viewers and their families. On Leb-
anese television, the most popular cooking show is hosted by Ramzi N.
Choueiri, who likes to demonstrate forgotten recipes while answering
viewers’ questions about cooking problems, issues, or disasters.
Other well-known chefs in the Mediterranean work outside of the In-
ternet and television to change local eating habits. One of the most fa-
mous chefs in Egypt, Abdel Hamid Badawy, set the standard for lighter
and more innovative dishes by cooking on his own. His recipes were then
imitated in other hotels, restaurants, and even in market stalls by street
food vendors. Badawy’s innovations, such as combining fish and lentils in
the same dish, challenge ideas about cooking that have been in existence
for centuries in Egypt. He complains that “[t]he whole world is changing,
and only we Egyptians adamantly stick to our inflexible traditions without
giving much thought to how we might be able to develop our culture,”
but he never hesitates to suggest improvements or innovations whenever
he samples a local dish.14 Although France and Italy have been renowned
for their cooks and chefs, the rest of the Mediterranean only recently
gained international recognition in the restaurant and tourism indus-
tries. For example, top chefs from the Muslim world now compete with
chefs around the world, gaining greater recognition for North African
or Middle Eastern cuisine. Gourmet cooking in the top restaurants and
hotels in the Muslim Mediterranean presents its own problems for chefs.
Hotels catering to an international clientele require an international rep-
ertoire of cuisine for customers, but how do Muslim chefs create certain
Western dishes without alcohol? Chefs have substituted everything from
fruit juices to balsamic vinegar for wine. Another challenge is running a
large kitchen during Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast from sunrise to
sunset. Stefan Hogan, who is not Muslim, is a chef at the Corinthia Bab
Africa Hotel in Tripoli, Libya, where he supervises a largely Muslim staff.
During Ramadan, his staff is unable to taste what they have created, leav-
ing the non-Muslims to do the necessary tasting. “For a whole month, I
have to taste everything myself . . . every couple of minutes one of my guys
holds a spoon under my nose and says, ‘try this for me, boss.’ It’s a com-
plete muddle: meat, rice pudding, soup.”15 These challenges and problems
74 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

are relatively minor, however, and the restaurant, hotel, and hospitality
industries in the Muslim Mediterranean are clearly thriving.
Despite a thriving food industry throughout the Mediterranean region,
many chefs and consumers are worried that traditional Mediterranean cui-
sine is losing ground to American-style fast food and processed foods. In
parts of the Mediterranean, there has been a collective response to the in-
crease in American-style foods in the form of an organization called Slow
Food. Slow Food originated in the Mediterranean; it was first launched in
1989 in response to the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in the Piazza
di Spagna in Rome in 1986.
Slow Food seeks to mobilize consumers against fast food and the impact
of globalization on local eating habits. To do so, they have launched nu-
merous initiatives, including the creation of local eating societies called
convivia, which bring people together to enjoy a range of local food spe-
cialties. Slow Food urges its members to slow down and enjoy the range of
tastes and foods available to them locally. The organization alerts mem-
bers and the general public through its Web site about how to prepare
home-cooked meals or where to buy locally produced foods. Thus, Slow
Food plays an important role in supporting local farmers and encouraging
the artisanal, not industrial, production of foods like cheese, sausage, and
wine. The movement is political in its opposition to corporations like
McDonald’s and the industrialization of agricultural production. Mem-
bers object to the standardization of taste and seek to defend and preserve
a way of life that is disappearing, a way of life that is readily measured
by food habits. In addition, the convivia, as well as the Slow Food Web
site, encourages members and others to cook slowly. This means thinking
about the ingredients to buy, returning to traditional methods of prepara-
tion and cooking, and sharing the finished meal with friends, relatives,
and guests.
In addition to Slow Food, several individuals have become outspoken
critics of American fast food and globalization generally. A French farmer
named José Bové, for example, attracted international attention when he
and other members of his community disassembled a McDonald’s restau-
rant as a protest in 1999. Bové has since become a leading spokesperson
against big business and globalization as they affect the ways in which
people farm and consume agricultural produce. Individuals like Bové and
organizations like Slow Food emphasize the way food habits are tied to a
whole way of life. When they protest the opening of a fast food restaurant
like McDonald’s, they are protesting much more than the hamburgers,
fries, and sodas inside. They also object to the industrialized forms of ag-
ricultural production, the organization of retail outlets through franchise
Cooking 75

systems, and intensive and targeted marketing to existing and potential

consumers.
Many consumers worry that “American-style” eating habits will become
increasingly more popular across the region, and consequently Mediter-
ranean habits and customs will become less popular and eventually die
out. It is easy to understand their concern: American-style eating hab-
its frequently translate into increased obesity rates and nutrition-related
problems or illnesses. And when American companies are interested in
keeping the profits, Mediterranean consumers see few benefits or con-
veniences attached to fast food. Yet it seems difficult to imagine how
Mediterranean habits and customs will ever completely die out, given
that cooking food is a practice so firmly embedded in cultures throughout
the region. As the next chapter explains, there is much diversity and
complexity in Mediterranean cooking style. For example, similar dishes
are served throughout the region; yet in each country, the differences in
ingredients, preparation technique, or cooking time, matter. They matter
because cooks and chefs are intensely proud of their skills and desire to
transmit the knowledge of these skills to future generations.

NOTES
1. A summary of this scholarship can be found in Vicki A Swinbank, “The
Sexual Politics of Cooking: A Feminist Analysis of Culinary Hierarchy in West-
ern Culture,” Journal of Historical Sociology, 15 (2002): 464–494.
2. See Carole Counihan, “Bread as World: Food Habits and Social Rela-
tions in Modernizing Sardinia,” in Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik,
eds., Food and Culture. A Reader (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 283–295;
and Willy Jansen, “French Bread and Algerian Wine: Conflicting Identities in
French Algeria,” in Peter Scholliers, ed., Food, Drink and Identity. Cooking, Eating
and Drinking in Europe Since the Middle Ages (Oxford: Berg, 2001), pp. 195–218.
3. Efisio Farris, Sweet Myrtle and Bitter Honey (New York: Rizzoli, 2007),
p. 101.
4. Colette Rosant, Memories of a Lost Egypt. A Memoir with Recipes (New
York: Clarkson Potter, 1999), p. 62.
5. Nur Ilkin and Sheilah Kaufman, A Taste of Turkish Cuisine (New York:
Hippocrene Books, Inc., 2002), pp. 6–7.
6. Ayla Esen Algar, The Complete Book of Turkish Cooking (London: Kegan
Paul, 1985), p. 5.
7. Student interviewed in Elia Petridou, “The Taste of Home,” in Daniel
Miller, ed., Home Possessions. Material Culture behind Closed Doors (Oxford: Berg,
2001), p. 91.
8. Dalila Amdouni, quoted in Fiona Dunlop, The North African Kitchen
(Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2008), p. 97.
76 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

9. Latifa Alaoui, quoted in Fiona Dunlop, The North African Kitchen, p. 40.
10. Clarissa Hyman, Cucina Siciliana (Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2002),
p. 9.
11. Daniel Young, Made in Marseille (New York: HarperCollins, 2002),
p. 122–26.
12. Sarah Woodward, The Ottoman Kitchen (Northampton MA: Interlink,
2002), p. 110.
13. Florian Harms and Lutz Jäkel, The Flavours of Arabia (London: Thames
and Hudson, 2007), p. 22.
14. Harms and Jäkel, The Flavours of Arabia, p. 130.
15. Harms and Jäkel, The Flavours of Arabia, p. 101.
 4
Typical Meals

To try to find and describe a typical meal, or even several typical meals,
that characterize dining in the Mediterranean would be an impossible task.
Although most experts think there is something clearly identifiable as a
Mediterranean cuisine, they are usually referring to the basic ingredients
or components of the Mediterranean diet, and not to the many ways in
which these ingredients are put together in dishes and in meals. Mediter-
ranean food expert and cookbook author Paula Wolfert has thought about
Mediterranean dishes in terms of key flavors and tastes; for her, the major
ingredients define what Mediterranean cooking is about: “In the diversity
of ingredients lies the unity. These ingredients constitute the bounty of
the Mediterranean, the stuff of which its cuisines are built.”1 Her cook-
books, then, organize Mediterranean dishes according to their most im-
portant ingredients—olive oil, peppers, fish, lamb, eggplant, garlic, and
legumes. Her approach to understanding Mediterranean cuisine is one of
many, and it makes sense when one thinks about how Mediterranean food
is characterized or defined by a set of tastes. When one begins to put these
essential ingredients into varying combinations and cook them in certain
ways, however, a wide variety of tastes emerges. For example, garlic creates
different tastes when it is fried in olive oil, ground with cured olives and
seasonings, mixed with eggs and lemon, or stuffed into a chicken. Here lies
the paradox, perhaps, of Mediterranean cuisine. When compared with the
repertoires of industrialized, modernized cuisines, where artificial ingredi-
ents and manufactured tastes create so many different flavors and tastes
78 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

(although some would argue that all processed food tastes the same), Med-
iterranean cuisine is based on relatively few ingredients. Yet out of these
few ingredients a complex and diverse set of dishes has emerged. There is
no typical Mediterranean meal, but the kinds of meals and the way they
are consumed reveal a great deal about diverse eating practices and atti-
tudes towards food across the region.
This chapter first looks at the order of meals in terms of how the meal is
presented to diners. Understanding how food is presented—in what order,
which dishes are served with what—reflects popular attitudes about, and
the rules regarding, food. Next, meal order is described in terms of how
meals are served throughout the day and what kinds of dishes character-
ize the standard meals of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack. There is
considerable variation as to what constitutes “breakfast” or which foods
are snacks and which are meals. Typical menus for the countries of the
Mediterranean describe more than just who eats what when; they express
the full complexity of meal structures and the variety of foods offered for
meals. Menus also reveal the relative weight assigned to meals throughout
the day. The chapter then breaks down meals by examining the many
dishes that make up a meal: appetizers or first courses, main dishes, side
dishes, and desserts or final courses. Although this list is not exhaustive,
it describes some of the most typical dishes consumed throughout the re-
gion. Of course, there is considerable variation in the way even similar
dishes are prepared. Each country may have its own version of a fish stew,
a type of pizza, and a vegetable relish; but the addition of a particular herb
or spice, or a particular cooking technique, can make a substantial dif-
ference in the way the dish ultimately tastes. Such variation proves that
there is no one typical meal in the Mediterranean; it also demonstrates
the creativity and resourcefulness of Mediterranean cooks, who have de-
veloped sophisticated cooking traditions based on years of scarcity. Thus
a typical Mediterranean meal is much more than a group of dishes; it
provides an interpretation of the region’s culinary past and offers a fresh
perspective on contemporary eating habits and ideas about food.

MEAL ORDER
The order of a meal says a lot about a society’s attitudes toward food. It
can express personal or social preferences about what tastes good together,
it can highlight the significance of a special occasion or holiday, and it even
influences how diners relate to each other. Anthropologists have studied
the structure of meals to understand how societies differ from each other
in thinking about, and through, food. In the region of the Mediterranean,
Typical Meals 79

it seems clear that there are multiple eating styles; meals are defined in dif-
ferent ways across geographical boundaries. One major difference in meal
order lies between the eastern and western Mediterranean. In the eastern
Mediterranean, courses are less formally structured. Salad, for example, il-
lustrates a more informal attitude toward the structure of a meal in the
eastern regions; diners are not particularly concerned with having salad
as a distinct course. Rather, it is served at the beginning of the meal and
remains on the table throughout the rest of the meal. In restaurants, salad
is consumed while diners think about what to eat for the main course. In
Turkey and Greece, a salad is brought out and the ingredients are chopped
up and dressed in yogurt or oil and vinegar. In Lebanon or Syria, a plate
of vegetables and a sharp knife are brought to diners, who make their own
salad while thinking about what to eat later. In someone’s home, salad
will remain on the table throughout the meal, in case a diner wants to
nibble on it later. Then, diners will eat salad along with meat and other
vegetables. Meal order is a less formal affair in the eastern Mediterranean;
tastes mingle as diners enjoy different types of food all at once.
Compare this attitude toward salad with attitudes in the western Medi-
terranean, namely in Italy, France, and Spain. In these countries, salad is
enjoyed as a stand-alone course. It frequently comes after the main course
of meat or fish, as it is supposed to cleanse or refresh the palate. Salad is
dressed sparingly, often with salt, olive oil, and a bit of vinegar or lemon
juice, so that diners enjoy the full taste of the vegetables comprising the
salad. Often, only one type of vegetable or green will be served, so it is
not unusual to enjoy an arugula salad or a tomato salad without heavy
dressings or additional ingredients. The salad course in western Mediter-
ranean countries typifies a more formal meal structure, in which great
care is taken to present the meal in distinct stages, with each food coming
out one at a time, to be enjoyed as a separate taste by diners. It is worth
noting, for example, that in Italy there is a specific language attached
to meal courses. Diners enjoy an antipasto before the meal, followed by
a primo, or first course, usually soup, pasta, or risotto. This is followed
by the secondo, or main course, usually meat or fish, accompanied by a
contorno, cooked vegetables and/or potatoes served as an accompaniment
to the meat. After the main course, a salad is served, followed by coffee,
fruit, or a sweet dessert. In restaurants, diners might order their meal one
course at a time, so that there is a longish pause between courses, as the
chefs or cooks prepare the next item. This more structured order of the
meal allows diners more time to consider, and appreciate, each dish as a
distinctive taste or flavor. Such a formal attitude may seem extreme to
Americans; for example, in Italian McDonald’s restaurants where there
80 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

are antipasto bars, diners will enter, select and pay for an antipasto, and
then when finished with that course, wait in line again to order and pay
for a hamburger and French fries.
This example seems extreme to Americans because they are used to
having meals served all at once, or courses that come in quick succession
during a meal. The eastern Mediterranean meal structure is less formal as
well; a typical meal might be a meat or grain dish, accompanied by salad
and yogurt. Also on the table are bread, olives, pickles, or raw vegeta-
bles. Food is kept on the table and diners serve themselves, family-style,
throughout the meal. A more formal meal for company might be appetiz-
ers (meze), followed by two main dishes (a stew, stuffed vegetables, meat
such as lamb or chicken) and salad; the appetizers remain on the table
throughout. Dessert might be coffee, fruit, or pastry, and only then are
the main dishes cleared away (although in the presence of company, cof-
fee and dessert might be served in a separate room, like the living room).
Nothing typifies this informal and communal style of eating than the pop-
ularity of meze in the eastern Mediterranean. Meze, also known as mezze
or mazza, are little dishes of food served either before a meal or as a meal.
No one knows the origins of the word meze for certain, but some believe

Turkish meze. AP Photo/Murad Sezer.

Typical Meals 81

that in Byzantium, it was customary to serve five or six little dishes of food
as starters. These would be vegetables, or legumes, and were intended to
be enjoyed while diners waited for the main dish. Meze then became ap-
petizers or dishes meant to whet the appetite for the main course. Other
food experts believe the practice of eating meze dates back to ancient
Persia, where diners consumed different fruits to counterbalance the taste
of bitter wine. Meze became foods to be consumed with wine or other al-
cohol. Whatever the origins of the word and the practice of eating meze,
the tradition of sharing meze is popular in Egypt, Greece, Israel, Lebanon,
Syria, and Turkey. Several dishes are prepared and eaten communally;
diners usually scoop up the relishes, salads, and dips with flatbread, or they
might also have finger foods.
Meze are usually served before a meal as appetizers, but diners can also
make an entire meal out of meze plates. In some restaurants in Lebanon,
for example, an elaborate variety of meze are presented, with some es-
tablishments offering as many as 50 different dishes at the same time.
Ideally, a combination of meze should strike a balance of flavor, tem-
perature, and texture. A smooth pureed dip will contrast sharply with
crisp, raw vegetables or a chewy bulgur salad. A room temperature salad
will contrast with a very cold one; nutty tastes will balance spicy or sweet
tastes. A meze dinner will have standard favorites, as well as more sub-
stantial foods to appeal to every diner:
A typical meze dinner:

• Toasted almonds and roasted pistachios

• Assorted olives
• Raw vegetables (crudités)
• Hummus (chickpea and tahini dip)
• Baba ghanouj (eggplant and tahini dip)
• Cheese
• Pepper dip
• Tabouleh (bulgur, vegetable, and parsley salad)
• Fattush (bread salad)
• Ful (fava bean salad)
• Stuffed grape leaves or other vegetables
• Falafel (fried chickpea balls)
• Kibbeh (ground raw meat)
• Spinach or other savory pie
• Meat turnovers
82 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

The entire meal is accompanied by flatbread like pita, and diners serve
themselves, making sure to leave enough for others. Those who prepare
an elaborate assortment of meze or a meze dinner place great emphasis
on the abundance of dishes, ingredients, and tastes for their fellow din-
ers. Although each dish is prepared and served separately from the other
dishes, the flavors of meat, vegetables, and grains all mix together, some-
times in the same bite. The formal order of the meal matters less than the
emphasis on abundance and hospitality.
This basic difference between the eastern and western regions of the
Mediterranean is not set in stone. Certainly there is variation, and con-
tinued immigration throughout the region has meant that North Africans
have brought their less formal traditions with them to France or Italy, or
Europeans settling in Israel have maintained their more formal approach
to meal order. The basic difference between east and west, along with the
myriad variation on these meal orders, indicates that meal order is just
one indicator of the diversity of attitudes toward food in the Mediter-
ranean region.

Tabbouleh
2/3 cup bulgur wheat
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
2 cups flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped

Place bulgur in cold water and soak. Combine herbs, spices, cucumber, oil, and
lemon juice in large bowl. Drain bulgur well and add to bowl. Mix well. Cover
bowl and refrigerate overnight. Mix in chopped tomatoes right before serving.

Fattush
Stale bread (preferably pita)
1 cucumber, seeded and chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
Typical Meals 83

1/4 cup of fresh chopped parsley

2 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped

Dressing
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
Salt and pepper

Break the stale bread into small pieces. Make a dressing with lemon juice or vin-
egar to taste. Mix dressing, stale bread, vegetables and parsley together to blend
the flavors. Let sit for a few minutes before serving.

Spinach Pies
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2–3 pounds of spinach, washed and drained thoroughly
4–5 tablespoons of chopped parsley
1 tablespoon of chopped dill
1/2 pound of crumbled feta cheese
3 eggs, lightly beaten
12 sheets of phyllo pastry dough, plus melted butter

Heat oil in pan and sauté onions until soft. In a separate pot, cook spinach in a
few spoonfuls of water, drain thoroughly. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Add spinach
to onions and mix in herbs; add salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low heat for
5–10 minutes. Cool. Stir in feta cheese and eggs. Brush some melted butter on the
bottom of a 13×9×2 pan, then lay down six phyllo dough sheets, brushing each
layer with melted butter. Gently spread spinach mixture over dough, then cover
with remaining six phyllo dough sheets, brushing each layer with melted butter.
Score the top few phyllo dough sheets with a knife, or prick the dough with a fork.
Bake until golden brown, about 45 minutes. Cut into triangles or diamonds.

TYPICAL MENUS
Menus or meal plans throughout the Mediterranean might have some
of the same dishes or ingredients, but the combinations of foods, as well
as the times diners eat them, varies a great deal across the region. Because
many people eat so much fresh local produce, menu plans differ depending
on the fruits and vegetables available at that time. Although an increasing
84 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

number of supermarkets in the region offer certain types of produce year

round (via imports), most consumers prefer to buy the choicest seasonal
goods from local growers. Another factor affecting menu planning is the
rhythm of the day for the individual or family. A single working individual
might have a radically different menu plan compared to a family where
the wife/mother stays at home to care for the children. Families where in-
dividuals work and go to school are less likely to eat a home-cooked lunch
and perhaps are more likely to eat a rushed breakfast on the way out the
door. Also, there are regional differences based on custom and traditional
attitudes toward certain foods and meals. On much of the European side
of the Mediterranean, breakfast is not that important; young and old alike
make do with a hot drink and a roll or pastry. Even manual laborers do
not eat that much for breakfast, preferring instead to eat a heavier lunch
and dinner. In other countries, breakfast is considered a more important
meal and is more substantial and perhaps more elaborately prepared. Of
course, menu plans vary according to individual preference, occupation,
and ability to prepare and cook food, but there are some common trends
worth noting.
First, breakfast is a meal that is wide open to interpretation across the
region and occurs at different times. People dashing off to work or school
may eat something first thing in the morning, but those who stay at home
might eat breakfast at mid-morning, as late as 9 or 10 in the morning. As
previously mentioned, European consumers frequently make do with little
more than a roll and a cup of coffee. Many adults stop by a café on their
way to work to down a croissant and an espresso or perhaps a cappuccino.
Grocery stores offer American-style breakfast cereal or European-style
muesli, but these are not very popular options. Instead, Italian children
might eat packaged biscuits, toasts, or breakfast “cookies” along with
milk and yogurt. In Catalonia, Spain, early breakfast or desayuno consists
of rolls and coffee or hot chocolate, or bread and tomato. Later in the
morning, at around 11:00 a.m., consumers might eat a more substantial
breakfast of eggs and sausage or a few appetizers to hold them over until a
later lunch, at around 2:00 or 3:00 p.m. In places where breakfast is more
substantial, there is considerable variation in thinking about breakfast as
either a sweet or savory meal. In the eastern Mediterranean, for example,
a traditional sweet breakfast consists of yogurt with honey and/or fruit
preserves made from figs, oranges, and lemon. A savory breakfast, on the
other hand, consists of sweet black olives, feta cheese, sliced tomatoes,
and cucumber. Both sweet and savory breakfasts are served with bread,
either plain flatbread served in Lebanon or Syria, or white bread sprin-
kled with sesame seeds in Greece and Turkey. Black tea or coffee usually
Typical Meals 85

accompanies either type of breakfast. In Israel, breakfast is hearty and

combines whole grains (bread and porridge) with dairy foods (yogurt and
cheese) and fruit. In the early years of Israel’s existence, hotel breakfast
buffets became world famous, because they offered so much: eggs, herring,
bread, vegetables, fruits, milk, cheese, yogurt, and hot cereals.2 Workers
on a kibbutz also ate heartily: milk, fruit, fresh-baked bread, eggs, and
vegetables. Today, Israelis are more likely to get their breakfast from a
grocery store or supermarket, although Sabbath breakfast is still special,
with Turkish Jews consuming burekas, filled turnovers; Central European
Jews eating coffee cake; and Middle Eastern Jews preparing kataif, pan-
cakes filled with nuts or cream and served with syrup. Pancakes are a
popular food in Israel and are consumed for breakfast and other meals.
Special pancakes are made for certain holidays or special occasions. For
example, pancakes with cottage cheese are served on the holiday Sha-
vuot, which celebrates Moses receiving the Ten Commandments.
If breakfast is light, lunch is more substantial. And in many countries,
if lunch is the main meal of the day, it occurs later in the day, sometimes
as late as one or two o’clock in the afternoon. On the other hand, if lunch
is a hurried affair in between university classes or meetings for work, it
can occur much earlier, as early as 11 in the morning. As chapter 5 ex-
plains, families throughout the Mediterranean used to gather at home for
a lunch that consisted of several courses. For peasants and urban workers
alike, lunch was the main meal of the day and therefore was an important
time for the family to gather together. This habit is slowly giving way to
new habits, as people eat their lunch outside the home, either at work, in
school, or in restaurants and cafés. If people do go home for lunch, they
usually eat something hot. Lunch at home might be a bowl of soup or pasta,
followed by a small portion of meat or fish with some vegetables. A salad
or fresh fruit completes the meal. Lunch at a nice restaurant might also
consist of multiple courses or dishes. Students and workers who do not
have enough time for a long lunch will grab something at a café or street
vendor’s cart: pizza, a bowl of soup, kebab, or a sandwich.
Generally speaking, most people in the Mediterranean strike a balance
between lunch and dinner. That is, if lunch is a big meal, dinner will be
light and vice versa. Dinner is usually eaten in the home (either one’s own
home or someone else’s) in much of North Africa and parts of the eastern
Mediterranean; diners in the European countries and in parts of the Le-
vant will either eat dinner at home or out in a restaurant. There are mul-
tiple dishes served for dinner, except in cases where an individual or family
consumes only a sandwich, an omelet, or a bowl of soup. The main meal
is usually followed by fruit or a sweet dessert. Although Mediterranean
86 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

pastries, candies, cookies, and other treats are known for being particularly
sweet and rich, they are not always consumed as desserts. Adults prefer to
eat fresh fruit for dessert; they might enjoy some candy or baklava with a
cup of coffee for a snack. Children, on the other hand, will eat sweets at
any time of day or night. In the Levant and in North Africa, dinner occurs
in the hours after work, whereas in the European countries of the Mediter-
ranean, diners eat dinner much later, sometimes as late as 9 or 10 o’clock
in the evening.
Given the fact that street food is so popular in the Mediterranean, it is
not surprising that snacking is common practice throughout the region.
Sweets are a good example of a popular snack. The country of Turkey is
famous for pastries and candies, including baklava (squares of phyllo dough
layered with honey and nuts) and a chewy candy called Turkish delight,
or rahat lokum, which means giving rest to the throat. Turkish delight was
reportedly the favorite treat of the ladies of the harem in the Ottoman
Empire. Today, many varieties of Turkish delight, flavored with nuts and
flower water, are sold in street markets, bakeries, and grocery stores. Inhab-
itants of the island of Sicily are famous for their fondness for sweet snacks;
they can put away pastries, cookies, candies, and ice cream at any hour

Sweets are a popular snack for both adults and children throughout the Medi-
terranean. Here, shoppers buy sweets in downtown Damascus during the holy
month of Ramadan. AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi.
Typical Meals 87

A customer of Turkey’s best-known confectioner, Haci Bekir, waits as a salesman

wraps her purchase of Turkish delight, a traditional candy. AP Photo/Burhan
Ozbilici.

of the day. In the summer, some cafés offer a pastry filled with ice cream
or granita (a flavored crushed ice) for breakfast. Any special occasion or
holiday in Sicily is sure to have plenty of sweet snacks for Sicilians to pur-
chase and eat while celebrating. Savory snacks are also popular: nuts, frit-
ters and turnovers, sandwiches, and potato chips. In places where dinner is
not served until later in the evening (after 8 p.m.), an afternoon snack is a
necessity; young and old alike pack cafés or buy an ice cream cone to eat on
the way home. For adults, a coffee or tea can be an important pick-me-up
in the mid-morning or afternoon. Because of its unique position as a trading
point between east and west, the Mediterranean has a long history of coffee
houses, cafés, and coffee bars. The first coffee houses in the region appeared
in Turkey in the sixteenth century. Turkish coffee is internationally famous
for its taste and elaborate preparation: water and sugar are brought to a boil
in a small copper pot with a long handle, coffee is stirred in and the mix-
ture is brought to a boil four times and then poured, hot and fizzing, into
small cups. Today, Turkish citizens are more likely to drink more tea than
coffee. Midnight snacks are also popular for those who stay up late; Italians
who enjoy parties, movies, or the theater return home and make “midnight
88 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

spaghetti” for themselves and friends. A favorite is something called aglio e

olio, pasta tossed with garlic, olive oil, and a little hot pepper.

Midnight Spaghetti
1 pound spaghetti
1/2 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
Grated parmesan cheese
Boil spaghetti in salted water until al dente. Meanwhile, fry the garlic in the olive
oil, either by frying garlic slices in the oil then removing them, or by gently fry-
ing minced garlic. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Add hot pepper flakes and
parsley and cook for a minute. Toss oil mixture with spaghetti and serve with
generous amounts of grated cheese.

Typical Menus in Italy

Breakfast
Brioche or croissant
Coffee

Lunch
Pasta alla Norma (pasta with eggplant sauce)
Chicken cutlet
Tomato Salad
Cheese
Fruit
Coffee

Dinner
Vegetable soup with bread
Meatballs (polpette) with roasted potatoes and green beans
Green salad
Fruit and cookies
Coffee
Typical Meals 89

Typical Menus in Greece

Breakfast
Roll
Fresh fruit with yogurt
Coffee

Lunch
Mezedes: tzatziki (yogurt and cucumber dip) with pita bread, fried meatballs,
octopus, cheese, sausage, fava beans
Fruit

Dinner
Salad of cheese, olives, and tomatoes
Beef stew with onions (stifado)
Baklava
Coffee

Typical Menus in Turkey

Breakfast
Turkish bread with preserves, honey and butter
Boiled Egg
Olives
Tomatoes and Cucumbers
Cheese
Tea

Lunch
Lahmacun (Turkish pizza)
Mixed salad
Fruit
Tea

Dinner
Melon and white cheese
Lamb stew with vegetables
Pilav
Tea
90 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Typical Menus in Syria

Breakfast
White Cheese
Olives
Pita
Tea

Lunch
Artichokes with fava beans
Chicken and rice
Salad
Fruit
Tea or Coffee

Dinner
Cheese dip with toasted sesame seeds
Lamb and vegetable stew
Rice with vermicelli
Salad with greens, tomatoes, and cucumbers
Fruit, cookies
Coffee

Typical Menus in Lebanon

Breakfast
Baked eggs in yogurt
Bread
Fruit
Tea or coffee

Lunch
Chicken kebabs
Bread
Salad
Lentils and Rice

Dinner
Cheese turnovers
Fish baked in spicy sauce
Typical Meals 91

Saffron Rice
Salad with lemon dressing
Orange Cake
Coffee

Typical Menus in Egypt

Breakfast
Vermicelli with sugar and milk
Cheese
Bread
Tea with milk

Lunch
Stewed spinach and chickpeas
Rice with Tomatoes
Green salad
Fruit

Dinner
Lentils with rice and pasta
Eggs
Salad
Pudding

POPULAR DISHES
Most meals are made up of several dishes or courses. Although there are
diverse practices throughout the Mediterranean in terms of how food is
consumed and when it is consumed, the most popular dishes in the region
share similar ingredients, given the region’s geography and topography.
Thus the people of the Mediterranean eat many of the same ingredients
(discussed in chapter 2) even though they prepare and consume those in-
gredients in different ways. Many cookbook authors and experts on Medi-
terranean cuisine group the diverse dishes served in the region according
to the main ingredients that characterize each dish. It is fairly common to
find a Mediterranean cookbook that has sections on olive oil, garlic, and
peppers as opposed to sections on appetizers, main courses, and side dishes.
This common type of organization suggests that local ingredients unify
92 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Mediterranean cuisine. Not surprisingly, the major dishes that people pre-
pare and eat are similar in terms of their major ingredients. They can also
vary a great deal in terms of other ingredients or special preparation tech-
niques. The following sections illustrate many of the most popular dishes
in the Mediterranean. These dishes are presented roughly according to
the order in which they appear at a meal. And although not every dish
can be described and discussed, the most characteristic or representative
dishes will provide a clear sense of what diverse populations make and eat
throughout the region.

Appetizers
Appetizers go by many names throughout the region—tapas, meze,
antipasti, hors d’oeurves—each type is designed to be a little bite of
food, to whet the appetite for more, to accompany a drink before din-
ner, or to provide something to eat until the main course is served.
Meze, referred to earlier in this chapter, are served throughout the eastern
Mediterranean and the Middle East. Because meze are intended to be
scooped up with bread, so many of them are spreadable: relishes, dips,
or salads. The most well-known meze dish is hummus, a dip made from
cooked chickpeas, sesame paste, or tahini, and seasonings like garlic,
lemon juice, salt, and pepper. A similar dip is baba ghanouj, which sub-
stitutes roasted eggplant for cooked chickpeas. To contrast the sharp
taste of tahini and garlic-based dips, usually a milder dip is offered as
well. In Greece, a popular dip is tzatziki, made with yogurt, cucumbers,
and seasonings. Or a dip made from roasted peppers and pomegranates
provides a sweet contrast to the sharp tang of hummus or baba ghanouj.
Throughout the eastern Mediterranean, yogurt is mixed with cucum-
bers, peppers, eggplant, and legumes to make different dips. Salads are
also popular as meze. Ingredients are finely chopped so that diners can
pick up mouthfuls with a piece of flatbread. Marinated, seasoned green
beans, salads made with fava beans or lentils, and tabbouleh, a cracked
bulgur, tomato, and parsley salad (in Syria, a salad called ksir is made
with bulgur, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs) are all popular items for the
meze plate.
Most of the relishes and dips for the meze plate are made from veg-
etables and legumes, but meat and seafood are popular additions to meze.
In Greece, marinated seafood, such as mussels or squid, are popular appe-
tizers. In Lebanon, kibbeh nayé is a rare treat. Kibbeh nayé consists of raw
lamb, which is ground with bulgur and spices, then dressed with olive
oil and seasonings. Making kibbeh nayé is time-consuming; the lamb has
Typical Meals 93

to be ground several times to give the meat an elastic texture. Conse-

quently, it is usually prepared as a special holiday food, but it can be
served as a meze dish on occasion. Kibbeh also refers to a crisply cooked
lamb and nut mixture. Finger foods are also popular meze: cheese, served
plain or fried; grape leaves stuffed with a mixture of rice, pine nuts, rai-
sins, and herbs; and little turnovers or savory pastries made with layers
of dough, called phyllo dough (in Greece, spanakopita or tiropites, in
Turkey, börek). Savory pastries are usually filled with cheese, spinach,
lamb, or chicken.
The Italian version of the appetizer is called antipasto, or that which
comes before the meal. Anything made with bread is a popular antipasto:
crostini, which are small toasted slices of bread spread with dip or relish;
bruschetta, or grilled bread topped with chopped ingredients or melted
cheese; and various flatbreads, baked with ingredients such as olive oil,
grated cheese, or herbs sprinkled on top. Italians dining at a restaurant
that offers pizza will sometimes eat an individual-size pizza as a first course
or antipasto. They will then eat a main course of meat or fish, or per-
haps finish the meal with just a salad. Otherwise, Italians enjoy marinated
seafood and vegetables, chopped salads, or cured meat, either sausage or
cured ham (prosciutto) slices with melon. Italian restaurants will have
an antipasto table, laden with a variety of different appetizers, but in
the home, cooks usually prepare only one appetizer for the family. On
the French coast of the Mediterranean, appetizers are considerably less
elaborate than meze. Hors d’oeurves might consist of tapenade, a spread
made from ground olives, anchovies, capers, garlic, olive oil, and lemon,
or anchoïade, an anchovy and garlic paste that can be used as dip for raw
vegetables or spread on toast or bread. French diners also enjoy finger
foods such as panisse or socca, chickpea pancakes, served before a meal or
as a street snack. In Catalonia, Spain, diners enjoy tapas (see chapter 5),
either at restaurants or bars, or in the home.

Stews and Soups

Stews and soups are the quintessential Mediterranean food because they
best exemplify the tradition of peasant cooking in the region. Whether
farming the land or fishing the sea, peasants frequently had to make do
with very little when it came to cooking meals. Soups and stews can be
assembled out of whatever the cook has on hand, and slow simmering
blends even a few tastes into something unique and appealing. Stews and
soups stretched the peasant food budget by stretching a small piece of
meat to feed an entire family. Stews and soups can be prepared and put
94 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

on the fire to simmer for a long time, making them the ideal meals for
those who had to labor in the fields all day or juggle farming tasks with
family caretaking. A contemporary comparison to the traditional stew
would be meals made in a crock pot. The cook in a busy family puts all
the ingredients in the pot and plugs it in; a hot meal is waiting when the
family returns from work and school. Although soups and stews started off
as humble peasant coping strategies, they have undergone numerous re-
finements and today, they can be quite sophisticated and expensive, like
bouillabaisse, a complicated fish and saffron stew. Although the prepara-
tion of stews and soups can be sophisticated and refined, there is still a
great deal of individual variation when it comes to making these dishes.
A cook or family might have a particular ingredient or preparation tech-
nique that makes their dish a unique creation. Throughout the Mediter-
ranean, soups and stews are either the first or main course. Depending on
when and how the dish is served, a soup or stew may consist of vegetables,
legumes, grains, meat, fish, and even dairy products, either cooked to-
gether or added at different times.
Perhaps one of the most famous stews in the Mediterranean is bouil-
labaisse, a fish stew, made on the French coast, but particularly in the
city of Marseille, where restaurants and hotels all offer their own version
of the stew. The origins of the stew come from French fishermen, who
would boil the fish and fish parts that they couldn’t sell, add some pota-
toes and seasonings, and eat it. This rustic fishermen’s stew is still made
today, either by fishermen and their families on a Sunday afternoon, or
by those vacationing at beach houses or picnicking in beachside cabins.
Bouillabaisse, however, is a more refined version of fish stew. First, an
intensely flavored fish stock is made from fish, sea water, vegetables such
as fennel, tomatoes, and potatoes, and seasonings such as olive oil, pars-
ley, orange peel, basil, thyme, and bay leaves. The stock is put through a
food mill so that it is smooth, seasoned with saffron, and then it is used to
poach other fish and vegetables. For the stew to be a proper bouillabaisse,
rascasse or scorpion fish is used. The finished stew is eaten with bread
spread with rouille, a spicy, garlicky mayonnaise. Throughout Marseilles,
each restaurant, hotel, and individual make bouillabaisse with their own
special ingredient: orange peel, fennel, a certain type of pepper, legumes,
or salt cod. Versions of bouillabaisse include stews made from chicken,
or something called bouillabaisse borgne, or “poor-man’s bouillabaisse,”
a vegetable stew with a poached egg on top.3 There are variations on
the fish stew made throughout the region. In Turkey, a soup called balik
consists of a fish stock that is simmered, strained, and then used for a soup
consisting of the stock, vegetables, eggs, and lemon.
Typical Meals 95

A stew is a collection of foods that has been simmered together so

that the flavors blend together in new ways. The Moroccan tajine has
become the most famous stew in North Africa and it represents Medi-
terranean cuisine in the same way as Italian pasta dishes, Greek salads,
and the eastern Mediterranean meze foods (hummus and baba ghanouj).
The name tajine also refers to the funnel-shaped terracotta dish where
meat, fruits, vegetables, and seasonings are slow-cooked. A tajine pot
must be made of clay, not metal, porcelain, or glass, and it is usually
pointed or rounded at the top. The clay is fired twice to ensure that it
can withstand the heat of cooking; a good pot doesn’t crack and the
food inside doesn’t burn. The unique conical shape of the tajine pot al-
lows the food to steam; condensation drips down off the sides of the pot,
concentrating and intensifying the flavors of the stew. Steam cooking
also tenderizes the ingredients, such that the stew is never stirred, or
else the ingredients would become mush. Some stews, called marqas, are
prepared in pressure cookers, but Moroccans and Moroccan food con-
noisseurs agree that the cooking method of the tajine makes stew taste
better.
Mediterranean cookbook author and food expert Paula Wolfert has ob-
served that the tajine is an ingenious way of making less palatable cuts of
meat delicious: “Most tajines involve slow simmering of less expensive
meats. The ideal cuts of lamb are the neck, shoulder or shank cooked until
it is falling off the bone.”4 To make the meat so tender, fat or oil is used
in the cooking liquid. The other ingredients in a tajine can be fruits, veg-
etables, and seasonings like spices and herbs. The cook needs to find ap-
propriate vegetables that will go with the meat and seasonings for a sauce
that will go with both the vegetables and the meat in the stew. There are
four basic sauces for tajines: m’qualli or a yellow sauce (made with oil, gin-
ger, onion, saffron, salt, and sometimes cilantro), m’hammer or red sauce
(butter, sweet paprika, garlic, saffron, ginger, and onion), k’dra, a light
yellow sauce (onions, butter, pepper, salt, and saffron), and m’charmel an-
other red sauce (sweet paprika, garlic, cumin, coriander). A great deal of
thought needs to go into the preparation of a tajine to achieve the proper
combination of vegetables, meat, and sauce. This is because the process of
cooking really concentrates the flavor of all the ingredients, and using the
wrong spice or vegetable can result in something that does not taste very
good. Many of the taste combinations in tajines mix sweet and savory, as
ingredients such as dried fruit, sugar, cinnamon, and honey are frequently
added to the stew. Popular combinations include lamb, prunes, and al-
monds; or eel, onions, and raisins. A tajine is eaten as the main course and
it is usually accompanied by preserved lemons, which are lemons that are
96 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

soaked in water then treated with salt. They are kept in water and can be
used in cooking or as a condiment for up to a year.
There is also a dish called a tajine in Tunisia, but this stew involves a
different, more complicated, cooking process. First, a stew of veal or lamb
is made with onions and spices, either a combination of sweet spices such
as cinnamon or dried rosebuds or other spices such as coriander and cara-
way. A starchy food is then added to thicken the stew; ingredients like
chickpeas, bread crumbs, and potatoes are the most popular. When the
stewed meat is tender, it is flavored further with herbs, vegetables, and
even stewed calf’s brains. Then eggs and cheese are added and the stew is
baked in an oven until the egg is set and it is cooked through. A Tunisian
tajine is then turned on to a plate and cut in to squares, so it becomes
more like a pie or frittata. A simmered stew in Tunisia is called a ragout
or marquit.
Most countries in the Mediterranean have a traditional stew. In Greece,
a food made stifado- or stifatho-style refers to the way veal, rabbit, or beef
is stewed with small white onions (and sometimes eggplant) over a long
period. Stifado is usually cooked very slowly the day before serving, then
reheated slowly before the meal, thus allowing the ingredients to blend to-
gether over a long time. And in southern France, daube is a traditional beef
stew. Beef and vegetables are marinated in wine overnight. The stew is
then cooked for several hours until the meat is very tender. Daube is served
over pasta, polenta, or baked potatoes. Popular Italian stews include pasta e
ceci, a Tuscan pasta and chick pea stew that also includes meat and season-
ings such as rosemary or basil, garlic, and onion. A similar dish is pasta e
fagioli, a stew made with pasta and beans. Stews and soups are served as a
first course in Italy, although they can also be consumed as a main course.
Soups are just as important to Mediterranean cuisine as are stews. Soups
can be made of unusual flavor combinations, such as cold garlic soup with
almonds and raisins (Spain), soup made with zucchini flowers (Italy), and
yogurt soup (Turkey). Most soups, however, are made of combinations
of vegetables, meat, and spices are simmered long enough for the flavors
to blend thoroughly. Soups like Moroccan harira are substantial and in-
tended to be a main course or, during Ramadan, harira is eaten during
fasting because it is so satisfying. Making harira is complicated. Chickpeas
are soaked overnight and the soup is made by sautéing meat (usually beef )
and onions with spices. More ingredients, like tomatoes, rice, chickpeas,
and lentils, are added along with water and additional spices at 15-minute
intervals. A good harira should be smooth and the lentils, chickpeas, and
rice should be well cooked without being burned. Because of its time-
consuming and layered preparation, harira has become a sort of test of
Typical Meals 97

one’s cooking skill; if it is well made, the cook is considered accomplished.

Leb-lebi, a chickpea soup from Tunisia, is also time-consuming to make.
Chickpeas are simmered overnight with calf’s feet or marrow bones, and
the soup is served over stale bread cubes with lemon juice, olive oil, and
harissa (a fiery pepper paste) on top. A proper bowl of leb-lebi should make
your nose run because of the spicy intensity of the harissa.

Leb-Lebi
2 cups dried chickpeas. Soak overnight with a pinch of baking soda and rinse
thoroughly. Or use 2 cans of rinsed and drained chickpeas.
3 cups broth: vegetable, beef, or chicken
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
4 tablespoons olive oil
6–8 eggs
Stale French bread cut into cubes
Olive oil
Lemon wedges
Harissa (see recipe in chapter 2)

Put chickpeas, broth, garlic, cumin, olive oil, and extra water to cover chickpeas
in a large soup pot. Add salt and pepper and boil until peas are fully cooked, at
least one hour. Soft boil eggs, one per person. Put stale bread in bottom of soup
bowl, cover with chickpea stew and set peeled, soft boiled egg on top of soup; cut
the egg so that the yolk runs. Drizzle with olive oil and squeeze a lemon wedge on
soup. Combine harissa with water to make a sauce and drizzle on top of soup.

Grain Dishes
The Mediterranean diet (see chapter 7) is based on plenty of whole
grains: pasta, rice, bread, and bulgur. Certainly, people around the world
associate Mediterranean cuisine with pasta dishes, lots of fresh bread, and
rice dishes like paella and pilav. Pasta or noodles are served throughout
the region, either boiled and tossed with ingredients or a particular kind
of sauce, or baked in layers with other ingredients. Pasta is extremely
versatile: just about any ingredient—fish, seafood, meat, vegetables—can
be combined with noodles to make a satisfying first course or main dish.
Italians in particular have turned pasta production into a highly devel-
oped art form; there are hundreds of different shapes of pasta and usu-
ally the name of the pasta shape tells you what it might look like. For
98 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

example, orecchiette means little ears, or caplike shapes that resemble tiny
round ears. The kind of sauce or ingredients used in the dish depends
on the shape of the pasta. Pasta with grooves (rigate) are suited for hold-
ing smooth sauces; hollowed-out shapes, like orecchiette, are suited for
capturing small chunks of food like peas or bits of potato. Pasta with a
plain tomato sauce is perhaps still the most popular first course for lunch
or dinner, despite the infinite variety of pasta dishes produced in Italy.
Special occasions call for baked pasta, usually in the form of lasagna,
pasta sheets baked off with meat or other ingredients in a tomato or bé-
chamel sauce. Southern Italians might prepare a timballo, cooked pasta
layered with meat, sauce, and a variety of other ingredients, everything
from vegetables to livers to cinnamon. Similar to the timballo is the Greek
pastitsio, a layered dish of baked pasta, meat, tomato or white sauce, and
cheese. And on the island of Malta, a special dish is timpano, a deep-dish
casserole of pasta, chopped meat, and hard-boiled eggs within a pastry
crust. The Maltese also have an ingenious way to prepare leftover spa-
ghetti. Known as froga, the dish consists of leftover spaghetti mixed with
eggs and ham, seasoned with cumin and pan-fried until crispy. Froga is
eaten as a snack or appetizer.

Froga
1 pound cooked cold spaghetti
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup grated parmesan or Romano cheese
2 cups tomato sauce

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly. Season with salt
and pepper. Heat olive oil or cooking oil in a heavy skillet. Add a small portion
(1/4) of spaghetti mixture to skillet and lower heat. Gently turn over spaghetti
fritter and cook on both sides until golden and crunchy. Drain on paper towels
and serve.

Most pasta, macaroni, and noodles in the Mediterranean are made from
semolina flour. In some regions, people like their pasta to have a slightly
(or very) sour taste. In Greece, people make and eat tahana, which is a
pasta made from sour milk and in Tunisia, noodles called hlalems are made
from lightly fermented semolina flour dough. These noodles have a sour
or nutty flavor and are usually served plain. Another pasta-like dish is
couscous, tiny nuggets of semolina flour and water that are steamed, not
boiled, and served as an accompaniment to meat, fish, or vegetables. Like
Typical Meals 99

pasta, couscous is a versatile ingredient for main dishes and even desserts.
It can be prepared with hearty vegetables like eggplant, or cooked with
meat or fish to make a main course. As an accompaniment, it can be
flavored with herbs, seasonings, or a sweet-pungent flavor combination
like onions and raisins. Couscous is also prepared with honey or sugar and
eaten as a kind of dessert. Although couscous is most popular in North
Africa, it is also eaten in Greece, Turkey, and in Sicily, where a dish
called cucusu is made from much larger nuggets of semolina paste. Because
couscous is an accompaniment to the main course, it is often served plain.
In Tunisia, cooks steam couscous in a covered pot, whereas Moroccan and
Algerian cooks do not. Tunisian couscous is tender and moist; the Moroc-
can and Algerian versions are lighter and fluffier.5
Paella, Spain’s best known dish, is seasoned rice with shellfish, meat, and
sausages. Paella was first made in Valencia, a city on the Mediterranean,
about 200 years ago. Originally a Lenten dish, with rice, local vegetables,
salt cod, and snails, paella became more elaborate as cooks added chicken,
sausages, and shellfish, and local restaurants added special seasonings or
expensive ingredients like lobster. The dish is named after the iron skillet
in which the rice is cooked. The skillet is round, about 15 inches across,
with two handles and slanted, shallow sides. Traditional paella is made
outdoors over a wood fire, although it can also be made on the stovetop
and finished in the oven. Paella is still served in restaurants in Catalonia,
or it is made at home for special occasions. It is eaten as a first course even
though it has so many ingredients as to be a meal in itself. Farther east in
the Mediterranean, pilav is a dish made famous in Turkey (in the United
States, it is known as rice pilaf ). A pilav is a seasoned rice that accompanies
meat. Some elaborate pilavs contain lamb, chicken, and even quail and are
served as the main course of the meal. Other ingredients, such as currants,
pine nuts, tomatoes, eggplant, and chickpeas, can be added for additional

Paella. © J. Susan Cole Stone.

100 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

flavor, but the key to a good pilav is cooking time and technique. Cooks
need to be careful about the amount of time and the temperature at which
the rice is cooked, depending, of course, on the type of rice being served for
the pilav. The rice must be perfectly cooked, not too watery or overdone.
Some pilavs use bulgur as their main ingredient, but rice is more popular.
Proper cooking also characterizes Italian risotto. Ingredients are cooked
with arborio rice (a special short-grain rice) so that the grains of rice ab-
sorb their flavor. A good risotto has a creamy, not watery, texture.

Stuffed and Layered Foods

Stuffed foods—stuffed vegetables, layered dishes, meatballs—are also
good examples of peasant cooking, or cooking with little. The stuffing
used is usually stale bread, rice, or bulgur, foods that are less expensive and
therefore stretch more expensive ingredients, like meat, further. A clas-
sic example is the meatball. In Italy, polpette are made from ground meat,
bread crumbs and seasonings. They are served as the main course along
with vegetables; only Italian Americans serve meatballs with their spa-
ghetti. Turkish meatballs, or köfte, are made from seasoned meat or the
meat is stretched further with rice, stale bread, eggplant, or other vege-
tables. Greek keftedes are made with beef or veal, lots of spices and herbs,
and stale bread. A seasoned meat mixture is also used to stuff vegetables
(dolmas) in Turkey, Greece, and other parts of the eastern Mediterranean.
Vegetables that can be stuffed include squash, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers,
and grape leaves, which are pickled first. Sicilians stuff meat, in a special
dish called farsumagru, a recipe that dates back to the thirteenth-century
Angevin occupation (the dish takes its name from the French word farce
or stuffing). Originally, farsumagru was a thin piece of meat rolled around
a breadcrumb filling. Through the centuries, the dish became more and
more complicated, including such ingredients as eggs, peas, cheese, ham,
ground beef, currants, and pine nuts. Today, the dish is reserved for special
occasions.6 Sicilians are much more likely to eat a dish called involtini,
skewered meat rolls with a filling, for ordinary meals.
The Mediterranean is also home to many layered dishes, where ingre-
dients are assembled then baked. Baking allows the tastes of the many
ingredients to blend together and create new tastes. Lasagna, timballo,
and timpana, previously mentioned in this chapter, are all examples of lay-
ered foods made with pasta. Another famous layered dish is Greek mous-
saka, lamb with layers of eggplant, potato, and béchamel sauce. Spanish,
French, and Italian tarts are also layered foods; cooked vegetables (pep-
pers, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant) or meat are layered on a pastry crust
Typical Meals 101

and an egg custard is poured over everything. Pastry crusts are stuffed
with vegetables, meat, and legumes. A favorite savory pie in Morocco is
bisteeya, a pastry crust stuffed with chicken or pigeon. A mixture of sea-
sonings—nutmeg, saffron, parsley, and cinnamon—deepens the flavor of
the poultry used. A mixture of sugar and almonds is also added to the pie,
which provides a sweet taste.

Meat and Fish

Historically, populations in the Mediterranean have not consumed
much meat. The Mediterranean diet is based on carbohydrates, not pro-
teins. In fact, there were many folk sayings that indicate meat was a rarity
on most people’s tables. One Italian phrase recalled that if someone eats
a chicken, either the person or the chicken is sick. Today, people eat all
kinds of meat and there is plenty of meat for sale in grocery stores, out-
door markets, and supermarkets. Beef, not traditionally associated with
the pastoral and seafaring ways of the region, has become more available,
but many Mediterranean consumers prefer lamb, chicken, goat, pork (for
Christians), and even camel. When meat is served, it is usually roasted,
which was popular with peasants because it can be done easily and out
of doors. From ancient times forward, armies and nomadic peoples would
gather food as they went. When they set up camp, they would gather fire-
wood then slaughter a few sheep or goats and grill the meat. Although it
is one of the oldest ways of cooking meat, roasting is today a refined cook-
ing technique. During the Ottoman Empire, for example, palace cooks
would try out various types of wood to impart different tastes on the meat.
Today in Turkey, barbecue is still wildly popular for holidays and special
occasions, as well as in restaurants, where the barbecue is brought to the
individual table and customers can cook meat and vegetables to their
satisfaction.7
In many parts of the Mediterranean, roasted meat or barbecue is a
highly sophisticated enterprise. Kebabs (shish kebab, doner kebab) of
all types are popular street foods, and each street vendor has his or her
individual recipe for marinade. Some of the most popular ingredients for
marinade include yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, and a mind-boggling va-
riety of herbs and spices. Although a simple kebab will consist of chunks
of meat on a skewer, meat can also be ground up with different seasonings
then shaped around a skewer and roasted. Moroccan kefta is ground meat
mixed with seasonings. The mixture is shaped like a sausage, threaded on
to a skewer, broiled, and served over couscous. Rotisserie-cooked meat
is also popular, especially in the eastern Mediterranean. Greek souvlaki
102 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

is lamb or chicken that has been marinated first and then threaded on a
long skewer, sometimes between vegetables and bay leaves. The cooked
meat is served on pita bread with salad and yogurt. Greeks also make a
dish called gyro on the rotisserie. Made of ground lamb mixed with bread
crumbs and seasonings, gyro is cooked on a vertical spit and slices are cut
off and eaten with bread, tomatoes, parsley, and yogurt. Similar to gyro
is shawarma, eaten in the eastern Mediterranean, especially the Levant.
Meat is marinated and grilled, then served with pita bread, tomatoes,
garlic sauce, and French fries.
Given the peasant traditions and uneven economic development in
the Mediterranean region, it is not surprising to note that every part of
the animal is eaten; nothing is wasted. After the choice parts are roasted
and eaten, less desirable parts of the animal are ground up, cooked, sea-
soned, and stuffed into intestinal casings for sausage. Animal innards are
also put into stuffed vegetable dishes to stretch the supply of meat even
further. Animal tongues and some of their internal organs (sweetbreads)
can be cooked into layered dishes or roasted on skewers. Even the lin-
ing of the cow’s stomach, tripe, is consumed in stews and soups. Some of
the more unusual parts of animals are considered delicacies. Pig’s feet are
cured and sold for special occasions in Italy. And in Greece, lamb’s heads
are a delicacy. The head is soaked in water and then split in half. It is usu-
ally brushed with a light marinade before roasting, and it is ready to serve
when the brains are tender.
Because fish play such an important role in the region’s economy and
ecosystem, they are prepared in many ways. The most common way to
prepare most fish is roasting or broiling. Fish and seafood are also sautéed
with a few vegetables and seasonings. And fish eggs are a particular deli-
cacy, either as roe to be used in recipes or cured as bottarga, blocks of fish
eggs wrapped in thin wax. Fish eggs are tossed with pasta, or used in salads
to add a distinctive salty flavor, or they are eaten with bread and a drizzle
of olive oil as an appetizer. Some fish dishes are more complicated. Fish

Tripe. © J. Susan Cole Stone.

Typical Meals 103

are used as stuffing for vegetables or conversely, vegetables like zucchini

are used to cover fish before cooking. Fish and seafood are frequently used
in complex tajines and paellas. And on the French Mediterranean coast,
fish is layered with tapenade, tomato confit, and phyllo dough and baked
off, to make a kind of fish “pastry.” Another exotic fish dish is lampuki pie,
made from a popular fish in Malta. The lampuki fish is deboned and fried,
then mixed in a pie with onions, cauliflower, spinach, tomatoes, olives,
and raisins. When fish is broiled or sautéed, it is usually seasoned with a
bit of olive oil, lemon, and a few herbs; but it can also be marinated in a
sweet-sour mixture, which is popular in north Africa and in Sicily.

Side Dishes
Side dishes are usually fresh vegetables or legumes. Historically, le-
gumes were popular foods in the region because they provided nour-
ishing protein, they were versatile, and they kept well in dried form.
Lentils and chickpeas are popular additions to stews and soups; they can
also be cooked with seasonings and served either hot or cold. Further,
they can be ground up and fried into patties or balls for snacks and appe-
tizers. Another legume, the fava bean (also known as the broad bean),
is popular throughout the region. Fava plants grow long pods in which
there are three to eight beans inside each pod. Like other legumes, fava
beans are versatile: they can be steamed, boiled, or fried. But unlike
other legumes like lentils or chickpeas, fava beans are not typically used
in main course dishes. Instead, the fava bean is the quintessential side
dish legume. In Morocco, cooked fava beans are tossed in a spicy dress-
ing made with coriander, cumin, and garlic, or in Algeria, more simply,
cooked and tossed with cumin and salt. In Tunisia, a side dish or type
of salad is ftet, a fava bean, noodle, and dry fish dish, where fava beans
are simmered with dried fish and seasonings in a tomato paste, then
mixed with noodles. In France, fava bean salad is made with cooked
fava beans, herbs like parsley and basil, and some grated cheese. Or a
more elaborate salad is made in Spain with Spanish ham ( jamón Ser-
rano) and mint; also used are eggs and tomatoes. In Italy, fava beans are
made into a soup, simmered with fennel and hot peppers, and served
over toasted bread and drizzled with olive oil. In Greece, fava beans are
cooked with leeks and potatoes.
Vegetables served as side dishes are cooked many ways, whether baked,
simmered, braised, or grilled. Vegetable mixes are also popular, providing
more variety and again, different tastes, than a single vegetable. One of
the most common vegetable side dishes consists of eggplant, peppers, and
104 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

tomatoes. In Provence, this is known as ratatouille, a dish that is eaten

both hot and cold; in fact, it tastes better the day after it is prepared, as the
blended flavors become even stronger. Ratatouille is made by sautéing egg-
plant, peppers, and tomatoes (sometimes zucchini is included in the mix)
with garlic, thyme, basil, and parsley. A similar dish is Tunisian mechouia,
a mixture of roasted peppers and tomatoes seasoned with garlic, capers,
and various spices. Mechouia is usually garnished with tuna or sliced hard-
boiled eggs. In the Middle Eastern part of the Mediterranean, diners eat a
dish called mnazzalleh, eggplant with tomatoes, chickpeas, and seasonings
such as mint, parsley, and sometimes cinnamon. The mixture is left to sit
for several hours to allow the flavors to blend together. Another dish that
is left alone for the flavors to blend is Sicilian caponata, a combination
of eggplant, celery, pepper, tomatoes, and onions seasoned with capers,
olives, raisins, and vinegar.

Dessert
The preferred end to most meals in the Mediterranean is fresh fruit,
sometimes combined with cheese, biscuits, and coffee or tea. Prepared fruit
is also a popular dessert choice. Sometimes fruits are stuffed with sweet-
ened ricotta cheese, or they are poached and served with fruit syrup. Dried
or fresh fruit is stewed into a compote and flavored with nuts, honey, or
yogurt. Fruit is also used as the main ingredient in flavored ices, puddings,
tarts, and ice creams. Another dessert preferred by Mediterranean din-
ers is pudding. Usually made from milk, cream, or yogurt, Mediterranean
puddings are made with corn starch or mastic, a North African ingredient
that gives the pudding a chewy texture. Frequently, puddings are topped
with nuts, toasted seeds, dried fruit, and honey.
Fruit and pudding are simple desserts enjoyed at home. In restaurants
or when entertaining company, Mediterranean hosts and hostesses may
make something more elaborate, like pastries, cookies, or even a cake.
Cookies studded with nuts or dried fruit are often accompanied by coffee
or tea. Pastry is made with either a sweet dough made with eggs and but-
ter, or with phyllo dough, delicate rolled-out layers of dough. The rich
dessert baklava, a layered honey, ground nut, and phyllo dough pastry,
is most often associated with Greece, but it is also enjoyed in Turkey
and throughout the Levant. More elaborate pastries are made in south-
ern France and Italy; bakeries offer a wide variety of layered, filled, or
frosted pastries; and lunch or dinner guests usually buy a tray of pastries
to take to the home of their host or hostess. It is said that no one eats
more pastries than Sicilians; this may be debatable, but it is true that
Typical Meals 105

Sicilian pastries and cakes are the most elaborate in the Mediterranean,
difficult to make and syrupy sweet. For example, the cake called cassata
is a sponge cake, layered with a sweetened ricotta cheese mixture and
wrapped in marzipan (almond paste); as if this weren’t enough, the con-
fection is then frosted!

Dried Fruit Compote

1 cup raisins
1 cup dried apricots
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons honey

Rinse raisins and apricots then place in a bowl and soak with about 1 quart of
cold water for 4 hours. Put nuts in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Soak for
an hour and drain. Leave fruit in liquid and add sugar and honey, stir until sugar
is completely dissolved. Add nuts and serve.

It seems clear, then, that no one dish or meal or menu adequately

characterizes all the tastes and techniques of the Mediterranean region.
The same ingredient can be prepared in hundreds of different ways and
enjoyed at any time of the day or night. Although there are no typi-
cal dishes for the region, there are some similarities between countries
in terms of meal order, preparation of certain foods, and food combi-
nations. What seems clear is that Mediterranean dishes are based on a
fairly elaborate culinary system that embraces or incorporates difference
while preserving certain trends (peasant cooking, for example) for future
generations. And, as the next chapter demonstrates, people across the
Mediterranean region enjoy these dishes both in and out of the home.
Just as there are hundreds of typical dishes and meals, there are dozens of
ways to enjoy them.

NOTES
1. Paula Wolfert, Mediterranean Cooking (New York: Harper Perennial, re-
vised edition 1994), p. xii.
2. On the history of the hotel breakfast buffet see Joan Nathan, The Foods of
Israel Today (New York: Knopf, 2001), p. 25.
3. Daniel Young, Made in Marseille (New York: HarperCollins, 2002),
pp. 122–126.
106 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

4. Paula Wolfert Web site, http://www.paulawolfert.com.

5. Wolfert, Mediterranean Cooking, p. 149.
6. Clarissa Hyman, Cucina Siciliana (Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2002),
p. 76.
7. Sarah Woodward, The Ottoman Kitchen (Northampton, MA: Interlink,
2001), p. 61.
 5
Eating Out

“Eating out” means a lot of things to people in the Mediterranean region.

People might eat out at an elegant restaurant, but they are just as likely
to stop by a café or snack bar for a quick bite. They might sample the
seasonal delicacies at a stand in a street market, or they may be invited
to dine at a friend’s house. Just as there are all different venues for eat-
ing out, there are also different reasons to do so: convenience, circum-
stance, hospitality, and a desire to do something out of the ordinary. In
all these cases, eating takes place outside the familiarity of one’s home
and kitchen; for some Mediterranean diners this is an anxious moment,
but for others it is an opportunity to try something new or to see how
others cook familiar food. People from all walks of life eat out, from those
who do not have proper kitchen facilities and subsist on varied forms of
inexpensive fast food, to those who can afford to try the latest trendy
restaurant or attend an elaborate dinner party. Making and selling food
to others constitute a vital part of the small business economy in this
region, and just about anyone can find a bit of start-up money to become
an ambulant vendor.
This chapter explores the different places where people eat out: street
markets and stands; informal dining establishments such as cafés, bars, and
coffee-shops; and more formal places such as restaurants and other peoples’
homes. Food bought at market stalls and from ambulant vendors is perhaps
the equivalent of American fast food in the sense that it is inexpensive and
quick, but this is where the comparison ends. Mediterranean street food
108 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

is by no means standardized like American fast food. Instead, diners can

choose from a variety of dishes: breads, sandwiches, soup, snails, savory
and sweet pies, ice cream, candy, and just about every other kind of snack
or meal one could imagine, each prepared by an individual cook or baker.
And hundreds of years before Starbucks, parts of the Mediterranean had
a thriving coffee-shop culture. The popularity of coffee and tea has ebbed
and flowed, but a café, bar, or coffee shop can still be found on nearly
every street corner. Drinking caffeinated beverages is not only an impor-
tant aspect of consumption and leisure activities in the Mediterranean,
café culture provides a space for various communities, whether defined
by gender, age, class, religion, politics, or occupation, to foster important
social bonds. The restaurant, from the humble trattoria in Palermo, to the
trendy brasserie in Tel Aviv, to the Michelin-starred restaurant in Nice,
offers locals and tourists alike a chance to sample neighborhood special-
ties or food from around the world. In some areas of the Mediterranean,
however, restaurants are usually for tourists; locals prefer to dine in their
own or in someone else’s home before dining out in a restaurant. Although
a tremendous variety of food is served in restaurants and in other peoples’
homes, these places share some common dining rituals, as well as basic
ingredients for meals.

MARKETS AND STREET FOOD

Cooks throughout the Mediterranean are likely to purchase their food
at a local outdoor market or at a small specialty shop, rather than at a
large supermarket. Historically, small shops and markets were important
for consumers in the Mediterranean region, often because shopkeepers
extended credit and offered gifts during the holidays to create and sustain
a reliable customer base. Food prices were not advertised and shopkeep-
ers would make adjustments according to the market or to adjust to the
economic circumstances of the consumer. When large chain stores and
supermarkets first appeared in the Mediterranean region after World
War I, they were very unpopular. Not only did customers dislike the shop-
ping experience, but shopkeepers in major cities organized and protested
this way of doing business. Today, when consumers shop at a small store,
they are more likely to buy just a few items, maybe just what they need for
dinner. They are also more likely to stop and chat with the storekeeper
or the help, if only to find out what meat is at a good price or to see how
everyone’s family is. They might sample a new type of cheese, and their
children might get a sweet from the shopkeeper. Small shops and markets
now have to compete with an increasing number of supermarkets where
Eating Out 109

consumers can drive to the store, park their cars, and fill up on groceries
for the week. Supermarkets are popular with younger people and tourists
who might prefer the faster but less personal service and the standardized,
clearly visible prices. Supermarkets are also popular with working families
who appreciate the hours they stay open (some small shops still close at
lunch time and most outdoor markets are open only in the morning) dur-
ing the week and on Sundays.
Because the climate in much of the Mediterranean is generally mild,
outdoor markets can be found year-round. These markets are places to buy
ingredients for meals as well as prepared foods, which range from simple
snacks and treats to more elaborate cooked meals. Outdoor markets are
set up in towns and villages and in cities. Some are more specialized, sell-
ing mostly fish or eggs or fresh produce; others are big sprawling affairs
selling all kinds of food and other goods and services as well. Whereas
markets in small towns and villages usually open one day a week, from
dawn until mid-day, more permanent markets in cities, like the Marché
Central in Tunis, stay open five or six days a week. The Marché Central
is famous for carrying everything from spices to cheese, from octopus to
crusty bread, from rose petals (for making rosewater) to candy. Another
famous market is the Djemma el-Fna in Marrakech, Morocco, which cov-
ers an area of about 12 acres. Here shoppers can find any kind of food they
desire, and there are lots of nonedible goods for sale as well. Entertain-
ment is provided by street performers, who might amuse shoppers or the
patrons enjoying mint tea at any of the numerous cafés that surround the
market area. After about five in the afternoon, mobile cooking stands are
set up by vendors who make and sell all kinds of Moroccan dishes: harira
(a nourishing and inexpensive soup), couscous, snails, and grilled sau-
sages. The outdoor market, or souk, in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo,
covers 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) of winding alleyways; inexperienced
shoppers can easily get lost in the maze of food and goods. Classic souks
are arranged so that all the stalls of a particular trade (or good) are grouped
together in one section. For example, all of the spice vendors are in one
area and the nut vendors are in another. This arrangement allows for easy
comparison shopping by consumers.
Because outdoor markets have no formal inventory control or consumer
survey mechanisms, they tend to offer local produce or food specialties only
when they are available. On the coast of Italy or in Sicily, shoppers can
buy fresh citrus in season, or pastries and candies during special religious
holidays. In Catalonia, the local markets sell everything from locally made
sausage to wild mushrooms. A popular seasonal item are calcots, a variety
of onion that is served roasted with romesco sauce (made from peppers,
110 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

tomatoes, garlic, toasted almonds or hazelnuts, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and
pepper). Local specialties and produce are purchased on site and then pre-
pared at home. In the eastern Mediterranean region and throughout North
Africa, food is prepared and cooked right in front of the customers, who
either sit down at tables or eat standing up. Sometimes, communal utensils
are washed off or kept in water for the next customer. Traditionally, street
food has been associated with the lower classes, especially with workers,
who did not have adequate time or money for a home-cooked lunch. What
people refer to now as “fast food” has really been around for centuries. In
eighteenth-century Naples, for example, citizens who lived in the slums
by the bay of Naples did not have kitchen facilities, so they subsisted on
street food: octopus, bread, pizza, stews, and even pasta served street-side.
Hungry Neapolitans would pay vendors whatever they could afford, and
the vendor would give them the appropriately size portion. Sometimes the
customers would argue with the vendor over the size of the portion, or they
would ask for some extra seasoning. Other times they would eat the food
quietly and quickly, either standing or sitting.

Pizza maker Gennaro Bruno prepares pizzas in a restaurant in Naples, Italy. The
Italian government has issued strict guidelines to protect real Neapolitan pizza
from impostures. AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta.
Eating Out 111

Today, workers still buy a nourishing meal or quick snack on the

street, but some upper-class consumers might consider it inappropri-
ate to buy and eat something made right there on the street. Although
there is something democratic about being able to buy and eat just about
anything on the street, there are still class- and status-based prejudices
against those who would slurp soup on the street corner or eat a folded-
over slice of pizza while sitting on the steps of a building. Certain codes
of manners and family traditions have always held some people back
from partaking in this kind of consumption. For example, in 1889, the
king and queen of Italy, King Umberto and his wife, Queen Margherita
of Savoy, were traveling through Naples and desired to taste pizza be-
cause they had heard so much about it. Nineteenth-century codes of
conduct forbid royalty from engaging in such a plebeian activity as eat-
ing food on the street or in a humble pizzeria; instead a pizza maker was
summoned to prepare several different types of pizza and deliver them to
their hotel. The Queen communicated her thanks through the head of
the Royal Household and, presumably, the pizza she enjoyed the most, a
tomato, basil, and mozzarella cheese pizza, was named the pizza margher-
ita in her honor. Cookbook author Anissa Helou recalled growing up in
Beirut, Lebanon in the 1950s and 1960s, where, along the seaside, street
vendors would sell “all kinds of tempting goodies: sesame galettes that
looked like handbags, grilled corn, mountains of seeds and nuts spooned
into cones made out of old newspapers, luscious sweets and candies, ice
cream, and refreshing drinks.” Yet Helou was never allowed to satisfy her
appetite there on the street because she came from an upper-class fam-
ily. Every time she would ask for a treat, her uncles would reply: “Girls
from good families don’t, but you can buy whatever you want and take
it back home and eat there.”1 Today, children and young adults seem
less concerned about the unspoken codes of conduct when it comes to
eating street food or fast food. Their parents and grandparents, however,
might still want them to take the food home and eat it privately.

Pizza Margherita
Dough
1/2 cake compressed fresh yeast
2 cups of warm water
1 cup pastry flour
1 tablespoon salt
5–1/2 to 6 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
112 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

In a bowl, stir the yeast into warm water until it dissolves. Add the pastry flour
and salt and mix well. Add the all-purpose flour one cup at a time, kneading until
the dough is smooth. Shape the dough into a ball and leave it in the bowl; cover
with a towel and let rise for four hours. Punch the dough down and divide into
pieces; the dough should make five to six pizzas.

Toppings
1 large can of peeled tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 cups diced mozzarella cheese
Fresh basil
Salt
Olive oil

Pinch dough out into a small circle on a pizza peel or pan. Distribute a small
amount of the chopped tomatoes on the dough and swirl around with your fingers.
Dot the dough with chunks of mozzarella, then sprinkle some salt over the pizza
and add several fresh basil leaves. Swirl about a tablespoon full of extra-virgin
olive oil on top of the pizza and put in a very hot oven (500ºF) and bake until gold
brown, about 5 to 10 minutes.
The distinction drawn between eating food in public and private is per-
haps more important in regions of the Mediterranean where street food
is, literally, food that is prepared and eaten on the street. For example,
throughout Egypt, men set up carts or street-side stands to cook koshari,
a mixture of pasta, rice, and legumes. Customers get a bowl full and may
even use a communal spoon that is kept in a pot of water. Frequently,
food is prepared and cooked right in front of the customers, who may
make special requests for certain ingredients, but who do not, as a rule,
offer suggestions in terms of preparation. Although there has been no
exhaustive study of the types of street food prepared in the region, anec-
dotal evidence suggests that proper street food, sold by ambulant vendors
and consumed on the street, is more popular in the eastern and southern
regions of the Mediterranean, where all sorts of dishes are prepared, not
only simple sandwiches, but also more elaborate dishes like soups, stews,
tajines, and even desserts. Throughout the European edges of the Medi-
terranean, street food refers to the specialties that are usually prepared
indoors and then taken away to be eaten on the streets or at home. An
example would be the pizza a taglio (pizza by the slice) stores where cus-
tomers can select from a wide variety of prepared pizzas, choosing the type
and quantity of pizza. Sometimes the pizza is reheated or the customer can
take home some wrapped pizza to eat later. Diehard fans of street food
would argue that there is not much “proper” street food on the western or
Eating Out 113

European side of the Mediterranean. This may be the case today, but it
was not necessarily the case in the past, given that Italy, Greece, Spain,
and southern France had ambulant vendors and hawkers who sold food on
the streets for people to eat.
One of the most popular street foods in the eastern Mediterranean is
the kabob or kebab, which is meat or ground meat threaded on a skewer
and grilled. During the last 20 years, kebab has become adopted by many
around the world as a favorite fast food. Thanks to the recent emigration
of peoples from Turkey and the Levant to parts of Europe, kebab stands
compete with pizzerias and snack stands selling local specialties in cities
like Stockholm, Berlin, and Copenhagen. One kind of kebab is shawarma,
sold on the streets of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. Shawarma is a very large,
fat “kebab” made with either lamb or chicken. The meat is sliced into
wide pieces and marinated overnight. It is then threaded on a long skewer
in between pieces of fat. The skewer is placed on a vertical grill and left
to rotate. As the meat cooks, the layers of fat baste the kebab, keeping
it moist. Once cooked, the outer layers are sliced off and served on pita
bread with tomatoes, onions, pickles, tahini (sesame paste) or garlic sauce.
The Greek version, made with pork, is called souvlaki and the Turkish
version, made with beef or lamb, is called doner kebab.
Sandwiches like doner kebab are popular street foods because they are
portable. Variations on sandwiches are plentiful throughout the Medi-
terranean. Italians duck into cafés and bars to purchase and eat panini,
sandwiches made out of large slices of white bread. The sandwiches are
filled with a variety of ingredients—cheese, eggs, meat, vegetables—then
sliced into triangles and kept in stacks under cloth napkins. Customers
choose which ones they want and the barista toasts the sandwiches as
they wait. In Tunisia, a popular sandwich in the coastal areas is casse
croute, which means breaking the crust, a sandwich stuffed with varied
ingredients made to order, but most commonly made with tuna, pota-
toes, and salad loaded into a sliced baguette. Tunisians also enjoy a fill-
ing sandwich called fricassée, fried bread filled with tuna, potatoes, and
olives. The Tunisian fricassée has nothing to do with the French fricassée,
a stewed chicken dish. Fans of French street food have their own version
of the take-away sandwich, pan bagnat, which means soaked bread, origi-
nally a specialty of Nice and now sold throughout the Riviera. Pan bagnat
consists of a sliced baguette that is rubbed with garlic and then filled with
ingredients such as tuna, hard-boiled eggs, and vegetables. Perhaps the
most famous street food sandwich is falafel: crispy fried chickpea balls lay-
ered into pita bread with tahini sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, pickles,
and even potato chips or French fries. Falafel originated in Egypt, where
114 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Falafel—served with pita bread, lettuce, and tahini sauce—is made from ground
chickpea flour. AP Photo/Larry Crowe.

it is called ta’miyah, and it also took root in Syria and Lebanon, where the
chickpea balls are smaller and crisper. Today, falafel has become part of
the global fast food market, along with pizza and kebab, available on street
corners throughout the world as a quick and filling snack.

Pan Bagnat
Dressing
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt, pepper
Whisk together vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. Add olive oil gradually, stir-
ring constantly, set aside.

Sandwich
1 large baguette
2 cans tuna, drained
2 onions, sliced into rings
Eating Out 115

2 hard boiled eggs, sliced

1 pepper sliced into rings
1 cup kalamata or brine-cured olives, chopped
1 tomato, sliced

Slice baguette horizontally and pull out the soft bread center, making a well in
both halves of the bread. Place tuna, onion, eggs, pepper, olives, and tomato in
the bottom half of the baguette. Drizzle dressing over the filling. Top with other
half of baguette and wrap entire loaf tightly with plastic wrap. Let sit one hour at
room temperature. Unwrap, slice, and serve.

Related to the sandwich are a variety of filled breads and flavored flat-
breads, usually prepared in advance but sometimes made on the street for
customers. Ancient Greeks and Romans mixed together flour, water, and
olive oil and sprinkled the dough with more oil, honey, herbs, or a sauce.
They then baked the dough on a hot stone. Leavened and unleavened
breads were prepared throughout the Mediterranean region, as both daily
staples and ritual foods. Today, Italians eat focaccia, in southern France
consumers eat fougasse, and in the eastern Mediterranean one can buy sea-
soned pita. In Morocco and Tunisia, the herbs and other ingredients (such
as anise seeds or sesame seeds) are kneaded into the dough before baking.
The most popular version of flavored flatbread is, of course, pizza. Once
found exclusively in the city of Naples, Italy, pizza’s popularity spread as
Neapolitans immigrated to the rest of Europe, as well as North and South
America. The original pizza was little more than a flatbread with tomatoes,
salt, herbs, and sometimes lard, cheese, or tiny fish larvae. Related to pizza
is lahmacun, or “Turkish pizza,” in which a ground lamb mixture is spread
on flatbread and baked. Turkey, along with Greece, specializes in stuffed
breads and savory pastries like the Turkish borek, filled with cheese, spin-
ach, potatoes, or meat; or the Greek spanikopita, a phyllo-pastry triangle
layered with cheese and spinach. Turnovers, flatbreads, and pizzas are sold
in bakeries, storefronts, and from sidewalk stands; they are usually eaten
throughout the Mediterranean as a snack, although with pizza, special res-
taurants (pizzerias), where one can sit down and order a pizza with specific
toppings, cater to customers for lunch and dinner.

Lahmacun
1 package of pita bread, separated in halves
1 pound ground beef or lamb
2 onions, chopped coarsely
116 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

1 cup parsley
2 tomatoes, seeds discarded and chopped
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon salt

Using a food processor or blender, chop up and mix together all the ingredients
except for the meat. Then mix in the ground meat and refrigerate mixture to
blend the flavors for about an hour. Preheat oven to 500ºF or broil; take some of
the meat mixture and spread in a thin layer on a pita bread. Place as many pitas
as will fit on a cooking sheet and cook for about five minutes until pita is golden
brown and crispy.

Sandwiches and light snacks offered as street food are not unusual; what
is worth noting about breads and sandwiches in the Mediterranean is the
variety of ways these foods are prepared. A simple food like bread is pre-
pared in hundreds of different ways, altered by the addition of a single
ingredient or topped with an array of interesting tastes; however, ingredi-
ents are not added indiscriminately or carelessly. Instead, much thought
and consideration goes into the preparation of a particular kind of bread;
a pinch of salt can make a dramatic difference to the discerning customer.
No doubt this is the case because the poor populations throughout the
Mediterranean frequently had to make do with few ingredients. Thus sim-
ple foods like bread and flatbread became complex forms of cuisine with
the addition of only a few ingredients. The pinch of salt matters, then, in
distinguishing one form of flatbread from another.
More complicated, even elaborate, dishes are also served on the street.
In Tunisia, one street specialty is called brik, a pastry pocket filled with
minced lamb, beef, or vegetables. An egg is cracked over the ingredients,
the pastry folded over and sealed, and the whole thing is deep fried in oil.
Brik is a very messy food, popular with tourists even though it takes an ex-
perienced consumer to eat the pastry pocket without incident. More pop-
ular with locals than with tourists, koshari is a meal served on the streets
in Egypt. Broken-up bits of macaroni, vermicelli, and rice are cooked with
chickpeas, lentils, and onions in a seasoned tomato sauce. The mixture
simmers in big vats and is served up on the street. It is a favorite with
many Egyptians because it is inexpensive and filling. Soup is also a popu-
lar street food in the southern and eastern Mediterranean; harira can be
found throughout North African and Middle Eastern markets, especially
during Ramadan. Chickpea and egg soup, or leb-lebi, is also popular on the
streets of Tunis. Customers crumble white bread into a bowl and then the
Eating Out 117

vendor adds a ladleful of chickpea, lemon juice, and cumin soup into the
bowl. Then he stirs in a raw egg. The soup is finished off with harissa (red
pepper paste) and olive oil. Inexpensive sources of protein—eggs (served
at egg counters in street markets), snails, tripe, and chitterlings—are pre-
pared in different ways, sautéed, fried, and simmered in soups and stews.

Koshari
Tomato Sauce
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large can of chopped or crushed tomatoes
Salt, pepper
Sauté onions until soft. Add garlic and cook briefly, then add tomatoes. Simmer
for 20 minutes or so until thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

Koshari
8 tablespoons of olive oil
2 medium onions, sliced
1/2 cup vermicelli, broken up into pieces
1 cup dried lentils
1 1/3 cup rice

Cook the onions in the olive oil until they are caramelized. Remove from oil
and dry on paper towels. Add vermicelli to oil and fry until browned. Remove
from heat and set aside. Put lentils in 6 cups of water and bring to a boil, reduce
heat, and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes or until lentils are tender. Add rice to
the lentils and simmer for 15 minutes, then add vermicelli and oil from the pan.
Remove pan from heat and let sit covered for 10–15 minutes or until liquid is
absorbed and vermicelli and rice are tender. Stir in caramelized onions and top
with tomato sauce.

Sweets and desserts are also popular street foods in all regions of the
Mediterranean. Ice cream in one form or another is a popular summer
treat that has become a year-round institution. In Italy, gelato, a creamier
iced treat made with milk, is sold in hundreds of flavors, including unusual
ones like rice, kiwi fruit, jasmine blossom, and even tomato. Customers
can duck into a gelateria to choose several flavors for a cup or cone to take
away, or there are bars and cafés that have a gelato case, usually with a
118 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

sign boasting that the gelato is made on the premises. Ice cream (glace)
is also popular in the Côte d’Azur, where vendors sell cones and cups
to hungry beachgoers. In the Levant, a popular iced milk treat is büza,
usually made with fruits and nuts and stuffed into a rectangular cookie
“box.” Another sweet treat popular throughout the Mediterranean is pud-
ding, usually made with milk and other ingredients, and sold by ambulant
vendors as well as in sweet shops and ice cream stands. In Lebanon and
Syria, m’hallabiyeh is a simple milk pudding served in tiny bowls and piled
high with different nuts. Sicilians make pudding out of more unusual in-
gredients such as watermelon or chestnuts. Very sweet desserts and candy
are available everywhere in the Mediterranean, whether in the form of
baklava, a sweet honey and nut filled pastry; marzipan (almond paste)
candies; or Turkish lokum (also known as Turkish delight), a candy made
with corn starch, sugar, nuts, and coconut. For many people, candy and
pastries are special treats and not everyday fare. Adults prefer to have
fresh fruit as the last course of the meal, although they may indulge their
children in an afterschool snack of an ice cream or a bag of candy. On
religious holidays (see chapter 6), candy is one way to mark the occasion
as special. Some of the desserts served on the street can be quite elaborate.
In Syria, pancakes are cooked on a griddle; stuffed with cheese, walnuts,
or clotted cream; folded over and pinched shut; then deep fried and cov-
ered in sugar syrup.

Büza
1 1/4 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
About 2 1/2 cups chopped fruit (strawberries, watermelon, peaches, mangoes,
bananas)
1 cup crème fraîche

Pour milk in medium saucepan and bring to a boil without boiling over. Pour into
a mixing bowl and stir in sugar until sugar is dissolved. Process chopped fruit in
a blender or food processor until smooth. Stir into milk and add crème fraîche.
Pour into ice cream maker or put mixture in the freezer, checking it every half-
hour and stirring it until it reaches the right consistency.

Street food is more than just a quick snack or meal in the Mediter-
ranean. It plays a vital role in the local community. It provides oppor-
tunities for small businesses to start and grow. One does not need much
in terms of start-up funds, and some ambulant vendors make do with a
bicycle, a tajine pot, a few utensils, and a bag of ingredients. In this era
Eating Out 119

of increasing consolidation and globalization, street food vending offers

one way for small businessmen and women to survive and even thrive.
Moreover, street food vendors make available all kinds of foods to those
who might not have the time or opportunity to cook. This includes single
people who do not feel like cooking for themselves, working people who
may not have the time to cook, and those who do not possess adequate
supplies or facilities for cooking. In providing adequate and varied nour-
ishment for these populations, street vendors offer a vital community
service. And by preparing and cooking popular dishes in public, street
vendors keep certain food traditions alive, offering an opportunity to
customers to witness and partake in a different type of community, one
defined by taste and tradition.

CAFÉS, BARS, AND COFFEE SHOPS

Coffee and tea both have a long history in the Mediterranean region.
The leisurely consumption of these beverages has long been a part of the
consumer culture in urban areas. For example, the first coffee house in
the Mediterranean was opened in Istanbul in 1554, during the Ottoman
Empire. Coffee houses soon became meeting places for intellectuals to
meet, talk, and write. They also became places for leisure; playing games
was a popular pastime at coffee houses. Sometimes, discussion became
lively or focused on political issues. Authorities were quick to close cof-
fee houses if they thought these places were or would become hotbeds of
political unrest. In the mid-seventeenth century, the Sultan Murad V not
only closed coffee houses, he also forbade the drinking of coffee. Coffee
houses soon spread to Europe, but the premiere coffee shops were located
in areas where there was trade or diplomatic relations with the Ottomans:
Venice and Vienna, for example, and not the cities along the European
Mediterranean coast.
Tea is more popular than coffee in parts of the Mediterranean such as
Turkey, Morocco, and Tunisia. Although tea was a prized import from
China for centuries, it did not become a drink for the masses in these
regions until well into the nineteenth and even twentieth centuries. Tea
lovers can buy their favorite drink in cafés, or they can purchase it from a
street vendor or a tea cart at work. Tea is also served at the end of a meal
in restaurants and in homes. Brewed from loose tea leaves, not teabags,
Mediterranean tea is quite strong and is served highly sweetened and with
mint in Morocco and Tunisia. In restaurants and in people’s homes, tea is
poured out from a special pitcher with a long spout, into glass cups, which
allow the drinker to appreciate the full color of the tea. No one drinks
120 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

A man drinks coffee at an outdoor café in

Athens, Greece. AP Photo/Petros Karadjias.

more tea in the Mediterranean than the Turkish population. Turks take
numerous tea breaks at work throughout the day, and they like to joke
that the nation’s economy would come to a halt if the tea supply were cut
off. A popular joke or story tells of a lion escaping from the Ankara Zoo
and taking up residence in the basement of a building (an office building,
Parliament, a government office). The lion proceeded to eat important
people like politicians, businessmen, or reporters, but no one did anything
until the lion ate the tea-vendor of the building. Only then did people
organize to capture the lion and return him to the zoo.
Today’s coffee shops (or as they are also called, cafés, bars, and kafeneion)
are not usually hotbeds of political dissent. Instead, they tend to be places
where patrons can relax and discuss the news, play cards or other games,
and socialize. Many cafés have indoor and/or outdoor seating, and now
it is common to see televisions that blare out music videos or the latest
installment of a popular reality show. In Greece and in the eastern Medi-
terranean, some cafés are male domains, where (usually older) men can
retire to smoke, talk politics, and play cards, dominos, or backgammon.
Eating Out 121

Throughout the Mediterranean, however, cafés catering to younger patrons

attract both men and women, who may come to study, flirt, and drink Coke
instead of coffee or tea. Starbucks has expanded into some countries in the
Mediterranean (Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Turkey) and is popular with
younger customers, who enjoy the drinks and the ethos of “hanging out,”
although the U.S. company is currently cutting back on its international
expansion (having closed outlets in Israel, for example). Locally owned
cafés are neighborhood institutions, places where one comes to get the
news, hear the gossip, or reconnect with neighbors and friends. Some pa-
trons do not mind lingering and chatting over their drink, but others prefer
to duck in, grab a quick cup of espresso, which they drink standing up, wolf
down a sandwich or pastry, and then leave. Cafés also offer a variety of
other products: candy, cigarettes, lottery tickets, and postage stamps; and
barkeepers are reliable sources of information about neighborhood services
and activities. In the age of Starbucks, none of this may seem unusual, but
café culture made the Mediterranean area distinctive in the years before
and after World War II, in the sense that it supported neighborhoods and
more specific communities (artistic, literary). Moreover, cafés offered fast,
convenient food, as well as a stimulating beverage in the years when people
in the Mediterranean adjusted to new work patterns, changes in family
structure, and social habits. Still prominent on practically every street cor-
ner, cafés, coffee shops, and bars are anchors of neighborhood communities
and constitute an important part of small business practices in the region.

RESTAURANTS AND HOMES

There are many ways to “eat out” in the Mediterranean, including the
more formal occasions of visiting restaurants and dining in someone’s home.
Hospitality is a critical aspect of Mediterranean culture, and thus eating out
often means a visit to a friend or relative’s home, to enjoy an evening of food
and conviviality. Among Muslims, hospitality during a meal has ritualistic
dimensions; a host or hostess will serve more food than guests can possibly
eat—not to show off, but to show respect for the guests. Dining in a Muslim
home takes on spiritual dimension, according to two German observers of
Middle Eastern food habits, who describes the hospitality ritual by noting
carefully the language used at the beginning and end of the meal:
The head of the house selects the finest piece of meat for his guest and then
keeps pushing bowls of food towards him: inshaallah ‘adjabak (“Hopefully it is to
your taste”). When the guest has eaten his fill, he offers thanks, for example,
by saying daime, an expression used throughout the Levant meaning “(may
your reward) be eternal,” to which the host may reply, sahteen, “double health
122 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

(be given back to you),” before the visitor rounds off the exchange with “ala
qalbak, to your heart.”2

In regions where most socializing takes place in people’s homes, res-

taurants are usually reserved for tourists or for special occasions. In other
regions of the Mediterranean—the Côte d’Azur or in Catalonia, for ex-
ample, restaurants are much more popular. They are important venues for
socialization and express the vibrancy of local food habits and rituals.
Perhaps the most popular places for eating out are the outlets where
diners can get a quick meal without a lot of fuss or formality, for example,
cafeterias, snack bars, and other self-service dining establishments. Tur-
key, for example, has restaurants called hazir yemek, or ready food, which
function like self-service cafeterias. Steam tables keep a variety of dishes
warm and patrons grab a tray and select the items they like, pay for them,
and eat, usually one flight above the cafeteria or in some cases, on an open
air terrace. In Italy, the tavola calda, or hot-table, offers a similar variety
of foods to customers who eat them in the cafeteria or take them home.
Other informal dining establishments are popular neighborhood places. In
Greece, the taverna and kafeneia tend to attract locals, and more upscale
restaurants cater to tourists. In Italy, the trattoria is more casual and less
expensive than a ristorante. And on the Mediterranean coast of France,
“mom-and-pop” establishments serve indigenous cuisine at lower prices,
whereas higher priced restaurants tend to be starred Michelin restaurants;
this means they have to adhere to strict national standards and the food is
classic French cuisine. At a starred restaurant, one is more likely to get a
meal there that resembles something at a restaurant in Paris.
Over the last 20 years, one of the most noticeable changes in the region
is the trend toward eating lunch outside the home and family. In many
Mediterranean countries, workers and students used to return home at
lunchtime for a home-cooked meal and a rest before heading back to work
or school. Shops, schools, and offices would close for one or two hours,
much to the frustration of foreign tourists, who expected goods and ser-
vices to be open nonstop during the business day. In particular, American
travelers on a tour of Europe would frequently remark that the Spanish,
Italian, and Greek way of life seemed too slow paced, given that every-
thing shut down for two hours in the afternoon.
Lunch was such an important meal that it was usually the most sub-
stantial meal of the day. Lunch would consist of several courses, usually a
beginning course like soup or pasta, followed by a main course of meat or
fish with vegetables, then a fruit course. And depending on the location,
salad was served either before, during, or after the main course. Dinner,
Eating Out 123

on the other hand, was frequently lighter than lunch: a bowl of soup and
some bread, an omelet and some salad, or maybe just a sandwich and a
piece of fruit. There are still places in the Mediterranean, especially in
rural areas, where stores and businesses might shut down for lunch; but in
cities and suburbs, schools and businesses tend to stay open and workers
and students consume their lunches away from home. People may work
or attend school far from their homes and going home is not practical or
even possible in some cases. And in the age of the Internet, the pace of
work and school has quickened; workers and students are expected to get
more done in a day. There is no longer time for a one- or two-hour break
in the middle of the day
Nevertheless, one still might find on the streets of Barcelona, Naples,
or Athens, an auto mechanic, plumber, or shopkeeper who works down
the street from his house or flat. He leaves at one for a home-cooked
lunch prepared by his wife and returns to work after an hour or so. Usu-
ally, he leaves a note on the door of this workplace, or he shuts the outer
door and turns off the lights. Now it is far more common to see people
leaving their jobs for a quick bite at the snack bar or café, or hustling into
a casual restaurant where they can get a fast meal. A quick bite or a fast
meal does not necessarily mean bad food, however. Patrons of a humble
trattoria in Italy can find a reasonable fixed-price lunch, consisting of a
pasta or soup, followed by a meat dish and a vegetable, with fruit for des-
sert. The trattoria only has a few options to choose from and the servers
work to feed the patrons quickly and efficiently. At the very least, patrons
in a snack bar can get their sandwich toasted so the cheese melts and the
taste of the ingredients blends together in a satisfying way. Large offices
and factories have cafeterias or canteens, where workers can buy either a
hot or cold lunch at a reasonable price.
It used to be traditional for children in school to go home for lunch,
but increasing numbers of children are taking their lunches with them. In
many schools there is now a cafeteria that serves prepared meals for kids
or at least a canteen where kids can buy sandwiches or other packaged
foods to eat. Children eat their lunch at school either because they live far
from the school or both parents work. At some schools, it is not unusual
for kids whose parents work to stay at school and eat lunch while other
kids go home to have lunch. And, as children get older and attend high
school, they prefer to take their lunch break outside school and home,
usually by hanging out in the school parking lot or at a local snack bar or
fast food outlet like McDonald’s.
After lunch, the afternoon snack becomes the next occasion for eating
out. Schoolchildren might grab a bag of potato chips at a café, or they
124 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

might have an ice cream cone or some candy. The culture of eating out
at dinnertime varies by region, as well as the type of restaurant and the
clientele it caters to. In Catalonia, especially in the cosmopolitan city of
Barcelona, people love to eat out, especially for dinner. Breakfast may
be a rushed coffee and pastry, but lunch out is a more leisurely affair.
Restaurants open for lunch attract patrons at about one or two in the
afternoon and, if one takes coffee and desert, the meal can take over an
hour. After work or school, they will enjoy a snack or merienda, maybe
coffee and pastries, or wine and tapas at a bar or café. While eating tapas
and drinking wine, diners might linger a bit and turn the snack into an
early dinner. Tapas are little appetizers, served on small plates to diners in
bars and patrons. Tapas are never served at home. The origin of the word,
tapa, literally means cover. In nineteenth-century Andalucía, “roadside
innkeepers used to cover the glass of wine they served to tired and thirsty
horsemen with a slice of ham, cheese, or bread.” The food was meant to
protect the wine inside the glass from dust or rain. The customer paid for
the wine but not for the complementary tapa.3
In bars, patrons can choose from a variety of dishes and in restaurants,
waiters will bring out a tapita, or “little tapa,” a small plate with sausage,
olives, or some almonds. In fancier restaurants, the tapita will be some-
thing more elaborate, perhaps a bit of salt cod with potato and garlic, or
a flavored anchovy. A variety of tapas can make an entire meal and not
surprisingly, many people who frequent bars after work will fill up on tapas
then return home later, either to sleep or to make a simple sandwich or
omelet for dinner. Those who do go out for dinner will head out late in
the evening, around 9 or 10 p.m., for cena or dinner. Dinner consists of a
multiple course meal and can take several hours. Restaurants are also open
very late in Greece and in Cyprus, but dining out is less of a cosmopolitan
activity than it is a family affair. The dress code in most restaurants is ca-
sual, and it would not be unusual to find extended family dining together,
with grandparents, parents, and children all sitting together. Like Cata-
lonian restaurants, Greek restaurants open late by American standards
(1–2 p.m. for lunch and 8–9 p.m. for dinner) and stay open as long as the
customers linger. Servers avoid rushing customers out of the restaurant,
and everyone assumes that patrons have the table for as long as they wish,
even if this means the entire evening. It is not unusual, then, for people to
stay an hour or even two hours after the last plates are cleared.
One of the most vibrant restaurant cultures in the Mediterranean can
be found in Israel, which hosts a booming hospitality industry including
hotels, restaurants, and wineries that cater to tourists and citizens alike.
This is somewhat of a recent development, as the region was not known
Eating Out 125

for having fine cuisine until the last decade. Israeli chefs, hotel owners,
sommeliers, and vintners have made great strides in terms of professional
training and quality control. It is not unusual, for example, for top chefs in
city hotels to have received training in Paris, New York City, or London.
Israeli wines are also gaining international recognition at competitions
and in the export trade. Because so many citizens have immigrated to
Israel from elsewhere, restaurants in cities and suburbs offer a wide range
of ethnic foods: not only Middle Eastern specialties, but Italian, French,
Greek, Russian, Ethiopian, Balkan, Thai, Chinese, American, and fusion
cuisine. Israel has the most multiethnic restaurant culture of the region,
but other countries offer a variety of cuisines as well. This has been the
case historically, given the legacy of imperialism, immigration, and tour-
ism. In Tunisia, many restaurants with French names (“Monte Carlo” or
“Le Pub”) serve local and French dishes. In Cyprus, there are British pubs
alongside the traditional tavernas, where one can drink a pint of beer or
ale and play darts.
In some parts of the Mediterranean, it is thought the best meals are
served in people’s homes, not restaurants, which are reserved for tourists
and traveling business people. Eating out, then, means eating in someone’s
home. In Morocco, dining in someone’s home is made more formal by a
premeal hand washing ceremony and a blessing pronounced before the
meal. Many different foods are served in abundance, usually hot and cold
salads followed by a tajine, then the heartiest dish like lamb or chicken
followed by couscous topped with meats and vegetables. In North Af-
rica and the Middle East, it is important not to eat everything set out for
guests. This act demonstrates that the host has set out more than enough
food to satisfy everyone’s hunger. Everyone eats quickly and usually in
silence. After the meal, diners retreat to the living room for sweets, cof-
fee, and conversation. Here, the party can continue through the night,
especially during holidays like Ramadan (see chapter 6).
Whether one is dining in a restaurant or at someone’s house, the meal
usually begins with something before the main course. In the Côte d’Azur,
this means hors d’oeuvres, tapas in Spain, antipasti in Italy, and meze in
Greece and the eastern Mediterranean. The purpose of this first course
is to whet the appetite for the main course or in some cultures, they are
intended to go with whatever wine or alcohol is served before the meal.
These foods are served in small bite-size chunks and are frequently salty
or pickled. Although many Mediterranean cultures share a preliminary
course, there is a wide range of practices in terms of how these foods are
consumed. In Italy, for example, diners will find an antipasto bar or table
at the front of the restaurant; this table is usually loaded with the local
126 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

specialties as well as some standard “Italian” appetizers such as roasted

vegetables, prosciutto, and fresh mozzarella cheese. Individuals can
browse and either help themselves or order from their server. Tapas in
Spain are brought out to diners on little plates, although the plates are
usually shared by everyone at the table. Meze are intended to be shared;
diners pass around a communal plate, dipping their flatbread into the of-
ferings. Whatever the medium of the appetizer, the ingredients are usually
similar. Eggplant, for example, can be roasted and spread on toast (cros-
tini) in Italy, roasted and mixed with tahini as baba ghanouj in Lebanon,
sautéed with tomatoes, peppers, and spices and served as a meze in Mo-
rocco, or chopped into a salad with roasted peppers, tomatoes, and spices
in Spain.
After the appetizer, there is considerable variation in the presentation
of the meal, depending on location and the occasion, as the previous chap-
ter explained (chapter 4). There is little difference, however, between res-
taurants and homes: if the pattern of the meal is casual, as in the eastern
Mediterranean region, then this will be the case for restaurants as well
as in people’s homes. And in European countries in the Mediterranean,
guests in people’s homes are treated to the same formal order of dishes
that they will encounter in restaurants. There may be some variation to
the meal order if one is eating out at a picnic; here all the food is usually
served together no matter where the picnic is held. It is worth noting,
however, that in Italy, campers will bring cook stoves and pots with them
so they can prepare a plate of hot pasta to be eaten as a first course, even
in the middle of the woods or on the beach.
Eating out means so many different things: grabbing a quick sandwich
from a street vendor, buying a hot lunch in a school cafeteria, spending
a lot of money at a fancy restaurant, or feasting at a relative’s house on a
holiday. The diversity of experiences demonstrates that hospitality is more
than custom or ritual in the Mediterranean—it is a way of life. Eating out
is also a social expectation and frequently a necessity. The many venues
for eating out constitute a foundation of the local economy and the rela-
tionships between cook, vendor, and consumer build a sense of commu-
nity and illustrate how people of the Mediterranean relate to each other.
Despite frequent worries and even protests against American fast food
chains, it seems unlikely that such a lively and diverse street food culture,
especially in North Africa and in the eastern Mediterranean, will ever die
out. And restaurant culture, whether humble or luxurious, continues to
evolve, creating ever more sophisticated cuisine while still maintaining
great respect for tradition. One of the most noticeable characteristics of
eating out across the Mediterranean is how much people enjoy being, and
Eating Out 127

eating, together. Even in cafés or outdoor markets, individuals who do not

know each other will sit or stand elbow to elbow and eat, either in quiet
appreciation of the food before them or in conversation with each other.
This is not to say that people in the Mediterranean do not eat a sandwich
alone in a car, or a snack in front of the television; they do, although they
would prefer not to. Eating is a shared event and, by extension, eating out
is more than just about the food; it is about human relations and a sense
of community.

NOTES
1. Anissa Helou, Mediterranean Street Food (New York: HarperCollins,
2002), p. xv.
2. Florian Harms and Lutz Jakel, The Flavours of Arabia. Cookery and Food in
the Middle East (London: Thames and Hudson, 2007), p. 9.
3. Marimar Torres, The Catalan Country Kitchen (Reading, MA: Aris,
1992), p. 33.
 6
Special Occasions

Food plays an important role in defining special occasions in the Medi-

terranean. Food preparation and consumption bring people together dur-
ing a celebration for a shared meal that frequently becomes a central
activity, if not the central activity of the day. Designated foods or dishes
are reserved for a particular holiday; thus food reinforces the meaning of
the occasion by marking the day as a special or significant one. Food’s
symbolic qualities can reinforce the values that individuals or communi-
ties want to think about on that occasion. Particularly for religious holi-
days and rituals, symbolic food serves as a medium of communication for
the community to express their faith or commemorate the past. For life
celebrations such as the birth of a child, weddings, or funerals, food is the
medium through which people come together and express their collec-
tive feelings, whether they are joy, respect, or sorrow. Because food and
its consumption make an event or celebration special, the dish or food
item usually consists of something unusual or out of the ordinary. Either
the food is an expensive or rare luxury (an entire roast pig or caviar)
or it involves more elaborate preparation than everyday fare (a layered
and decorated cake). Food both reinforces the unique qualities of the
occasion and becomes one of the main reasons for individuals to gather
together.
Special occasions vary greatly across regional and cultural divides. Every
culture honors certain passages of life, but life celebrations can occur more
or less randomly. Weddings can be planned in advance, but events like
130 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

birth and death are more or less beyond the control of most individuals.
Organized or planned holidays occur with greater regularity and can be
dedicated to any number of causes for celebration and commemoration.
Holidays are special days, marked off not only by the kind of food people
eat, but frequently by time off from work and the usual rhythms of life.
Celebrants may attend an elaborate feast in someone’s home, or they may
take a drive into the countryside to have a picnic. Given the cultural
diversity of the Mediterranean, secular holidays like national or patriotic
holidays differ between nations and even within nations. Even an inten-
tionally universal holiday like International Worker’s Day (May 1) is not
celebrated as much as it was when it was first proclaimed a holiday in
1889, and when it is celebrated, it is less about paying tribute to workers
and more about staging concerts or promoting political causes. People
throughout the Mediterranean are connected through the celebration of
religious occasions, however, given that the Mediterranean is the meet-
ing place of three of the world’s major religions: Christianity, Islam, and
Judaism. In all three religions, food plays a significant role in bringing
people together, imparting certain lessons or values, and serving as the
bridge between the externally visible routines of ritual or everyday prac-
tice and the inner life of faith and belief. Each of these religions main-
tains a vibrant food culture, expressed not only through holidays but also
through everyday practices.
In examining the role that food plays in defining and commemorat-
ing special occasions, this chapter focuses primarily on religious events:
holidays, celebrations, and everyday practices. Specific foods are prepared
and eaten on special days and in certain ceremonies or rituals. Moreover,
in two of the major faiths, Judaism and Islam, dietary laws or restrictions
play an important role in making the everyday practice of preparing and
eating food a special event in itself, symbolizing one’s community, one’s
belief, and one’s relationship to God. In effect, dietary laws make every
day a special occasion. This chapter first describes the special foods and
rituals of Judaism, followed by Islam and Christianity, noting which foods
and meals define special occasions, as well as how those foods are prepared
and used for the event. The rest of the chapter discusses the role of food
in nonreligious events or foods that are eaten for special occasions that
have nonreligious symbolic significance. Local holidays that celebrate
some aspect of community or history, as well as national secular holidays
and celebrations of the harvest, use food in ways that are similar to those
of religious events: to bring the community together, to symbolize certain
values or myths that individuals live by, and to mark the day or event as
being out of the ordinary.
Special Occasions 131

In all these cases, food performs a variety of social and cultural work.
Most important, shared meals and feasts bring the community together, re-
affirming the bonds between family, friends, neighbors, or citizens. Because
food can be prepared in a variety of ways (roasted, boiled, baked, molded,
or stuffed), it can symbolize certain events, individuals, or qualities the
special occasion commemorates. Food’s symbolism can be quite obvious: a
loaf of bread can be shaped to resemble a Christian saint, or the symbolism
can be more abstract: in some cultures, fava beans have come to be associ-
ated with death and the dead. In either case, people have actively assigned
meanings to food that stretch beyond simple nourishment and sustenance.
And when particular foods are eaten for a special occasion, food makes
abstract values like community, faith, and veneration more real. An event
is marked as special not only by the presence or abundance of food but fre-
quently by the absence of food through fasting and abstention from certain
foods. Both practices reaffirm community or remind individuals of certain
obligations. And last, because food for special occasions is prepared in a
certain way, even using special utensils or tools, individuals who prepare
and eat the foods tend to remember the holiday through the preparation
and consumption of certain dishes or meals. Memories of these foods are
preserved in people’s minds, passed down through generations, or perhaps
even described in a cookbook. Certain foods, their preparation, and con-
sumption bring people together not only for the special occasion, but by
tying people together in the realm of memory, in terms of thinking with
and through food about a shared past, a sense of community in the present,
and hope for the future.

FOOD AND RELIGION: SACRED CELEBRATIONS

AND EVERYDAY LIFE
Because the Mediterranean is home to three major religions, there is a
diversity of religious practices regarding food, both for special occasions
and for everyday life. Yet each faith—Judaism, Islam, and Christianity—
shares certain attitudes and practices regarding food. In all three religions,
for example, the faithful are supposed to offer thanks to God before a meal,
usually as a measure of gratitude for providing the food to be eaten, but for
other reasons as well. Each religion bestows symbolic significance on cer-
tain foods to be used in special meals or ceremonies. And in all three reli-
gions, abstinence from food, whether through fasting or food prohibitions,
tests and proves one’s faith and capacity to sacrifice. There are significant
differences as well in terms of the purpose or origins of food rituals, as well
as differences that evolve over the course of time. For example, Christians
132 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

do not adhere to as many dietary restrictions as Muslims or Jews. Com-

mon attitudes toward food prevail, however. Indeed, the use of food to
commemorate one’s faith and religious practice, significant to all three
religions, links the populations of the Mediterranean together, not only
on special occasions but every day.

Judaism
It is commonly said that Jewish holidays involve either fasting or feast-
ing. Certain foods or special dishes make Jewish religious holidays and
rituals significant. On so many of these holidays, food offers a way for
the faithful to revisit their past; food is used in very tangible ways in
Jewish rituals to explain the past and its relevance to Jews today. Thus
special occasion foods are more than symbolic; they instruct the faithful.
In times of fasting, the absence of food reminds people of past sufferings
among Jews and brings contemporary participants closer to God through
self-denial and purification. In everyday life, dietary regulations, called
kashrut, reinforce the individual’s faith and define the devout Jewish

A Passover Seder plate contains symbolic foods used during the Seder meal. From
top center: horseradish, a shank bone, charoset (a mixture of fruit, wine, and nuts),
lettuce, parsley, and an egg. AP Photo/Dan Goodman.
Special Occasions 133

community through the practices of purchasing, preparing, and eating

food. Jewish populations throughout the Mediterranean are diverse: Eu-
ropean or Ashkenazi Jews populate the south of France, parts of Italy,
Greece, and Israel. North African or Sephardic Jews live throughout
North Africa and the Levant. Although they celebrate the same holi-
days, Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews draw on their regional culinary heri-
tage, and the foods served on special occasions vary in accordance with
local food culture.1
The most obvious symbolic use of food during Jewish holidays is the
Passover Seder, in particular the foods on the Seder plate, which represent
different moments in the history of the Jewish people. Passover is a holi-
day celebrated for eight days in spring, commemorating the Jews’ exodus
from Egypt and the liberation of Israelites from slavery. Passover is also
known as the Festival of the Unleavened Bread, because anything made
with yeast is forbidden at this time. Before the Passover meal, a plate is
prepared with different foods, and the head of the table explains each of
the foods to the others. A roasted shank-bone recalls the paschal offerings
brought to the Temple in Jerusalem in ancient times; bitter herbs such as
horseradish root or lettuce remind diners of the bitterness the Jews expe-
rienced as slaves in Egypt; a green vegetable (usually parsley) represents
hope and faith in the future; an egg represents the continuing cycle of life;
charoset (a combination of apples or dried fruit, wine, walnuts, and cinna-
mon) stands for the mortar that Jews used to make bricks out of in Egypt;
and a dish of salt water symbolizes the tears they shed in Egypt. After
Passover diners receive and eat this “history-lesson-on-a-plate,” there is a
large meal. Because extended family gather together and because there are
different Seders given for different communities and groups, preparations
for the meals can be rather time-consuming and involved. Moreover, in
the days leading up to Passover, all traces of hametz must be removed from
the house in a ritual cleansing of the house of the forbidden food. Hametz
or chometz translates into a food that is fermented or could cause fermen-
tation. Bread made with yeast is strictly forbidden and so unleavened
products like matzoh—a cracker-like flatbread—replace bread. Ashkenazi
Jews will not eat any grains such as wheat, spelt, oats, rye, barley, rice, or
legumes. Sephardic Jews of the Mediterranean region did not accept the
ruling of post-Talmudic authorities on rice and legumes, given that rice
and legumes formed the basis of their diet. So during Passover, Sephardic
Jews eat rice and legumes, as well as some seeds or spices such as allspice,
fennel, cumin, nutmeg, and sesame, and flavorings such as rose water or
orange-flower water.2 A typical Passover meal in North Africa might in-
clude a tajine made with lamb and prunes with honey, Tunisian sausage,
134 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Moroccan carrot salad spiced with cumin, and an artichoke stew, along
with the more familiar matzoh and charoset.
In almost every other Jewish holiday, special foods, or the lack of
food, serve to remind Jews of what and why they are celebrating. On
the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, sweet foods are served so as to
ensure that one has a sweet year; for centuries Jews have dipped pieces
of challah bread, apples, grapes, and other fruits in honey. Round loaves
of challah bread symbolize the cyclical nature of life, the coming back
to beginnings and the hope that the coming year will be complete.
In Tunisia, Jews serve a beef and bean stew with semolina bread for
Rosh Hashanah. There is nothing particularly symbolic about the main
course, but accompanying the food are pomegranates, whose seeds sym-
bolize one’s good deeds in the coming year; a bowl of sesame seeds to
stand for virtue; and figs, quince, and dates symbolize a sweet new year.
Across the Mediterranean, Jews avoid eating any foods that are black
or dark on Rosh Hashanah, as the holiday is intended to be a joyful
one. On the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, the day of
atonement, a 25-hour fast fulfills the prophecy for one to practice self-
denial, and other writings stress fasting as a reminder of repentance, in
asking for God’s forgiveness. For some, fasting enables the individual to
ignore physical desires like hunger, concentrating instead on spiritual
needs like repentance and self-improvement. The fast is broken by a
simple meal, prepared in advance and quickly reheated. Five days after
Yom Kippur, Sukkot (Sukkos), the Feast of Booths, commemorates the
40 years Jews lived in the wilderness before entering Israel. Coming as
it does in the fall, Sukkot also celebrates the harvest, as a temporary
shelter or sukkah is built in people’s yards and decorated with hang-
ing fruits and vegetables. Because all meals are supposed to be eaten in
the sukkah for the seven days of the celebration, families invite friends
over to dine or members of a synagogue might dine together as well.
There are no specified foods that one must consume in the sukkah, so
most people prepare traditional favorites or involve their children in
meal preparation, as the holiday is supposed to be joyful and fun. The
sukkah, however, is supposed to be decorated with etrog (citron) and
luvav (palm, willow, and myrtle branches bound together). On Chanu-
kah, fried pancakes (latkes) and donuts are served. It is not the foods
but the oil that they are fried in that is significant to the holiday. Oil
calls to mind the miracle of the Maccabean revolt (the candelabra in
the temple burned for eight days even though there was only enough
oil for one day). These special foods have become symbolic over the
course of centuries, and although there may be some variation between
Special Occasions 135

Sephardic and Ashkenazi traditions, or between regions depending on

local traditions and available foods, Jewish communities throughout
the Mediterranean use food to represent or call to mind past struggles
and events in ancient Jewish life. Sometimes, symbolic food is a more
contemporary creation, as on Shavuot, the holiday commemorating the
giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Cookies are made in the shapes of
mountains and Torah scrolls.

Latkes
1 pound potatoes, peeled
1 large egg, beaten
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
Oil for frying

Use a food processor to grate potatoes, squeeze out any excess liquid and place
in large mixing bowl. Add egg, flour, salt and pepper to taste. Stir well. Heat
1/2 inch of oil in large skillet. Drop potato batter into oil and fry, flattening
each pancake with a spatula and cooking until golden brown. Drain on paper
towels and serve immediately, either with apple sauce or sour cream or dusted
with powdered sugar.

Using specific foods and preparing traditional dishes are a means to

connect Jews with the symbols of their faith and to reinforce the les-
sons of their history. On another level, these same foods and dishes create
powerful and lasting memories regarding the content and meaning of the
special occasion. These include memories of sharing food at table as well
as learning how to prepare a certain dish, or planning a holiday menu.
Although the origin and purpose of special days like Rosh Hashanah and
Chanukah are religiously inspired, foods order and define the event. Ask
people what they do on a holiday like Passover and their answer will most
certainly include discussion of food and food preparation.
The Jewish Sabbath, or Shabbat, is also a time for commemorating
one’s faith through the preparation and consumption of food. Although
the Sabbath occurs every week and is therefore more frequent and less
“special” than a holiday, it is nonetheless significant because families and
friends gather together to eat. In more traditional Jewish communities in
the Mediterranean, wives and mothers spend a lot of time preparing spe-
cial foods before the Sabbath (on Friday nights and Saturday mornings)
and serving food to their families on the Sabbath day. These tasks take
some planning and forethought, given that the cooking must be completed
136 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

before the Sabbath begins. Moreover, depending on the size of the family
and the expectations of family members for a good Sabbath meal, food
preparations can be quite complicated or involved, as evidenced by this
description of a Middle Eastern Jewish woman’s work:
For a typical Sabbath on which her children and grandchildren visit her, one
woman prepares two cakes (one with cheese and one with no milk products),
cookies (bagelah) for visiting grandchildren, nuts and seeds that she herself has
cleaned, salted, and baked, soup, chicken stuffed with potatoes (for the recipe
the chicken is first boiled, the potatoes are fried separately, and then the chicken
and the potatoes are baked together—three separate processes), string beans,
rice and tomato sauce, burekas (filled pastries for which a stiff dough is rolled
out and then spread with margarine and folded in thirds once each day for three
successive days), Sabbath stew (a bean, vegetable, and meat stew that sits in the
oven from Friday afternoon until it is eaten for lunch on Saturday), two different
eggplant salads (one fried and one baked), and several vegetable salads (at least
one consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions cut into tiny pieces).3
Not every Sabbath meal is so elaborate. Sometimes, a much simpler
meal is served, along with kosher wine or grape juice, and two loaves
of challah to remind Jews of the story of manna falling in the desert so
that no Jew would have to gather food on the Sabbath. For some women,
though, food preparation plays an important role in their religious life.
Anthropologists who have studied traditional Jewish communities in Al-
geria and Israel have observed a contrast between the men of the com-
munity, who prayed together, and the women, who prepared food in order
to properly maintain and nourish their families, a task they understood
as central to their faith. In these communities, men celebrate or observe
the Sabbath while women make or prepare the Sabbath. This does not
necessarily mean, however, that women’s roles are less significant because
they focus so intensely on the home and the preparation of food. As one
anthropologist noted, women in these communities become the ritual
experts and guardians of law and tradition, with the power to make or
create the Sabbath or a special occasion. For these women, cooking is a
sacred activity because it “embodies, concretizes, dramatizes, and ritual-
izes a number of the central elements in Judaism.”4
For observant Jews, following dietary laws, or kashrut, is a way to dem-
onstrate one’s spirituality every day. Thus the kosher kitchen is the spiri-
tual center of the home and food preparation is a highly significant act of
faith and devotion. Kosher literally means fit or proper and describes the
types of foods and ways you can prepare them as specified by the Torah.
These laws apply primarily to the eating of animal products (meat and
dairy), as plants (fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, spices, and grains) are by
Special Occasions 137

definition kosher. All foods are then classified according to the category
they fit: meat, dairy, or pareve (neither meat nor dairy, but vegetables,
fruits, grains, eggs, and nondairy substitutes like margarine). Acceptable
or kosher meat must come from animals that chew cud and have cloven
hooves. In addition, these animals must be ritually slaughtered, and the
meat must be soaked in cold water and salted to remove all blood before
cooking. Kosher meats include beef, lamb, veal, and goat; pork and all
carnivorous animals are forbidden. Shellfish are forbidden, as are shark,
eel, squid, snails, and octopus. Dairy products must come from kosher ani-
mals and must not be cooked and served with meat or poultry. Keeping
meat and dairy foods separate is an important part of keeping kosher; this
means the two types of food must be consumed separately. If one eats dairy
first, then one can eat meat afterward, but if one eats meat first, there is a
ritual waiting period of between one and five hours to eat dairy. A kosher
kitchen will have two sets of dishes, pots, pans, and utensils for prepar-
ing meat and dairy. All implements that touch the foods must be washed
separately, so as to avoid any possible mixing of the foods. And there are
no prepared dishes that mix meat and dairy together; thus a cheese pizza
with a meat topping is not kosher.
Following the laws of kashrut is a means to link oneself to God every day
through the mundane practice of preparing, eating, and thinking about
food. Like dietary regulations found in other religions, kashrut becomes a
distinctive way to remind the faithful of their obligations and faith. Many
observant Jews do not think very much about keeping kosher because
these rules become internalized, but for some Jewish populations in the
Mediterranean, following the laws of kashrut can be difficult at times. For
example, one can readily find kosher pizza in Israel, but grabbing a quick
snack in areas where there is not a large Jewish population requires a bit
more thought about what kind of food is available. Many processed foods
can contain trace amounts of dairy products, so one must carefully read
labels so as to avoid mixing meat and dairy products accidentally. And
for Jews with limited kitchen space, maintaining and cleaning two sets of
dishes can be a frustrating experience if meat and dairy are mixed. Despite
such difficulties, kashrut sanctifies everyday life by providing guidelines for
the faithful to express their faith and community with and through food.

Islam
For Muslims in the Mediterranean, food and eating are powerful ve-
hicles through which people express their faith and values. In addition
to reminding the individual of his or her relationship to Allah, food and
138 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

food rituals emphasize the importance of community and one’s obligations

to others. Meals with friends, which are special occasions in themselves,
are also suffused with spiritual meaning. At the beginning of the meal, the
host will pronounce “Bismillah,” which means “in the name of Allah” and
then this will be repeated by everyone present at the table. Bread is then
broken and offered to each guest to scoop food from a communal dish. The
way that one eats is also an expression of one’s faith. In Morocco, people
eat using the thumb and first two fingers of the right hand (the left hand
is considered unclean), using bread as a utensil. They do this, because,
in the words of Moroccan chef Hassan M’Souli, “to eat with one finger
is said to have the devil’s influence, eating with three fingers is a sign of
the Prophet, and only gluttons eat with four or five.”5 After the meal, the
host and guests thank Allah once more. Hospitality and appropriate ritual-
ized behavior around food remind Muslims every day of their relationship
with Allah. As with Judaism, fasting and feasting are special events for the
Muslim communities and dietary regulations reaffirm individual and com-
munity religious obligations.
Muslims follow the tenets of the Qur’an when thinking about food and
diet. Dietary rules distinguish certain foods as either allowed (halal) or
forbidden (haram). Forbidden foods include pork and pork products, any
meat that is not slaughtered in the prescribed Islamic way, blood, carnivo-
rous animals or birds of prey, and alcohol and intoxicants or any food with
alcohol in it. These rules should be followed at all times, whether one is
at home or dining out. For example, Muslims are discouraged from eating
in restaurants that serve forbidden food or alcohol. In practical terms,
Muslim dietary restrictions mean that meat should never be served rare,
but always well done. Cooking with wine is out of the question and chefs
in four-star restaurants in Islamic countries must be creative in thinking
of flavorful alternatives to cooking with wine. Some chefs combine fruit
juices and vinegars to mimic the flavor of wine; others simply do not make
coq au vin or a dish that calls for alcohol in the recipe. Halal meat should
come from animals killed by ritual slaughter, which is governed by strict
rules and, if done correctly, is intended to preserve the dignity of the ani-
mal (animals are not slaughtered in groups; the knife is not shown to the
animal; before slaughter, the animal should be stroked and have its throat
pointing to Mecca; the fatal cut should be a swift and clean one to the
windpipe, gullet, and both jugular arteries; a prayer is recited during the
slaughtering process) and death comes quickly.
Fasting or abstaining from food constitutes both a somber reflection on,
and a celebration of, the Muslim faith. The fourth ritual observance in
the five pillars of Islam, fasting is a complete control of one’s appetite and
Special Occasions 139

Egyptian Muslims wait patiently to begin eating during the holy month of Rama-
dan. AP Photo/Amr Nabil.

therefore one’s self. Because fasting is about controlling bodily appetites,

it enables the individual to pay more attention to one’s spiritual nature
and therefore come closer to Allah. In enabling the individual to experi-
ence hunger, fasting helps one develop compassion for the less fortunate
by understanding the bodily sufferings of those who cannot afford to eat.
Fasting also teaches Muslims to be thankful for what they do receive from
Allah. In periods of fasting, Muslims avoid all food and drink from sunrise
to sunset; people with health conditions and pregnant or nursing women
are excused. Muslims spend more time fasting than Jews and most Chris-
tians do (however, the Greek Orthodox Church mandates many fasting
days). There are both prescribed fasting days like the celebration of Rama-
dan and voluntary fasting days every Monday and Thursday.
One of the most significant events in the Muslim calendar is Ramadan,
a 30-day fast. Ramadan happens on the ninth month in the Islamic cal-
endar, the month when God revealed the holy book of Islam, the Qur’an,
to the prophet Muhammad. During Ramadan, the faithful worship, read
the Qur’an, give charity and perform other virtuous deeds, and fast. All
Muslims at the age of puberty must fast from sunrise until sunset. A proper
fast means abstaining from all food and drink, which takes a great deal of
140 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

A Turkish man tastes dates at a bazaar in Istanbul. Traditionally, Muslims break

their Ramadan fast with dates and water. AP Photo/Murad Sezer.

willpower and strength when Ramadan falls in the warmer months and
thirst can become intense. After sunset there are prayers and then Mus-
lims can eat. In people’s homes, a dinner is prepared to eat after prayers.
In restaurants, tables are set up for the evening meal with drink, salad, and
bread. Street vendors prepare all kinds of treats, like candy and pastries,
for people to consume after the evening prayer; but in the meantime,
everyone has to wait patiently before they can break the fast.
When the fast ends, some Muslims prefer to begin feasting straight away,
but others break their fast with a few dates and some water, to prepare the
stomach for the feast to come. Dates are thought to bring good luck and
prosperity and are the food that the prophet Muhammad ate during his
fast. When Muslims break their fast, they eat a large meal composed of
favorite foods. In Morocco, the Ramadan fast is ended with harira, a soup
made with meat, legumes, vegetables, and spices; the word harira means
silk, as the soup is supposed to be as soft as silk and to delight the senses
like silk does. Moroccans also enjoy bisteeya, a pigeon pie. In Egypt, a Ra-
madan tradition is ful, a seasoned bean dish, and bread. Elsewhere Muslims
Special Occasions 141

may break their fast with a couscous and a meat dish. Across North Africa
and the Levant, Muslims break their fast with regional specialty dishes or
foods they like to eat; there is no universal Ramadan dish. A typical meal
during Ramadan might be fruit juice or carob drink, followed by fish soup,
then a fish and potato casserole served with rice and eggplant and tomato
salad. Hot soup at the beginning of the meal is supposed to stimulate the
digestion after a period of fasting. Then the main courses should be filling,
providing vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients. After meals,
there are sweets: puddings, cakes, pastries, and candies, to provide the
body with adequate energy.6

Harira
1 pound cubed meat (lamb, beef, or chicken)
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
3 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced, or 1 large can of chopped tomatoes
7 cups water
3/4 cup dried lentils
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 pound vermicelli, broken into pieces
2 eggs, beaten
Juice of 1 lemon

In a large soup pot combine meat, spices, butter, celery, onions, and cilantro and
cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook
for 15 minutes. Add water and lentils, bring mixture to a boil and reduce heat,
simmer covered for 2 hours. Add chickpeas and vermicelli and cook 15 minutes
or until vermicelli is tender. Stir in eggs and lemon juice and cook a few minutes
more. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped mint leaves.

It is customary for Muslims to eat two meals during Ramadan: the first is
called iftar and is the largest meal, eaten shortly after sunset and consisting
142 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

of multiple courses. The second meal is called suhur and is a lighter meal,
eaten just before sunrise. In some cases, people who dine out or eat at
other peoples houses eat so much and stay so long at iftar that a host serves
suhur just before everyone goes home. Because Ramadan involves 30 days
of fasting, one might assume that the celebration emphasizes asceticism or
deprivation, but this is not entirely the case. In fact, many Muslims break
their fast by indulging in their favorite foods and eating more than their
fill after the sun sets. Throughout the Mediterranean, Muslims actually
eat more food during Ramadan because of all the feasting that occurs after
the fasting.
In addition to Ramadan, the Muslim calendar includes several holidays
in which food plays a central role in the celebration. After Ramadan, the
day of Eid al-Fitr is celebrated. It is customary to eat dates and other sweets
to commemorate Muhammad’s consumption of only dates and camel’s
milk during his month of fasting. Feasting is a central part of Eid al-Fitr,
and so preparations are made in the last days of Ramadan to ensure there
will be more than enough food for family and friends to eat. Muslim fami-
lies will donate foods such as rice, barley, and dates to poor families to
ensure that they will have enough to eat for the celebration. On the first
day of Eid al-Fitr, there is a mid-day feast, which is a welcome occasion
after an entire month of nightly meals. The dishes served vary according
to regional and individual tastes. In Algeria, Muslims start their feast with
soup or stew, then eat either lamb, beef, or seafood for the main course.
Egyptians make special cookies called kahk (spiced cookies either rolled
in sesame seeds or stuffed with dates and nuts, then dusted with powdered
sugar) to give to friends and family, and it is customary to enjoy fish for
lunch. In Turkey, all kinds of dishes are eaten for lunch and children take
special delight in going to friends and family to collect candy in a celebra-
tion similar to the American Halloween. Eid al-Fitr is, above all, a family
holiday where the extended family gathers at the home of the most senior
member.
Another significant Muslim holiday is Eid al-Adha, which happens
70 days after Eid al-Fitr, at the end of the month when Muslims make
the pilgrimage to Mecca. People usually eat fish, particularly salted cod, as
well as a variety of homemade biscuits. Known as the Festival of Sacrifice
or the Great Festival, Eid al-Adha commemorates the story of Abraham,
who was prepared to follow God’s instructions to sacrifice his son, who
was ultimately spared (a ram was sacrificed instead). Any family that can
afford to pays to have a sheep slaughtered and distributes the meat among
relatives and the needy. Lamb meat is prepared in many ways and forms:
in soup, baked, grilled, and sautéed. And throughout the Mediterranean,
Special Occasions 143

some Muslims celebrate Moulids, which are festivals in honor of a local

holy person (Christians in North Africa and the Middle East might honor
a local saint with a Moulid). A Moulid lasts anywhere from a single day to
a week, and food plays a special part in the celebration. Food stands and
carts selling special treats are always set up close to the holy person’s tomb
or the site of the celebration.
Although Muslims throughout the Mediterranean cook and eat differ-
ent dishes to celebrate special occasions like Ramadan or Eid al-Adha,
they share a common belief that food, or the lack thereof, defines and
commemorates the significance of the holiday. Food brings family and
community together during religious holidays, and fasting draws atten-
tion to the spiritual importance of the act of food consumption. Muslims
make foods with ingredients that have religious symbolic significance,
like dates, or they prepare elaborate foods that they do not eat as often,
like roasted lamb. In particular, sweets like candy, pastries, and cookies
mark holidays as out of the usual culinary routine for most Muslims,
who eat fresh fruit for dessert and snacks. Muslims are reminded of the
spiritual significance of food daily, however, when they follow dietary
regulations and restrictions.

Christianity
In contrast to Judaism and Islam, Christianity adheres to few dietary
restrictions or regulations. Prohibitions on blood, carrion, or foods pre-
viously offered to idols fell out of practice or were not enforced over
time. Those denominations that did adopt food prohibitions (Seventh-
Day Adventists and Mormons) are not all that numerous in the Medi-
terranean region. Instead, most Christians are Catholics or members of
the Greek Orthodox Church. Christians throughout the Mediterranean
prepare and eat many special foods and dishes on Christmas and Easter;
they also abstain from certain foods or fast to get closer to God or to
practice self-denial. Fasting occupies a central place in the Greek Or-
thodox faith. In other parts of the European Mediterranean, however,
many Christians do not consider themselves that religious, if one mea-
sures religiosity by church attendance. For example, in Italy, the seat
of the Catholic Church, fewer Catholics attend mass now than they
did 20 or 30 years ago. Such indicators of religiosity are troublesome,
however, given that in Italy, there is a great deal of informal worship.
Thus although masses seem sparsely attended, street altars to Saints or
the Virgin Mary are well tended on a regular basis. The preparation
and consumption of food are perhaps forms of informal worship, and
144 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Christians throughout the Mediterranean agree that food occupies a

central place in the celebration of religious holidays, both as a means of
marking the event as special and as symbolic reinforcement of Christian
values and community.
No food is more symbolic to Christians than bread. In a Catholic mass,
for example, people consume a breadlike wafer, called the host, during
Holy Communion. The host represents the body of Jesus. On major holi-
days such as Christmas and Easter, foods made with wheat tend to be the
most popular holiday foods—not only breads of all types but also cookies,
pastries, and cakes. In parts of southern Italy and in Sicily, bread dough
is twisted and shaped to resemble a religious image or scene; in Greece,
breads called prosforon (a plain, round loaf of bread made with very fine
flour) are brought to the Church as offerings and breads called artos are
made and offered to a favorite saint several times a year. Bread and other
foods made with wheat are symbols of prosperity, fertility, and mercy for
Christians; but perhaps most importantly, wheat symbolizes the resurrec-
tion of Jesus because in the life cycle of the grain, wheat dies and is reborn
months later in the form of a spike that becomes a plant. In the Old
Testament of the Bible, wheat and bread are symbols of the fertility or fe-
cundity of the earth; in the New Testament, wheat and bread are depicted
as the supreme gift from God to humankind in that they extend life by
providing nourishment. In many ancient cultures, wheat, whether in the
form of breads or porridges, occupied a special place in celebrations and
rituals, probably because wheat contained the mysteries of life and death
within the same plant.
Special breads and other foods made with wheat occupy a central place
in Christian holiday celebrations. On Christmas and Easter, sweet breads,
frequently studded with nuts and dried or candied fruits, are eaten in the
morning or as part of the large holiday meal. At Christmas, one can find
the sweet breads known as panettone all around Italy. Such breads used to
be made at home or by local bakers, but they are now made industrially and
sold commercially in cafés, supermarkets, and department stores. During
Easter, in Greece, bread dough is wrapped around dyed eggs (at Easter, they
are usually colored red) then baked. At Christmas and Easter in Greece,
breads and other sweets made with honey and nuts symbolize fertility and
prosperity. And on New Year’s day in Greece, Christians make and eat
something called St. Basil’s bread (vassilopita), which has a coin inserted in
it for good luck and prosperity in the coming year. And the French bûche
de Noël, or Yule log, is a decorated cake roll popular not only in France, but
in North African countries with a French colonial legacy. In addition to
bread and other foods made with wheat, sweets such as candies abound at
Special Occasions 145

Bûche de Noël. © J. Susan Cole Stone.

Christmas and Easter. Christians in the Mediterranean celebrate Epiphany,

which occurs 12 days after Christmas and marks the event of the Magi giv-
ing their gifts to the baby Jesus. In the days before Epiphany, street vendors
and bakeries sell all kinds of little sweets and toys for kids, who receive gifts
from family or the Epiphany witch, “la Befana,” as she is known in Italy.
Street fairs offer sweets and special foods for children and their families,
who enjoy a day off from work and school.

Vassilopita
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
6 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup warm milk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350ºF and butter or grease a 10–12 inch round cake pan. Cream
butter and sugar, add flour and mix, then add eggs and mix well. Combine bak-
ing powder and warm milk, add to the egg mixture and mix thoroughly. Com-
bine lemon juice and baking soda then add to batter. Pour into cake pan. Bake
for 20 minutes. Remove and sprinkle nuts and sugar on top. Return to oven
and bake another 30 minutes or until cake springs back when touched. Remove
from oven and after a few minutes, slit the cake with a sharp knife and insert
a coin. Cover slit mark with more sugar. Cool cake for 15 minutes then turn
out onto serving platter. When serving, slice cake and serve pieces to guests in
order from youngest to oldest. Whoever gets the coin will have good luck for
the coming year.
146 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Traditional meals for Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter

vary greatly depending on regional traditions, individual preference, and
food trends. Sometimes, the meal has religious significance; for example,
in Greece, a whole roasted lamb is eaten at Easter, a practice that goes back
to pagan sacrificial rites or ancient Greek heroes’ banquets. Today, lamb
symbolizes the sacrifice God made with his son. On Christmas Eve in Italy,
people eat fish or seafood, adhering to a Lenten tradition of abstaining
from meat. Some families may make as many as 10, 15, or even 20 separate
fish and seafood dishes for Christmas Eve. In France, a huge feast called le
Réveillon is eaten after midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Eaten in people’s
homes or in restaurants and cafés that stay open all night, the feast consists
of traditional Christmas foods such as oysters, escargot, seafood, smoked
salmon, or caviar for starters, followed by turkey, capon, goose, or chicken
for the main course. Everything is washed down with generous amounts of
wine or champagne.
The food served at le Réveillon has little religious or symbolic signifi-
cance; rather, the meal is regarded as an opportunity for friends and family
to gather and eat well. Regional and family traditions tend to influence
food choices more strongly than does religious symbolism for Mediterra-
nean Catholics. For example, throughout France and Italy, Easter means
lots of chocolate. In France, master chocolatiers make elaborate choco-
late eggs, rabbits, and even fish (actually to celebrate the month of April,
the poisson d’Avril is an April Fool’s joke, but chocolate fish can be found
throughout the entire month) for customers to admire, purchase, and eat.
In Italy, hollow chocolate eggs of all sizes are filled with toys and wrapped
in shiny paper. Most of the eggs are commercially made, available in su-
permarkets, cafés, and bars, and children look forward to the toys inside
as well as the chocolate. During Christmas, special treats are also mass
produced for Italian consumers. Torrone, a kind of nougat, is produced
in northern Italy; panettone, a light cake studded with candied fruit and
raisins, originally hails from Milan but is likely to be made in factories
across the Italian peninsula. Panforte, a spicy, dense cake with hazelnuts,
honey, and almonds, was originally a regional specialty, but thanks to
industrial production and marketing, it is enjoyed by all Italians during
the Christmas season.
Similarly, in Catholic Spain, the emphasis during holidays such as
Christmas and Easter is on feasting at home with the family. Before
Christmas, special markets are set up, filled with different foods, especially
dried fruits and sweet baked goods. On Christmas Eve, menu choices vary
by region, either a baked fish dish or stuffed chicken. And on Christmas
day, menus vary widely, with families choosing from seafood, fish, turkey,
Special Occasions 147

lamb, or pork, accompanied by wine, cider, or cava, a white or pink spar-

kling wine from Catalonia. One of the most important Christmas desserts
in Catalonia is turrón, or nougat. Made with honey or sugar, turrón is
flavored with chocolate, coconut, or orange, and it is made with either
ground or whole almonds. In Catalonia, the day after Christmas, Saint
Stephen’s Day, is also a holiday. People usually consume the same dishes
that they do on Christmas, perhaps even the leftovers from Christmas
dinner.
Few of the foods that Mediterranean Christians eat for Christmas and
Easter have any obvious symbolic significance. Instead, the emphasis
during these holidays is on community and feasting. Feasting, of course,
constitutes an important counterbalance to fasting, which was more prev-
alent in the past for Christians observing Lent or those engaged in mo-
nastic ways of life. Historically, feasting served symbolic social functions.
For centuries, events like Carnival were rare and unique opportunities for
peasants and others to finally eat their fill. And if they could eat their fill
because their landlord provided the food, peasants were reminded of their
master’s beneficence with every mouthful that they ate. Today, feasting
serves an important social function; it brings friends and family together
to enjoy many different types of dishes. It demonstrates the munificence
and hospitality of the host and/or hostess, and sometimes, if the feast is
prepared by several members of the family, it underscores the value of
hard work and cooperation in the kitchen.
Like the faithful in the other religions of the Mediterranean, Chris-
tians spend time fasting or abstaining from certain foods. For members
of the Greek Orthodox Church, fasting means total abstinence from
foods derived from animals containing red blood, dairy products, and
sometimes olive oil and wine. Strict observance to the fasting calendar
means a collective fasting period of more than 180 days in the year. The
major fast periods include Lent, Holy Week before Easter, the Fast of the
Apostles (which lasts between one and six weeks between Pentecost and
the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul), the Fast of Dormition and Theoto-
kos (August 1–14), and a fast in the two weeks before Christmas. There
are also numerous individual fast days throughout the calendar. Chris-
tians outside the Greek Orthodox Church fast during the Lenten season,
which occurs in the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Holy Satur-
day, the day before Easter Sunday. Lent commemorates the 40 days that
Jesus spent in the desert being tempted by the Devil; therefore fasting
for 40 days (not including Sundays) symbolizes the triumph of the spirit
over the temptations of the body. Historically, Christians were forbid-
den from eating any animal products and had to fast every day of Lent,
148 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

which meant they could consume only one meal later in the day. The
rules of abstinence relaxed and meat, eggs, and dairy products were the
only foods forbidden because they afforded greater pleasure than other
foods. Dairy products and eggs were eventually allowed, and, today, ab-
stinence rules have relaxed considerably. Catholics should fast and ab-
stain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday; yet there is considerable
variation among Catholics regarding food restrictions on Fridays during
Lent. Some Catholics abstain from meat and/or fast on the Fridays dur-
ing Lent, but others may give up a favorite food or drink during Lent to
remind themselves of the temptation of Jesus Christ. Others may give up
something besides food.
Given the scarcity of food in the region of the Mediterranean in the
past, the practice of fasting for such a long period in the early spring makes
sense, as it would stretch out the remainder of the harvest. Before such
lengthy fasts, Christians would feast for a period before Lent, known in
many areas as Carnival, once considered a time for feasting and mischief.
Right before the Lenten fast began, a family or community might kill a pig
and eat just about every part, or on Fat Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday), south-
ern Italians would eat a meal of pasta and sausage. This meal may sound
simple by today’s standards, but hundreds of years ago, this would have
been an incredible feast. In this world of abundance and overproduction,
it is difficult to imagine the circumstances of poverty and want, where
Carnival meant the opportunity to finally eat one’s fill of food. Today,
Carnival is not about eating enough, but it is devoted to parties, parades,
and other special events. Food plays a prominent role in some of the fes-
tivities; for example in Sicily it is traditional to eat pastries called cannoli,
fried pastry tubes filled with a sweet ricotta cheese and cream mixture.
On the island of Sardinia, children wear costumes and masks, and their
parents take them around town to visit friends and family. Every house
offers pastries or candies, or perhaps a glass of new wine for the adults.
Orillettas, fried pastry braids dripping with powdered sugar or honey, are
one of the favorite treats for Sardinian carnival.7 If Christians are about
to participate in fasting or abstaining from a particular food during Lent,
they may indulge a little bit in some extra meat or sweets in the weeks or
days before Lent.
Special foods frequently figure prominently in Christian traditions
known as Saint’s days. Throughout Italy and Greece, Saints are commem-
orated and celebrated for their virtues or for the community they protect.
Many villages, towns, and cities have a particular, or patron, saint that
protects the citizens and is therefore honored with a celebration or event.
Thus many communities “personalize” the saint and the way he or she is
Special Occasions 149

celebrated, and so there is great variety in terms of what the celebration

actually looks like. For many saint’s days, food constitutes an important
part of the commemoration and celebration. One of the most popular
Saint’s days, celebrated by many Italians, is the day of St. Joseph (the
father of Jesus), or San Giuseppe, on March 19. Usually, the celebration
of St. Joseph happens right in the middle of Lent and thus comes as wel-
come relief to the austerity of the season. Italians make bread of all types;
sweet fried breads made with rice or wheat flour are popular in the form of
zeppole, fritelle, or bigné di San Giuseppe. Pastries feature prominently on
this day because Saint Joseph is the patron saint of pastry chefs. In other
places, bakers shape bread to resemble carpenter’s tools to bring to mind
Joseph’s profession, or the bread is shaped to resemble Jesus, or elements
of the Crucifixion like a crown of thorns. In Sicily, ritual banquets were,
and still are, staged. Called altare di San Giuseppe (the altar of St. Joseph),
these banquets may be organized by a single family or an entire com-
munity. The meal is simple and consists of some variation of bread and
legumes: sometimes a soup served with bread or the stew of pasta e fagioli,
or pasta and beans. The meal is supposed to be a ritual offering of a family
or group whose prayers have been answered and can be prepared for only
a few people or an entire town, as this account of an altare describes: “In
the mountain towns east of Palermo, the banquet is a fairly simple meal
prepared in enormous quantity and served to all and anyone, friend or
stranger, who passes by. At the one I attended in Làscari we ate in four
shifts of at least sixty people each, including all the members of the town
band.”8 In other towns west of Palermo, teams of women would construct
elaborate bread sculptures, literally creating a large altar out of bread,
decorated with oranges, lemons, and hung with smaller bread sculptures.
It was not unusual for teams of women to use hundreds of pounds of flour
and to work in shifts for a week or two to create these culinary tributes to
Saint Joseph.
Other Saint’s days involve food, but the historical connections be-
tween a particular saint and the symbolism of the food consumed are not
always clear. In Palermo, Sicily, for example, the patron saint of the city
is Saint Rosalia, who intervened to save the city from plague in 1624.
The Festival of Saint Rosalia, celebrated on July 13, used to be one of the
most elaborate events in all of nineteenth-century Europe, stretching out
to eight days of celebration with parades, church services, and fireworks.
The highlight of the festival was a giant decorated cart, which would be
hauled through the streets of Palermo. Feasting played an important role
in the festival as well, with banquets and food tributes throughout the city.
Today, Saint Rosalia is celebrated with a smaller version of the triumphal
150 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

cart and with fireworks. Instead of banquets, celebrants might watch the
fireworks while eating a variety of snacks purchased on the streets: ice
cream or a paper cone filled with some type of seed or nut (pumpkin seeds,
toasted chickpeas, hazelnuts, peanuts, and chestnuts are the most popu-
lar). Watermelon pudding (gelo di melone), made from watermelon, corn-
starch, and sugar, is also popular for Saint Rosalia day. Another popular
food is sautéed snails (babbaluci) with parsley and garlic. These foods are
not tied specifically to Saint Rosalia’s life or memory, but because they are
popular summertime snacks, Palermo’s street vendors made them popular
items to consume during the festival. Sometimes, a saint is not connected
to a particular town or city, but symbolizes a particular wish or emotion.
Greeks make a cake called fanouropita at the end of the summer to honor
St. Famourios, the patron saint of lost or unrevealed fortunes. Folk beliefs
maintain that if an unmarried woman places a piece of this cake under her
pillow at night, she’ll dream of her future husband. For many of the Saint’s
days, participants create a special sweet or dish to honor the Saint. In so
doing, Christians make or prepare a holiday, as opposed to merely observ-
ing it. Food provides them with an opportunity to become more involved
in celebrating the community and their faith.

Watermelon Pudding
1 small seedless watermelon
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
semisweet chocolate chips

Cut watermelon into chunks and then run through a food mill, collecting enough
juice to make about 5–6 cups. Pour juice into large saucepan containing the sugar
and cornstarch, stirring until the cornstarch is dissolved. Cook mixture of me-
dium heat until it begins to boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add
vanilla. Allow to cool. When the mixture is partially cooled, add chocolate chips
to resemble watermelon seeds and pour into serving bowl or dishes. Chopped
nuts like almonds or pistachios may also be added to the pudding. Chill in the
refrigerator for several hours before serving.

Although all three religions honor the dead in funeral ceremonies and
rituals, Christians reserve a special day in the year (All Soul’s Day, which,
depending on the location, is celebrated from the end of October through
November 2) to honor the dead and celebrate the bonds between the liv-
ing and the dead. In Sicily, bakers used to make special breads to symbolize
Special Occasions 151

these bonds, usually breads in the shape of a dead person or breads called
armuzzi, shaped to resemble two hands crossed on the breast with the fin-
gers spread wide. Today, one is more likely to find vendors selling candy
and toys to children on All Soul’s Day. Especially popular are sweets: tor-
rone (a nougat made with nuts) and cubaita (a nougat made with sesame
seeds, from the Arabic qubhayt) are sold on the streets and in shops; street
vendors and bakeries carry little marzipan or sugar statues for children to
eat. One might expect these little sculpted treats to serve as grim remind-
ers of everyone’s fate, but children are more likely to find a little marzi-
pan Mickey Mouse or soccer ball than a skeleton or skull. The exception,
however, is the Sicilian cookie known as osso di morto, or bones of the
dead, hard cookies with lumps of meringue that are supposed to resemble
cartilage. Historically, Greeks and Italians have associated fava beans with
the dead. Ancient Greeks saw black spots on the petals of the fava plant
as a stain of death, whereas others believe the hollow stems of the plant
connected the dead with the living. Greeks did not eat fava beans but used
them in funeral ceremonies. Ancient Romans prepared and consumed fava
beans as the most sacred dish at funeral banquets. In parts of Italy today,
some bakeries make little cookies shaped like fava beans and flavored with
almonds or pine nuts, for All Soul’s Day.

OTHER CELEBRATIONS
In addition to the religious celebrations that use food to define and com-
memorate the occasion, people throughout the Mediterranean celebrate
a number of holidays that are not necessarily religious, but are significant
for the meaningful place that food occupies in the celebration. Life events
such as birth, death, and marriage can be either religious or secular in
terms of the celebratory rituals marking the occasions. Yet many of the
special foods served at these occasions have their origins in folk practice
or ritual. Thus people in Turkey have soup for weddings instead of cake,
but neither cake nor soup has any overt religious connotations. In Libya,
mothers who have just given birth are fed a paste made from dates and
camel’s milk, foods that symbolically link back to Muhammad’s fast, but
they are also given chicken soup, perhaps to rebuild their strength and
to fortify them for the childcare duties to come. Throughout the Levant,
men who have just become fathers are offered cinnamon tea with grated
coconut, whereas in Syria, they are given a kind of trail mix comprised
of almonds, pistachios, walnuts, and grated coconut. In addition to a par-
ticularly significant food (a nut mixture or soup) given to individuals, cel-
ebrants are frequently treated to a meal or a feast in honor of the occasion.
152 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Sometimes the occasion has clear religious connections, as in the case of a

light meal provided for celebrants at a baptism in the Catholic Church, or
a variety of dishes offered to those who sit shiva for the recently deceased
in the Jewish faith.

Turkish Wedding Soup

2 medium onions, chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
4 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 cup bulgur
3/4 cup dried lentils
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons fresh chopped mint
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
8 cups water
Salt and pepper

Cook the onions and carrot in butter until soft, about 15–20 minutes. Add bulgur
and lentils and stir well. Cook for a few minutes. Add the tomato paste, mint, and
paprika, plus salt and pepper. Add water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover,
and cook for about an hour or until lentils are soft. Serve with wedges of lemon.

Weddings are frequently the cause for much celebration with food.
After the wedding ceremony, guests are invited to a wedding banquet,
held for lunch or dinner, either at someone’s home or in a restaurant. In
Catalonia, wedding banquets usually have four courses, a starter, soup, the
main course, and dessert, in many cases an elaborate wedding cake cut by
the bride and groom. A wedding banquet might be a simple affair, lunch
for only a few people, or it might be an elaborate feast for hundreds of
guests. Food memoirist Colette Rosant, who was born in France but grew
up in Egypt during and just after World War II, recalled a particularly
sumptuous wedding banquet held for her aunt:
On the table were the little dishes, the mezze: vine leaves stuffed with saffron
rice, tomatoes, parsley and onion; eggplant purée mixed with yogurt with tiny
meatballs floating in it; fried eggplant with garlic; eggplant caviar; lamb’s brain
salad prepared with scallions, garlic, lemon and cumin; fried ground chicken
balls; and artichoke hearts stewed in olive oil. Thick slices of batarekh (pressed
smoked fish roe) were set on toast rounds and topped with crème fraîche and
lemon zest. There were fried mussels, slices of French pâté; baskets of thinly slices
Italian salami; loubiya, a salad of black-eyed peas, one of my favorite dishes; and a
Special Occasions 153

celeriac and fennel salad with lemony vinaigrette. Ahmet (the cook) had slaved
the entire night before the wedding making hundreds of tiny hot sambousaks.
A second table held meats, fish, and vegetables. I stared at the huge roast
legs of lamb; Ahmet’s famous duck ballottine; tiny squabs stuffed with rice and
roasted almonds (a famous dish made especially for young couples to wish them a
sweet life full of love); kofta, small meatballs in apricot sauce; and countless other
delicacies. Dessert included not only the wedding cake but ice cream made from
buffalo milk, pyramids of apricot pudding, and Middle Eastern pastries such as
kunafa, stuffed with pistachios; zalabia, tiny, light, crisp deep-fried dough soaked
in honey and orange blossoms; and paper thin filo stuffed with chopped walnuts.
I ate until I could no longer move.9

The dishes offered in this feast are a mix of French and Middle East-
ern specialties, with some other foods of different ethnic origins (Italian
salami, for example) mixed in. This cosmopolitan mix of dishes dem-
onstrates clearly not only the sophistication of the upper-class palate in
mid-twentieth century Egypt but also the varied and integrated nature of
Mediterranean cuisine.
Today, Israel is home to Jews from more than 70 countries. Food at
wedding banquets clearly reflects the diversity of population and the cross-
cultural influences found in Israeli cuisine. First, a rabbi will bless the tra-
ditional challah and will cut the first slice, signaling the guests to eat.
A typical banquet might include Eastern European specialties like Polish
piroschki (a filled noodle turnover), Russian-style sautéed mushrooms, egg-
plant caviar and eggplant salad from the Middle East, and chicken soup
with kreplach (dumplings). The appetizers are accompanied by lots of dif-
ferent breads. Main dishes might include a North African couscous dish,
an Eastern European roast brisket with vegetables, and pashtida, Israeli veg-
etable casserole. Cookies, candy, and honey cake are offered for dessert.10
In addition to the traditional banquet and the traditional cake, wed-
dings are also a time for sweets. Guests might receive a party favor of can-
died almonds or other nuts, along with marzipan or sugar sweets, wrapped
up in a commemorative container. Or, according to Middle Eastern tradi-
tions, the bride and groom might shower their guests with little candies
to spread love and good prospects to their guests, especially the single
ones. Candied nuts and sweets are also popular in Italy and Greece, where
they are distributed to wedding guests as party favors. Italians in particular
make a wide variety of wedding cookies out of nuts. These are to be eaten
at the wedding banquet but frequently, they will be taken home by guests
as well.
Parties and ceremonies associated with childbirth and new family mem-
bers are also a memorable time for food. In rural areas of the Mediterranean,
154 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

nourishing foods are given to the new mother to replenish her energy and
prepare her for the work to come. Such foods include soups, stews, eggs,
and dairy products like milk. In Syria, the “completion of birth” banquet
was a popular event. Women related to the new mother would gather at
the house to wait while the midwife delivered the baby. As soon as the
baby arrived, the young women of the household would get to work in the
kitchen, preparing a lot of dishes for the banquet. A birth banquet can
be as elaborate as a wedding banquet. Siham Tergeman, a young Syrian
woman who wrote extensively about her life in Damascus, recalled her
first completion of a birth banquet, where the women ate “boiled white
cheese, cheese in oil, cheese balls in oil with zatar spice (thyme), green
and black olives, large limed olives, jams of native apricots, plums, green
plums, kabad, cherries, cream, honey, cottage cheese, sesame seed sweets,
molasses, tahina, milk, tea, tanur bread, stuffed pastries and fruit.”11 The
meal is accompanied by lots of tea with milk, and friends and neighbors
are invited to share the feast. Later, treats were prepared and sent around
to family and friends to announce the birth of the child and the cutting
of the first teeth. In Libya, a goat or lamb is sacrificed during the naming
ceremony for the baby. And in Syria, Tergeman remembered receiving a
large bowl of sliqa, a boiled corn dish made with sugar, pomegranate seeds,
walnuts, and pistachios, when a baby first cut teeth. Her family immedi-
ately devoured it and her mother returned the bowl filled with sugared
nuts. In Greece, relatives and friends pay their respects at the birth of
a baby by dropping off gifts and money at the house. Coffee and sweets
are set out for the visitors, who are also given wrapped candies, usually at
the baptism of the baby. Italians also give out candy at baptisms, either
wrapped in pink or blue netting or placed in an elaborate box called a
bomboniera.
Childhood celebrations include birthdays, frequently celebrated
throughout the region with parties and cake, and coming-of-age ceremo-
nies, the most common of which is circumcision for boys as a way of rep-
resenting his passage into adulthood or into a religious community. For
Jewish boys and girls, the bar mitzvah and the bat mitzvah are celebrated
with parties, banquets, and special meals. And in Turkey, Muslim boys are
circumcised between ages 7 and 14; the sunnet (circumcision) heralds the
introduction of the child into his religious community. A large banquet
is held is a ceremonial hall, restaurant, hotel, or in the home. The cen-
terpiece dish for the occasion is roast baby lamb or spiced leg of lamb, in
addition to many side dishes and lots of sweets and desserts.
Death is another event that is commemorated with food. Many Chris-
tians in the Mediterranean used to have wakes at the house of the bereaved
Special Occasions 155

family. Friends, neighbors, and relatives would bring food and drink for the
family and join them in mourning. Today, wakes still exist in rural areas,
but it is increasingly uncommon for wakes to be held in someone’s house;
rather, funeral homes make the arrangements for paying last respects, or a
service or mass is held for the deceased. Sometimes there is a small recep-
tion at the house, but this is becoming less and less common in countries
such as Spain, France, and Italy. Similar to the wake is the Jewish shiva,
where friends, neighbors, and family come to sit with the bereaved family
at the house. They bring food of all kinds, not only to eat in the house at
that time, but for the family to have in the future, so they will not have
to worry about preparing meals. For Muslims, a simple dinner is offered
after the funeral at the house of the deceased, although wealthier families
might offer more; each family offers what they can afford. After dinner,
everyone is served a bitter cup of coffee.
There are also celebrations involving food that have nothing to do with
religious ceremonies or life cycle celebrations. Instead, they honor a type
of food itself, or celebrate the good fortune of the harvest. Agricultural
festivals or celebrations of the harvest do not necessarily fall under the
domain of any one religion, given their roots in older pagan traditions.
Moreover, any formal rituals or celebrations of the harvest have become
rare in this day of mechanized and industrialized agriculture. In some
regions, however, the celebration of the harvest has made a comeback,
thanks to organizations like Slow Food International, which promote
local agriculture and seek to resurrect and preserve older rituals and tradi-
tions associated with the harvest. In Italy, for example, local communi-
ties have held something called a sagra, a festival or banquet honoring a
specific food or dish, usually something that has just been harvested. A
sagra can celebrate grapes, or wild boar, or porcini mushrooms, or chest-
nuts, by having participants cook, display, and eat dishes made with that
particular food. Thanks to the Internet, today many tourists are likely to
attend in addition to members of the local community. Artichokes, avail-
able in Italy from mid-November through April, are venerated among
Italians and prepared in many different ways, either raw or cooked. In the
town of Cerda, near Palermo, Sicily, the artichoke sagra means that the
restaurants of the towns fill their menu with artichoke offerings. Author
Clarissa Hyman, who visited Cerda during the sagra, observed that in one
trattoria:
There was no choice, simply an array of little dishes that covered the entire
surface of the table—artichokes stewed in oil and vinegar, braised with tomato
and garlic or with lemon and oil, whole roasted artichokes the size of oranges,
artichoke frittata, deep-fried artichokes, caponata made with artichokes, grilled
156 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

artichokes, raw baby artichoke salad dressed with oil, lemon, peperoncino and
breadcrumbs, homemade casareccia (a short, twisted pasta) with artichoke and
wild fennel sauce.12

Diners would finish their artichoke meal with a pastry and a glass of arti-
choke liqueur, called Cynar. Celebrations of the harvest used to be, and still
are, times when the community comes together to enjoy themselves and
eat to their heart’s content after weeks or months of hard work and worry.
Today, events like the sagra provide an important economic boost for small
farmers and businessmen, bringing tourists into rural areas and small towns
and promoting a greater sense of civic engagement and commitment.
Special occasions are all about food in the Mediterranean region. From
religious holidays to weddings to celebrations of the harvest, people are
constantly thinking about food preparation as it relates to the solemnity
or joyousness of the occasion. There is no doubt that people in the Medi-
terranean love to celebrate. This is the case in Egypt, where rising levels
of obesity among the population have been blamed, in part, on overin-
dulgence on holidays and at parties. And, as this chapter has pointed out,
food consumption levels actually go up during the fasting of Ramadan, be-
cause people are so committed to celebrating the end of the fast. It seems
clear, then, that food does more than mark the symbolic significance of
a special occasion. Parties, banquets, and meals provide an opportunity
for cooks and chefs to make unusual dishes or to splurge on extravagant
ingredients. Friends and family gather together to eat their fill, and bonds
of community are strengthened.

NOTES
1. Ashkenazi Jews are from Central and Eastern Europe and Sephardic
Jews come from Spain, although the term Sephardic is used more broadly today.
Some Jewish communities are neither Ashkenazi nor Sephardic; for example,
the Roman Jewish community goes back to ancient Roman origins, not Spain or
Eastern Europe. In Israel today, the Ashkenazi Jews are recent immigrants from
Russia.
2. Joyce Goldstein, Saffron Shores: Jewish Cooking of the Southern Mediter-
ranean (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2002), p. 22.
3. Susan Starr Sered, “Food and Holiness: Cooking as a Sacred Act
among Middle-Eastern Jewish Women,” Anthropological Quarterly 61 (1988):
134–135.
4. See Willy Jansen, “French Bread and Algerian Wine: Conflicting Iden-
tities in French Algeria” in Peter Scholliers, ed. Food, Drink and Identity. Cook-
ing, Eating and Drinking in Europe Since the Middle Ages (Oxford: Berg, 2001),
pp. 195–218; and Susan Sered, “Food and Holiness,” p. 136.
Special Occasions 157

5. Hassan M’Souli, Moroccan Modern (Northampton, MA: Interlink,

2005), p. 10.
6. Magda Mehdawy, My Egyptian Grandmother’s Kitchen (Cairo: American
University Press in Cairo, 2006), p. 353.
7. Efisio Farris, Sweet Myrtle and Bitter Honey (New York: Rizzoli, 2007),
pp. 232–233.
8. Mary Taylor Simeti, Pomp and Sustenance. Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicil-
ian Food (Hopewell NJ: The Ecco Press, 1989), p. 135.
9. Colette Rosant, Memories of a Lost Egypt. A Memoir with Recipes (New
York: Clarkson Potter, 1999), pp. 79–81.
10. See Lois Sinaiko Webb, Multicultural Cookbook of Life-Cycle Celebrations
(Westport, CT: Oryx Press, 2000), p. 108, for a full description of an elaborate
Israeli wedding banquet.
11. Siham Tergeman, Daughter of Damascus, taken from Ya Mal al-Sham,
English version and introduction by Andrea Rugh (Austin: Center for Middle
Eastern Studies, 1994), p. 90.
12. Clarissa Hyman, Cucina Siciliana (Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2002),
p. 146.
 7
Diet and Health

Today, people in the Mediterranean are universally known for eating

healthy diets that contribute to a long lifespan. They are also known for
what they do not have: heart disease and poor health conditions usually
associated with populations in the United States and parts of northern
Europe. The now favorable reputation of the Mediterranean diet is ironic,
of course, given that for much of the modern era (the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries and a good part of the twentieth century), popular
diet was less than adequate and so poor in some regions that it became
the object of government study and a symbol of economic backwardness
for the region. Although dietary habits contributed to poor health when
people were poorly nourished, many populations throughout the Medi-
terranean developed certain habits that, decades later, helped them avoid
certain diseases and live longer, healthier lives. These habits included
eating more legumes and fish instead of red meat, using local oils like
olive oil for cooking and seasoning food, and relying mostly on cereals
as a main source of nutrition. Historians believe that people ate this way
out of economic necessity: they lacked the money to buy more expen-
sive foods (like red meat or canned goods), or if they were farmers they
preferred to sell the costlier foods they produced rather than consume
them. In the decades after World War II (1939–1945), the economies of
the Mediterranean region improved, sometimes dramatically, but many
people did not change their dietary habits, even when they could afford
to buy more meat, processed foods, or fats. Their abstemious habits and
160 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

dietary traditions have served them well: by the 1980s, a growing number
of doctors and nutritional experts around the world noticed that people
in the Mediterranean regions seemed healthier; they suffered from lower
incidence of heart problems and high blood pressure (diseases associated
with affluence and a rich diet), and they also appeared to have lower
incidence of certain cancers. Could their diet have contributed to their
general state of health?
For the last few decades, scientists have been studying the so-called
Mediterranean diet to see whether a diet high in carbohydrates, low in
protein, high in olive and fish oils, and high in fresh vegetables and fruits
contributes to a longer life because it reduces the risks of certain cancers
and heart disease.1 This chapter examines the history of these kinds of
studies and their findings. It also describes how the Mediterranean diet
has become one of the most popular dietary regimens in the world, as
more and more people from affluent cultures try to reform their eating
habits in order to live longer and healthier lives. By focusing on the phys-
iological impact of the Mediterranean diet, this chapter explains exactly
how the food choices of Mediterranean people affect their health and
why so many doctors think this is significant. Because this type of diet
has been so closely studied by the medical and nutritional profession,
we now have many variations on the Mediterranean diet (for example,
the “Miami Mediterranean Diet”), and there are scores of printed cook-
books, magazine articles, and nutritional advice literature encouraging
the use of the Mediterranean diet as a cure for certain illnesses. The chap-
ter sorts out the many claims being made about the Mediterranean diet,
some of which appear confusing and contradictory to the average reader
who does not know a great deal about medical research or nutrition. For
example, the healthy dietary habits of Mediterranean populations can be
offset by other unhealthy lifestyle choices; or medical findings can some-
times reverse previous findings about the role of certain foods in fighting
diseases such as cancer. Last, this chapter examines some of the most
recent changes in eating habits throughout the Mediterranean region. At
the same time that the Mediterranean diet is being championed around
the world for its healthful characteristics, people in the region are adopt-
ing less healthy eating habits, such as consuming more meat and eating
more processed foods. Doctors, nutritional experts, and ordinary people
are alarmed by these recent changes, so much so that various organiza-
tions now attempt to halt or even reverse these less healthy habits. There
is no doubt that lifestyles and eating habits around the Mediterranean
are changing, but experts disagree about the scope and impact of these
changes.
Diet and Health 161

THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET AND HEALTH

Popular diet is one of the most studied aspects of health in the Medi-
terranean region. The Mediterranean diet has been adopted around the
world by individuals who wish to guard against potentially unhealthful
conditions, combat certain diseases, and prolong life. Physicians and other
medical experts have used the Mediterranean diet as a form of medical
intervention since 1975, when American doctor Ancel Keys published
How to Eat Well and Stay Well: The Mediterranean Way, proposing a re-
lationship between the eating habits of populations within the Mediter-
ranean region and the distribution of morbidity and mortality rates (Keys
based his 1975 book on a previous study, Eat Well and Stay Well, revised
throughout the 1950s and 1960s). The Mediterranean diet is most fre-
quently prescribed for patients with heart disease, high blood pressure,
and high cholesterol, although it can also be used as a weight reduction
regimen, and it is thought by some to prevent certain forms of cancer. It
is now firmly established as a model of healthful eating habits, and it has
been adapted to suit many regional food tastes.
Doctors may understand which foods constitute the Mediterranean
diet, but the general public has differing opinions about what this diet
consists of and how it is used to improve one’s health. The words “Medi-
terranean diet” were first used by Keys, who referred to a general model
of dietary behavior he found in southern Italy in the 1960s and 1970s. As
medical experts are quick to point out, however, there are many types of
diets throughout the Mediterranean region. For example, the typical diet
of someone from North Africa would be different from that of a south-
ern Italian consumer. Each would eat different foods and therefore would
take in a different combination of carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins,
and minerals. When Keys defined the term, he referred to a general set
of habits and patterns that characterized healthful eating in southern
Italy as being distinct from the dietary habits he saw in other parts of the
world, in particular, northern European countries and the United States.
First, the Mediterranean diet made use of olive oil instead of animal fat
(butter, lard, fat in meat) and was therefore lower in saturated fats and
cholesterol. Although there weren’t large differences between the Medi-
terranean diet and other diets in terms of overall fat consumption, there
was a difference in the proportion of saturated fat intake. Put a different
way, Mediterranean peoples may consume as much fat as some American
consumers, but there is a significant difference in the type of fat they
eat. Keys also noted that Mediterranean consumers ate a lot of cereals,
between 30 and 60 percent of their total caloric intake. Mediterranean
162 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

consumers ate more legumes and more fresh produce than their coun-
terparts in northern Europe and the United States. Overall, their diet
was rich in complex carbohydrates and vegetable and leguminous fiber;
it was lower in the amount of animal fat and animal protein consumed.
This very general definition of the Mediterranean diet has changed little
over the decades since Keys first published his book. Doctors and others
think of a diet where cereals, fresh produce, legumes, and olive oil figure
more prominently than do red meat, processed foods, and animal fat. The
Mediterranean diet also entails a low to moderate consumption of dairy
products, fish, poultry, eggs, and red wine.
Although there are many Mediterranean diets, Keys and others found
that throughout the Mediterranean, diet seemed to play a key role in con-
tributing to lower mortality rates and lower incidences of certain diseases
such as heart disease, certain cancers, and diabetes. Initially, Keys recom-
mended the Mediterranean diet to improve cardiac health and to control
and combat obesity (which is connected to heart health). He first grew
interested in this issue when he worked on the epidemiology of coronary
heart disease in Italy and Spain in the 1950s. He then went on to publish
dietary advice books such as Eat Well and Stay Well; and in 1980, Keys and
others published a study called Seven Countries. A Multivariate Analysis of
Death and Coronary Heart Disease, which found lower rates of cardiovas-
cular disease and mortality and lower serum cholesterol levels in Greece
and Italy, in comparison with northern European countries (Finland, the
Netherlands) and the United States (Yugoslavia and Japan were also in-
cluded in this study). The study of 12,763 men began in 1958 and con-
tinued through 1974, allowing for a 10-year follow-up period among the
various populations studied. The general death rates varied considerably
among the nations, but the national comparison of coronary death rates
was thought to be a significant finding. In the United States and in north-
ern European countries, coronary death rates were much higher than they
were in Greece and Italy. Keys and other doctors now had more evidence
from this large-scale study to suggest that dietary habits were related to
incidence of, and mortality from, heart disease.
The authors of the Seven Countries study also found that in Italy and
Greece, cigarette smoking was a relatively minor risk factor in the over-
all death rate; Greek and Italian smokers died of various diseases only at
slightly higher levels than did nonsmokers. By contrast, in the United
States and in northern Europe, smokers died of various diseases at much
greater levels than did nonsmokers. This finding has led to much specula-
tion, and a few published studies, about the relationship between dietary
habits and the effects of tobacco. The authors of the Seven Countries study
Diet and Health 163

found a high incidence of tobacco use in some Mediterranean countries

but a lower-than-expected incidence of lung cancer. At the time of the
publication of this study, many doctors had already begun to examine the
Mediterranean diet to understand how it worked and the impact it could
have on the body. These efforts included studies of groups and individuals
and laboratory analyses of the various foods that composed the Mediterra-
nean diet. Published articles have noted that the Mediterranean diet can
help people control and even reduce weight, but there are other reducing
diets that work more quickly. Therefore, the Mediterranean diet is less
popular as a reducing diet and more popular as a regimen for people with
heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and metabolic syndrome. Not
surprisingly, scientific inquiry has focused on efforts to understand the
relationships between the consumption of certain Mediterranean foods,
disease prevention, and general health. Medical researchers have been
interested in understanding how and why this particular kind of diet helps
people throughout the Mediterranean region to stay healthy.
Perhaps one of the most important characteristics of the Mediterra-
nean diet is that it relies on fresh food rather than processed and pack-
aged foods; therefore it is not as high in saturated fats, salt, sugar, and
other foods that can lead to weight gain and health complications. As
the previous chapters have explained (chapters 3 and 5), Mediterranean
consumers prefer fresh food. Local produce from outdoor markets is con-
sidered superior to that purchased at supermarkets. Frozen food reheated
in the microwave is to be avoided if possible. Fresh fruit is the preferred
dessert after lunch or dinner. It may seem obvious to some, but a diet
based on fresh ingredients contributes to overall well-being and health.
The Mediterranean diet also relies on lots of vegetables, legumes, and
cereals, all of which are high in soluble fiber. Studies have shown that
soluble fiber slows the rate of digestion, and a slower rate of digestion
reduces any blood glucose increases and the need to secrete insulin.2
Foods like pasta, bulgur, oats, barley, coarse cornmeal (the kind used to
make polenta), and legumes have been found to slow the absorption of
nutrients in the digestive tract. Eating lots of these cereals keeps blood
sugar and metabolism in check, and this in turn combats both obesity
and diabetes. In fact, many plant foods have the effect of reducing the
rate of carbohydrate absorption. Slower digestion rates are now advised
and being practiced as forms of therapeutic treatment for some chronic
diseases. Patients can follow the Mediterranean diet, add more soluble
fiber to their diets, or eat smaller meals more frequently. Overall, the
consumption of legumes, cereals, and fresh produce provides a high level
of energy from carbohydrates and protein without a lot of fat. This stands
164 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

in contrast to diets where lots of meat and other animal proteins are
consumed.
One of the chief benefits of the Mediterranean diet is its effect on heart
disease and high blood pressure. The diet is low in saturated and hydroge-
nated oils, both of which have been found to contribute to heart disease,
and high in fiber and potassium, both of which reduce blood pressure.3
The use of olive oil in Mediterranean cooking is associated with a lower
risk of coronary disease, given that olive oil contains linolenic acid, a type
of omega-3 fatty acid found also in canola oil and nuts. Moderate amounts
of fish consumed in the Mediterranean diet also supply omega-3 fatty
acids, which lower triglycerides and have an anti-inflammatory effect on
the lining of blood vessels. Residents of the Mediterranean eat very little
red meat and average nine servings a day of fruits of vegetables, which
are rich in antioxidants. This contributes to a lower level of low-density
lipoprotein cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) that might contribute to the
buildup of deposits in the arteries.
The main purpose of the diet is to help people keep their hearts healthy,
to lower blood pressure, to regulate blood sugar, and to control obesity.
Some medical evidence suggests that the antioxidant properties of the
Mediterranean diet can help those suffering from degenerative diseases
such as cancer, whereas other studies have found that the oleic acid in
olives can alleviate the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. The health-
ful properties of the Mediterranean diet have meant that an increasing
number of doctors outside the Mediterranean have started to prescribe
the diet for their patients with heart disease, high blood pressure, or diabe-
tes. The published results of several clinical tests seem promising. In one
trial conducted in the United States between 1995 and 2005, 380,296
men and women between 50 and 71 years old tried the Mediterranean
diet. Doctors optimistically concluded “the risk of death from any cause
over the five-year follow-up period was lower for those with the most
Mediterranean-like diets. Deaths from cancer or cardiovascular disease
were also significantly lower in this group.” Results were especially signifi-
cant among smokers who were not overweight; they halved their risk of
death if they followed the basic guidelines of the Mediterranean diet.4 The
majority of clinical studies, conducted on patients who are older and/or
face certain diseases, have found that the Mediterranean diet effectively
combats metabolic syndrome, a condition characterized by obesity, hyper-
tension, and increased levels of blood sugar. Eating the Mediterranean way
can lower blood pressure, help people lose weight, and decrease total lev-
els of glucose and insulin in the body. Moreover, several studies indicate
that it is never too late to start eating right; in clinical trials with elderly
Diet and Health 165

patients, doctors have found that following the Mediterranean diet can
decrease mortality among elderly persons.5
All of the recently published studies on the effects of the Mediterranean
diet confirmed what Keys argued decades ago: eating the Mediterranean
way is good for one’s health and longevity. Hundreds of medical studies
were conducted and published throughout the 1980s and 1990s; this in
turn led to a boom in publications about the benefits of the Mediterranean
diet, as well as an increase in cookbooks and other informational litera-
ture about how to cook healthy Mediterranean dishes. Scientific findings
have influenced medical advice: the American Heart Association borrows
heavily from the Mediterranean diet in making suggestions for people fac-
ing certain types of heart disease or high blood pressure. Even people who
do not have high blood pressure or other illnesses have adjusted their diets
to conform more with Mediterranean habits—perhaps by eating less red
meat or by substituting olive oil for other cooking oils—so that they can
feel better and live longer. Because few medical professionals contest the
healthful benefits of the Mediterranean diet, the scientific debates have
tended to focus on just how far-reaching an impact the Mediterranean
diet has on one’s health and health risk. There is no end in sight to studies
linking the diet to some type of medical cure or disease prevention. The
omega-B fatty acids prevalent in the diet may lower the risk of Alzheim-
er’s disease; the diet itself may help patients with Alzheimer’s disease live
longer. For pregnant women, the diet may help prevent asthma and aller-
gies for her baby; in children, it may protect against childhood respiratory
allergies. And the Mediterranean diet may reduce the risk of progressive
lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The medical profession, however, is far from certain that the Mediterra-
nean diet constitutes a cure-all for certain chronic conditions or diseases.
Put another way, it may seem obvious that a diet low in animal fat and
high in fruits and vegetables is a healthy one, but can the Mediterranean
diet perform miracles? Doctors still do not have sufficient information
about all of the medical effects of the Mediterranean diet, given that so
much research has been conducted in so many different locations within
a relatively short period (a few decades). A 2007 review of 489 published
articles on the Mediterranean diet argued that although the evidence re-
garding the impact of dietary intervention was reasonable, there is still
much to be done in terms of more research and more systematic reviews
of current projects. There has been little coordinated effort to share in-
formation and some of the published studies were found lacking in scien-
tific rigor. Instead, as the authors concluded, “one of the most immediate
conclusions obtained from this review is that the scientific evidence for
166 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

the Mediterranean diet is mostly sustained by observational studies and

personal reviews.”6 This is not to say that much of the published data on
the Mediterranean diet is unreliable. Rather, there is considerable varia-
tion in the ways in which studies have been conducted; therefore not all
the claims about the Mediterranean diet are well supported or evidenced.
Moreover, the Mediterranean diet will not protect its consumers from
other potentially life-threatening diseases. According to epidemiological
studies, the death rate from stroke is higher in Mediterranean countries
than in other parts of the world, and in Italy, there is an elevated rate of
mortality from gastric cancer. This is not to say that the Mediterranean
diet necessarily causes these medical problems, but these findings would
indicate that the Mediterranean diet cannot guarantee greater health and
an increased lifespan.
Although it is clear that following the general principles of the Medi-
terranean diet will not harm one’s health, it is also evident that too many
hopes have been placed in the potentially curative effects of this dietary
regimen. And, as experimental and clinical studies continue to produce
more and more evidence about the relationship between diet and health,
some of this evidence appears contradictory or at least confusing, as it
is read and interpreted by the general public. Consumers interested in
their health read advice from a variety of sources, not from medical jour-
nals necessarily, but from printed sources on nutrition (newsletters or
magazines), articles in non-health-related magazines, or Web sites on the
Internet. The variety of information provided about the Mediterranean
diet can be confusing and even overwhelming to the average consumer
who wants to live a healthier lifestyle. For example, several studies point
to the potentially beneficial effects of red wine consumption in lowering
cholesterol levels, but some people can become addicted to alcohol, and
recent studies also indicate that alcohol consumption can be a factor in
increased risk of breast cancer. Thus a female who wants to lower her
cholesterol level would have to think twice before drinking an alcoholic
beverage such as red wine and, at the very least, ensure that she drinks red
wine in moderation.
The average consumer may find it difficult to understand and process
what appears to be contradictory advice from a broad range of media. After
all, dietary habits are complex phenomena, and to isolate such a complex
dietary pattern and relate to the prevention of a certain disease or medical
condition with any degree of certainty is sometimes problematic. First,
there are many factors that contribute to an individual’s general well-
being. An individual may smoke, drink alcohol to excess, or not exercise
enough. Some of the published medical studies on the Mediterranean diet
Diet and Health 167

isolate foods or certain elements within the diet (fat, sodium, calcium)
in order to study their relationship to a specific disease. Thus individuals
without a background in experimental nutritional science can become
confused by, or possibly misinterpret, published findings. Or they may fol-
low the Mediterranean diet but neglect other aspects of their health and
overall well-being.
What does seem clear is that the international medical and scien-
tific profession has “discovered” what people in the Mediterranean have
known for a long time—that a diet low in animal fats, protein, and high
in carbohydrates, fresh produce, and olive oil is a healthy one. One of
the chief reasons that medical professionals and consumers endorse the
Mediterranean diet is that it serves as an alternative or antidote to the
unhealthful effects of the modern diet consumed by many Europeans and
Americans and a growing number of populations throughout the world.
This diet consists of many processed foods, is high in animal foods, and
high in salt and fat, with few fresh foods such as fruits or vegetables. This
diet was forged out of convenience and the tremendous changes in food
production and the food processing industries. It first gained popularity
in the United States but has now spread to many parts of the world and
recently, has made inroads among the younger generations in the Medi-
terranean region. Thus populations in the Mediterranean face an inter-
esting and potentially alarming predicament. As their diet becomes the
standard for a “healthy” diet around the world, how do they manage di-
etary changes and influences from outside the Mediterranean? Are people
in the region still healthy and do they themselves still follow the general
dietary contours of the Mediterranean diet?

A CHANGING DIET: AMERICANIZATION?

Even though people living around the Mediterranean Sea have been
eating some of the same foods for thousands of years, the region is not im-
mune to changes in dietary habits. Contemporary eating practices—fast
foods sold through franchises like McDonald’s and Pizza Hut, convenience
foods, processed foods, the standardization of tastes—have found their
way to Mediterranean region. Thus the more traditional ways of preparing
and eating food now have to compete with supermarkets, snack foods, and
American fast food chains. Within the last two or three decades, dietary
habits across the Mediterranean region have changed, and many experts
would argue that the changes have been detrimental to popular health.
Ironically, at the same time that the Mediterranean diet is being prescribed
for many non-Mediterranean populations who have the desire to become
168 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

and remain healthy, Mediterranean populations have been trading some

of their eating habits for less healthy habits found in other countries like
the United States. The nature of these dietary changes, however, is highly
uneven and dependent on regional and demographic factors. Moreover,
there are few clinical or epidemiological studies examining these recent
dietary changes in any great detail, although several clinical studies now
being published indicate that those individuals who exchange the Med-
iterranean diet for a diet higher in fat, salt, and red meat become less
healthy and more prone to heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pres-
sure. This information should come as no surprise, but questions remain as
to the pace and scope of these recent dietary changes and their short-term
and long-term impact on popular health in the region.
The development of industrialized agricultural production, changes in
food distribution systems (the growth of supermarkets and chain restau-
rants), and the globalization of food markets have meant that people in
the Mediterranean (and all over the world) now have access to more red
meat and more processed foods, such as frozen convenience foods, “fast”
foods from restaurant franchises, and snack foods. The availability of these
types of foods was not an immediate consequence of the larger structural
changes in food production and distribution; rather, these changes oc-
curred over several decades, roughly from the end of World War II to
the present day. One should be careful, then, before assuming that the
Mediterranean diet changed rapidly in response to the onslaught of super-
markets and fast food chains.
First, there is some evidence to suggest that populations across the
Mediterranean adjusted their diets throughout this time period as their
incomes rose and they began to reallocate the amounts spent on dif-
ferent kinds of food. Before and immediately after World War II, poor
economic conditions necessitated less expensive food substitutions like
legumes in place of meat or more bread instead of fresh vegetables and
fruits. In the decades after World War II, European nations witnessed
a steady and impressive rise in income, which meant consumers could
spend more money on more expensive food items. Thus in areas like
France and Italy, people ate fewer legumes. Once the mainstay of diet in
France, legume consumption decreased from 16 pounds (7.3 kilograms)
per person in 1925 to 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms) per person by 1980; in
Italy, consumers averaged 32.8 pounds (14.9 kilograms) per person in
1925 and 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) per person, per year for the period
1981–1985.7 The so-called meat of the poor became less popular when
consumers could actually afford more meat. Another big dietary change
that occurred in the postwar period was the increase in consumption of
Diet and Health 169

fresh fruits and vegetables, foods considered too expensive before World
War II and scarce during and immediately after the war. In France, con-
sumers went from consuming 370 pounds (168 kilograms), per person,
per year in the period 1955–1960 to consuming 381 pounds (173 kilo-
grams) per person, per year, in the period 1984–1985. In Italy, consumers
ate an average of 364 pounds (165 kilograms) per person, per year in the
period 1955–1960, and they ate 564 pounds (256 kilograms) per person,
per year in the period 1984–1985.8
Historically, some of the foods that many people in the Mediterranean
region could not afford easily were meat and dairy products. Before World
War II, populations throughout the region consumed less than 2 ounces
(50 grams) per day of meat or meat products. And in many areas, consum-
ers ate meat only on holidays, special occasions, or when they were sick.
In the postwar era, little changed in North African and Middle Eastern
regions; meat consumption remained at or around 2 to 2.5 ounces (50–70
grams) per person per day throughout the 1990s. In the European regions
of the Mediterranean, however, consumers ate more meat. In Greece,
Italy, Spain, and France, for example, meat consumption increased from
around 2 ounces (60 grams) per person per day in 1961 to between 9
and 12 ounces (250–325 grams) per person per day, in 2001. A similar
increase in consumption took place with regard to milk and dairy prod-
ucts. The regions that consumed the most milk and dairy products—Italy,
Turkey, France, and Greece—continued to increase their consumption
levels. In 1961, consumers in these regions ate or drank between 14 and
21 ounces (400–600 grams) of milk and dairy products per person per day;
they increased their consumption of dairy products to between 25 and 30
ounces (700–800 grams) per person per day in the 1990s.9 The increase
in consumption of meat and dairy products on the European side of the
Mediterranean has been so dramatic that by the 1990s, consumers in Italy,
Greece, and Spain received about a quarter of their energy intake from
animal products; in France, the amount is even higher, at 37 percent.
Across the Mediterranean region, the traditional use of olive oil has been
supplemented by oils extracted from various seeds that can be cultivated in
the region’s soil (cottonseed, sunflower, rapeseed, sesame seeds, and grape
seeds). Given the growing worldwide demand for olive oil, Mediterranean
farmers have found it profitable to export their olive crops, and because
of this, olive oil is sometimes more expensive than other oils, even when
it is locally grown and produced. Another common substitution for olive
oil is soy bean oil; soy beans were introduced to the region about 50 years
ago, as animal feed. Today, soy beans are grown in Italy, Turkey, Egypt,
and Spain, and the oil extracted from them has become an alternative to
170 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

olive oil. Given the long-term changes discussed, it seems clear that the
traditional Mediterranean diet has shifted even in the years since Keys first
observed southern Italians in the 1950s and 1960s. For one, legumes play
a much less important role in everyday diet and olive oil plays a somewhat
less important role than it used to. Fresh fruits and vegetables appear to be
increasing in popularity, and in some areas of the region, consumption of
meat and dairy products has increased. More animal fat and less soluble
fiber is present in contemporary Mediterranean eating habits. Because
olive oil consumption patterns vary a great deal by region and demograph-
ics, it is difficult to generalize about changes in olive oil consumption in
the region.
Another big change in dietary habits in the Mediterranean region is
the increased consumption of prepared and processed foods, which fre-
quently translates into the increased consumption of salt and saturated
fats. Since the late 1990s, a great deal has been published about the
“Americanization” of Mediterranean eating habits; scientific papers ques-
tion whether the Mediterranean diet is in decline while the popular press
cites the prevalence of fast food in the region and predicts poor health
will accompany these explicitly “American” foods like hamburgers, soda,
potato chips, and coffee drinks. Alarming reports from Italy suggest that
the childhood obesity rate in the country is 25 percent. Scientific publi-
cations suggest that consumers are eating prepared and processed foods at
a very early age, even as young as six months.10 Doctors and nutritional
experts have long compared the benefits of the Mediterranean diet with
drawbacks of the so-called Western diet (the diet prevalent in northern
Europe and the United States). Now experts and consumers alike are
concerned that the Western or American diet is fast replacing the Medi-
terranean diet in countries such as France, Spain, Italy, and Greece.
Frequently, these changing dietary trends are grouped together as evi-
dence of the “Americanization” of Mediterranean eating habits. When
critics use the terms Western diet or American diet, they usually mean a
diet that is high in animal fat and protein and high in fast food and con-
venience snack foods. The result is a high-fat, high-sodium, high-sugar
diet that doctors believe contributes to obesity, heart disease, diabetes,
and high blood pressure. A major vehicle of this trend is the corporate
fast food franchises like McDonald’s and Pizza Hut, which have thou-
sands of outlets worldwide and several hundred scattered throughout the
Mediterranean region. People also associate the Americanization of diet
with intensive marketing efforts to produce new convenience foods and
sell them to individuals of all ages and social status via different advertis-
ing media. Critics of the American diet not only contend that such a diet
Diet and Health 171

is unhealthy, they object to the onslaught of retail, merchandising, and

marketing practices, many of which are aimed at young consumers. The
term Americanization as applied to eating habits, however, is misleading
and confusing because it tends to group together and generalize about
some complex and interrelated trends that are not always directly related
to the growth of fast food franchises or food-marketing practices. Nor can
these changes be attributed exclusively to the United States.
For example, it is clear that several long-term historical transforma-
tions affected many regions throughout the Mediterranean after World
War II, and some of these changes had an impact on eating patterns and
habits. More people moved from rural to urban areas in the decades after
the war. There was then an increased need for more retail food outlets in
urban and suburban areas. Urbanization also leads to more stressful liv-
ing conditions (traffic, pollution, and affordable housing seem beyond an
individual’s control), which may lead to eating more or reducing exercise
levels. More women were incorporated into the workforce, even married
women with children, resulting in greater reliance on prepared or con-
venience foods as a solution to family meal preparations. More men and
women shifted work from manual labor to desk jobs, thereby adopting a
more sedentary lifestyle. People walked less and adopted public or private
forms of transportation to meet their daily needs. And per capita income
rose, along with family incomes and standards of living, which meant
greater value was placed on the consumption of certain goods, including
foods that symbolized affluence, leisure, and cosmopolitanism. Consum-
ers purchased more expensive food items and more non-necessity foods
such as snacks and desserts; they also consumed more meals, beverages,
and snacks outside the home. All of these economic and social changes
had clear implications for the type of foods consumed, as well as the way
in which these foods were consumed. Although similar changes were also
going on in the United States after World War II, it would be difficult to
call these trends Americanization because the term implies a concerted
effort by Americans to influence non-Americans and to change their
behavior accordingly. Although some American food companies (e.g.,
Coca-Cola) set up production centers in the Mediterranean, it is difficult
to speak of an ongoing and concerted effort by Americans to change the
behavior of people in this region.
Moreover, it is difficult to separate out what constitutes “American”
influence on the Mediterranean diet from outside influences more gener-
ally. For example, it is reasonable to assume that tourism has had some
impact on changing Mediterranean eating habits. In Crete and Cyprus,
British-style pubs have become popular among tourists and natives alike.
172 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Studies of populations in popular tourist areas such as the Balearic Islands

show that rising tourist demand for foods like red meat and soft drinks
has led to increased consumption by local populations, simply because
the food is now more available. Dietary change is most evident among
younger generations who have frequent contact with tourists and other
foreign visitors.11 Similarly, immigration has had some impact on chang-
ing dietary habits, particularly in European countries with growing popu-
lations of North Africans and peoples from the Middle East. Virtually
unheard of 20 or even 10 years ago, fast food stands selling kebab, falafel,
and pizza are sprouting up in France, Italy, and Greece. Americans may
actually be some of the tourists or immigrants in these areas, but it is dif-
ficult to classify these types of dietary changes as “Americanization.”
Popular health might be declining in the Mediterranean region for rea-
sons other than dietary ones. Some people may be living an unhealthy
lifestyle and never set foot in an American fast food restaurant. For exam-
ple, they may smoke, drink too much alcohol, or not get enough exercise.
Thus it is difficult to blame American foods for the rising levels of obesity
in the Mediterranean when several studies have found that people get a
lot less physical exercise than they did 10 or 20 years ago. According to
one study, middle-age men in Crete walked an average of eight miles a
day in the 1960s, and today they walk less than 1.5 miles per day. Among
children as well, physical activity is less popular and less available: some
high-rise apartment complexes in Italian cities prohibit children from
playing in the courtyards, and schools throughout the region are requir-
ing less physical education in favor of more academic work.12 Again, it is
difficult to think declining levels of physical exercise as “Americaniza-
tion” even though these trends are occurring in the United States as well.
When people opt to take scooters, cars, or trams instead of walking, or
when schools decide to cut physical education from the curriculum, are
they necessarily under the influence of an American institution, ideol-
ogy, or organization? The term Americanization is not useful to describe
what is happening throughout the Mediterranean, especially when one
examines the complex interplay of behaviors and trends relating to diet
and health.

MEDITERRANEAN HEALTH IN CRISIS: AN OBESITY EPIDEMIC?

Although it may be incorrect or inaccurate to categorize all these gen-
eral trends and changes throughout the Mediterranean as Americaniza-
tion, doctors and nutritionists still have to confront a growing body of
evidence that waistlines are expanding throughout the region, and in
Diet and Health 173

some places, certain diseases caused by diet are on the rise. There is also
evidence that among certain populations, weight gain and obesity are on
the rise and a growing number of doctors and nutritionists are worried
about the long-term impact of this shift in eating habits. One of the most
visible signs that diet is changing in the Mediterranean is the ubiquity of
processed foods: American fast food restaurants and packaged, processed
snacks. In many major cities and towns, supermarkets and fast food out-
lets are commonplace; there are a number of alternatives to traditional
Mediterranean foods and meals. Although the term Americanization may
be misleading when it comes to thinking about how dietary change takes
place, American-style foods are readily available for Mediterranean con-
sumers. And over the last three decades, a growing number of people have
criticized the availability or presence of foods such as hamburgers, soft
drinks, packaged snacks, and corporate fast food. Government officials
have debated whether to levy a kind of “fat tax” on processed foods for
sale; on the island of Corsica, natives launched “Corsican Cola” in op-
position to the American brand Coca-Cola. Differing responses to food
trends from the United States indicate that there is growing opposition
to an American-style diet, and thus the term Americanization might be
useful, in that it gives populations outside the United States a set of prin-
ciples and ideas to consider when it comes to food habits and traditions.
In many Mediterranean countries, critics of American trends in food pro-
duction, distribution, and consumption now fight to preserve their own
ways of eating and living. For example, several Mediterranean countries
have requested that the Mediterranean diet be placed on UNESCO’s
world heritage list, as a cultural practice worth preserving and defending.
And, as chapter 3 describes, several organizations and individuals have
worked actively to oppose Americanization and globalization while up-
holding local food production and cooking traditions.
There is some concern, however, that all of this activity might be too
little, too late. In the summer of 2008, Josef Schmidhuber, a senior econo-
mist with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, pre-
sented a paper on the impact the European Union’s Common Agricultural
Policy (CAP) on popular diet in Europe. His findings indicated that from
1962 to 2002, daily caloric intake throughout Europe increased about 20
percent; but in Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, and Malta, all countries that
started out poorer than their northern European neighbors, caloric intake
increased by 30 percent. Greece now has the highest prevalence of over-
weight and obesity in Europe; an estimated three-quarters of the Greek
population are classified as either overweight or obese. An estimated half
of the Italian and Spanish populations are either overweight or obese.
174 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

Why? According to Schmidhuber, Spain, Greece, and Italy are the Euro-
pean Union’s biggest “fat guzzlers”; fat now accounts for 40 percent of the
Spanish dietary intake and in absolute terms, fat consumption has liter-
ally doubled over the last 40 years, from 2.5 ounces (72 grams) per day to
5 ounces (154 grams) per day.13 Similar shifts in consumption patterns oc-
curred in Italy and Greece. Although European populations throughout
the Mediterranean also increased their intake of olive oil, they increased
more dramatically their consumption of meat, milk, and dairy products,
all sources of fat. There is reason to believe, according to the latest find-
ings, that the Mediterranean diet as practiced by Greeks, Italians, and
Spaniards is not all that different from the average European diet, at least
not in terms of dietary intake.
Why is the popular diet in the Mediterranean deteriorating so rapidly?
There has been much speculation that this is due to European agricultural
policies, in particular subsidies paid to farmers that drive down the prices
of certain foods, making them more available to consumers at cheaper
prices. For the European countries of the Mediterranean, the CAP of the
European Union was found by some experts to have minimal impact on
rising levels of obesity. Although these policies have subsidized butter
prices and made milk more available in public schools, thereby increasing
fat consumption levels for some consumers, their overall effect on popu-
lar diet has not been that dramatic. Instead, economists and nutritional
experts blame the rising standard of living, which has led to the increased
purchase of more meat, especially beef, and fats. The increased use of su-
permarkets has also meant the increased consumption of prepared foods,
another contributing factor to the deterioration of diet. Women working
outside the home has meant families eat out more often; eating out means
less healthy choices and larger portions, particularly if families are eating
in fast food restaurants. Also, people exercise less, leading more sedentary
lifestyles in front of televisions and computers, without, of course, adjust-
ing their caloric intake to accommodate their lifestyle changes.
It seems clear that on the European side of the Mediterranean, an
improved economy and living standard are contributing to less healthy
lifestyles in the form of poor diet and incidence of overweight and obe-
sity. European experts argue that government policies have little to do
with rising obesity, which, they argue, is caused more by economic con-
ditions and lifestyle choices. Throughout the rest of the Mediterranean,
particularly in North Africa, obesity is also on the rise. In Egypt, where
the standard of living is not very high and indeed, much of the popula-
tion struggles to get by, obesity has also reached epidemic proportions.
In 1998, the World Bank estimated that 70 percent of Egyptian women
Diet and Health 175

and 48 percent of Egyptian men were either overweight or obese. Experts

were initially quick to blame changing dietary habits, but they frequently
overlooked the Egyptian government’s policy of subsidizing key foods like
bread, wheat flour, sugar, and cooking oil. All of these foods are energy
dense and nutrient poor. They may help poor consumers stretch their
family food budget, but they do so at the expense of proper nutrition and
health. Indeed, several experts have recommended that the Egyptian gov-
ernment subsidize healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables, as well as the
basic foods such as bread, sugar, and oil.14
Comparing the North African side with the European side of the Medi-
terranean, one sees that there are multiple causes for the obesity problem
on both sides of the sea. It seems clear, then, that obesity, as a measure of
public health, can be caused by a complex interplay of factors and by ex-
tension, fighting obesity will be neither quick nor easy. Certainly, official
policies regarding agricultural and consumer subsidies have to be reviewed
and evaluated, not just for their immediate impact but also for their global
influence. Although Schmidhuber noted that the European Union’s sub-
sidies did little to affect obesity rates among Europeans, he was careful to
note that, in driving agricultural prices down generally, they could have
impact on public health in developing countries such as those in North
Africa. Put simply, certain European policies (high tariffs, export surpluses,
and export subsidies) led to lower world food prices, thereby aggravating
domestic economies in developing nations. In countries such as Egypt,
where the government stepped in to ensure adequate supplies of basic foods
in difficult economic times (to avert food riots), artificially low food prices
may have contributed to excess consumption of certain foods and obesity.
Fighting obesity also requires some resolve from public officials to edu-
cate the consuming public about healthy habits. Throughout the Medi-
terranean, there is a considerable range of government intervention, from
a willingness to debate a possible “fat tax” on unhealthy food to taking
no action at all. State intervention in personal choices like consump-
tion is controversial. Consumers, especially young consumers, may need
to be educated about what food choices are good for them, but there is
no guarantee that they will listen to the voice of public authority. A less
sedentary lifestyle should be encouraged, but how far will authorities go
to make it easier, or desirable, for citizens to get more exercise? And local
producers should be supported so they can continue to grow fresh produce
at affordable prices. So far, local farmers and food producers receive a
combination of public and private support, as consumers have banded to-
gether in organizations like Slow Food (see chapter 3) to ensure that their
products continue to find markets. Certainly, however, there are limits
176 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

to what any authority, public or private, can do to combat obesity. For

example, what can be done about American-style fast food? It is popular
among young consumers, and it frequently comes from American-based
corporations that have significant resources to spend on plans for inter-
national expansion. Local governments have been successful at fighting
the expansion of McDonald’s into historic city centers, but what can be
done about the expansion of the same franchise throughout suburbs and
even into rural areas of the Mediterranean? Although the alarm has been
sounded about a current, and future, obesity crisis in the region, policy-
makers, doctors, and other experts have yet to agree on the best course of
action to combat the problem.
More worrisome to some is the idea that the Mediterranean diet is no
longer being practiced that much in the Mediterranean region, as growing

In southern France, the farmer’s union dumped

fruits and vegetables in a McDonald’s parking
lot in 1999. Farmers and others target McDon-
ald’s restaurants as a symbol of Americanization.
AP Photo/Claude Paris.
Diet and Health 177

numbers of consumers replace a low-fat, high-carbohydrate, and produce-

rich diet with a high-fat, animal-based one. In terms of sugar, salt, and fat
intake, the difference between Mediterranean consumers and American
and northern European consumers is shrinking. Ironically, the Mediterra-
nean diet is internationally famous as a curative or preventive diet, but its
very existence in the region is being threatened. As this book has demon-
strated, food means a great deal to the populations throughout the Medi-
terranean. Will this continue to be the case in the future? In other words,
will Mediterranean food culture survive? It seems clear that hospitality—
demonstrated through preparing, cooking, and serving food—is still very
much a part of Mediterranean society. Hungry customers can still find a
variety of traditional street food alongside American-style fast food. Small
farmers are supported, albeit unevenly, through a combination of public
and private initiatives. And technology has worked to encourage popular
interest in Mediterranean cuisine, bringing information and advice about
cooking techniques and special dishes to a broader audience, as well as
connecting Mediterranean people to their culinary roots. There appears
to be much evidence to suggest that many of the special characteristics of
Mediterranean food culture will indeed survive.
Mediterranean cuisine has been in a state of change, or flux, for hun-
dreds and even thousands of years, as populations mixed together and
shared information about cooking and eating. Cookbook authors and
other experts on Mediterranean life and culture have not always under-
stood this fact, or if they have understood it, they have downplayed it in
favor of highlighting a more timeless or unchanging aspect of Mediterra-
nean cuisine. Yet an essential part of Mediterranean food culture is adapt-
ability. It stands to reason, then, that the recent influx of food habits and
culinary styles will eventually be reshaped by Mediterranean consumers,
many of whom are now living in a world of abundance, not poverty and
want. Mediterranean consumers will eventually adapt to these relatively
new circumstances and perhaps hold on to the characteristics of the Med-
iterranean diet that have served them well for hundreds of years.

NOTES
1. The Mediterranean diet sometimes includes red wine, but wine consump-
tion is sometimes studied separately.
2. Thomas M. S. Wolever, Alexandra L. Jenkins, Peter J. Spadafora, and
David J. A. Jenkins, “Grains, Legumes, Fruits, and Vegetables: Lente Carbohy-
drate Sources in the Mediterranean Diet,” in Gene A. Spiller, ed., The Mediterra-
nean Diets in Health and Disease (New York: Van Nostrand, 1991), pp. 160–181.
178 Food Culture in the Mediterranean

3. Pasquale Strazzullo and Alfonso Siani, “Hypertension” in Spiller, ed., The

Mediterranean Diets in Health and Disease, pp. 221–222.
4. “Mediterranean diet lengthens Americans’ Lives,” Yahoo News, Decem-
ber 12, 2007, http://news.yahoo.com. The article is based on medical literature
from the Archives of Internal Medicine in December 2007.
5. One review of literature with positive results is Antonia Trichopoulou,
“Traditional Mediterranean Diet and Longevity in the Elderly: A Review,” Public
Health Nutrition (2004) 7: 943–947.
6. Lluís Serra-Majen, et al. “Scientific Evidence of Interventions Using the
Mediterranean Diet: A Systematic Review,” Nutrition Reviews 64 (2007): S29.
7. Flaminia Fidanza, “Legumes,” in Spiller, The Mediterranean Diets in Health
and Disease, p. 105, Table 4–2.
8. Thomas Braun, “Ancient Mediterranean Food,” in Spiller, The Mediter-
ranean Diets in Health and Disease, p. 11, Table 5–1.
9. Reina Garcia-Closas, Antoni Berenguer, and Carlos A. González,
“Changes in Food Supply in Mediterranean Countries from 1961 to 2001,” Public
Health Nutrition 9 (2007): 53–60.
10. L. Greco, et al., “Early childhood feeding practices in southern Italy: Is the
Mediterranean diet becoming obsolete? Study of 450 children aged 6–32 months
in Campania Italy,” Acta Paediatrica 87 (1998): 250–256.
11. Josep A Tur, Dora Romaguera, and Antoni Pons, “Food Consumption
Patterns in a Mediterranean Region: Does the Mediterranean Diet Still Exist?”
Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism 48 (2004): 193–201.
12. Ellen Hale, “Junk Food Super-sizing Europeans” USA Today, 11/18/2003,
p. 13a.
13. See the summary article, “Med People Shun Med Diet,” July 29, 2008:
http://www.fao.org.newsroom and see Josef Schmidhuber’s report, “The EU Diet:
Evolution, Evaluation and Impacts of the CAP,” http://www.fao.org/es/ESD/
Montreal-JS.pdf.
14. See, for example, Abay Asfaw, “The Role of Food Price Policy in Deter-
mining the Prevalence of Obesity: Evidence from Egypt,” Review of Agricultural
Economics 28 (2006): 305–312.
 Glossary

bouillabaisse Fish stew made in Marseille, France, flavored with saffron.

bûche de Noël French Christmas cake that resembles a Yule log.
bulgur Parboiled wheat that has had wheat bran removed, used in sal-
ads and stuffed foods, especially in the eastern Mediterranean.
chometz (hametz) Food that is fermented or could cause fermentation;
it must be ritually cleansed from the Jewish household before the holi-
day of Passover.
couscous Tiny nuggets of semolina flour that are steamed over broth
and served as an accompaniment to meat, fish, or vegetables.
doner kebab Meat that is grilled on a vertical spit and sliced off for cus-
tomers, served in Turkey.
emmer Ancient grain used to make bread and beer in Egypt and
Greece.
ful medames Popular Egyptian dish made with fava beans, olive oil,
parsley, onion, and lemon juice.
garum Liquid seasoning made by fermenting fish or fish innards, used in
ancient societies.
halal Foods that are allowed for Muslims following Islamic dietary regu-
lations.
haram Foods that are forbidden for Muslims following Islamic dietary
regulations.
180 Glossary

harira Soup made in North Africa from chickpeas, beef, onion, toma-
toes, rice, lentils, and spices, eaten to break the fast during Ramadan,
the Muslim holiday.
harissa Food paste made from hot peppers and seasonings, used to sea-
son dishes in Morocco.
kashrut Jewish dietary rules and regulations.
kibbeh Lebanese dish made from ground raw lamb, bulgur, and spices.
kofta Egyptian meatballs, made from lamb or beef.
koshari Egyptian street food made of pasta, rice, legumes, tomatoes, on-
ions, and seasonings.
leb-lebi Tunisian chickpea soup, popular as street food, eaten with raw
egg, olive oil, lemon juice, and harissa.
maccu Sicilian fava bean soup seasoned with fennel, olive oil, salt, and
pepper.
melokiyah A plant that is a member of the mallow family. It resembles
spinach and was used in ancient Egypt to thicken soup. Still used in
Egypt and Tunisia in soups and stews.
meze Little dishes of food served in the eastern Mediterranean as ap-
petizers or as a meal.
paella Rice dish made with chicken, sausage, shellfish, fish, artichokes,
tomatoes, peppers, peas, garlic and seasonings; popular in Catalonian
region of Spain. It is also the name of the iron skillet in which the rice
is cooked.
pareve Containing no animal ingredients, in accordance with Jewish
dietary law.
pilav Seasoned rice or bulgur dish that accompanies meat; popular in
Turkey and in the eastern Mediterranean.
sagra A festival or banquet in Italy honoring a specific food or dish, usu-
ally something that has just been harvested.
shawarma A large kebab of meat (lamb or chicken) threaded on a skewer
and grilled on a vertical grill. Served in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel.
souk Outdoor market in which stalls are grouped together so that a par-
ticular good or trade is offered in one central location.
stifado Greek style of cooking where meats and vegetables are stewed
together.
tahini Paste made of ground sesame seeds, used in Mediterranean dishes
such as hummus or baba ghanouj.
Glossary 181

tajine A special pot used in Morocco to cook stew; also called tagine.
The pot has a wide bottom and narrow neck, which allows for steam
to condense and slide down to bottom of pot, tenderizing legumes and
meat. In Tunisia, a tajine is a baked stew.
tapas Little snacks or plates of food, eaten in Spain as appetizers or as an
accompaniment with wine or alcohol.
tgilla Ash bread made by baking dough in heated covered hole in the
desert by nomadic Tuareg of Algeria.
tripe Stomach lining of a cow, used in stews, soups, and casseroles.
 Resource Guide

HISTORY AND CULTURE

Historians have long respected Fernand Braudel’s magisterial history of the Med-
iterranean, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II
(New York: Harper and Row, 1972–1973, 2 volumes) for the way it presents the
history, geography, and culture of the region. More recently, Robert Fox in The
Inner Sea. The Mediterranean and Its People (New York: Knopf, 1993) takes a con-
temporary perspective on population, politics, society, and the environment; and
Iain Chambers, Mediterranean Crossings: The Politics of an Interrupted Modernity
(Durham: Duke University Press, 2008) focuses on politics today in the region.
Students interested in the impact of historical change or modernization on people’s
eating habits may wish to look at anthropologist Carole Counihan’s Around the
Tuscan Table. Food, Family and Gender in Twentieth Century Florence (New York:
Routledge, 2004). The book describes several families in Tuscany and looks in
detail at their food habits, as well as their attitudes toward food. An excellent
environmental history of the region is J. Donald Hughes, The Mediterranean. An
Environmental History (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005).

COOKBOOKS
There are many excellent cookbooks detailing the history of Mediterranean
cuisine. Cookbooks are invaluable resources for historians and anyone interested
in understanding how food is prepared and described at a particular moment in
time. Elizabeth David was one of the first cookbook authors who popularized
Mediterranean cooking for a British and American audience. David, who spent
184 Resource Guide

a great deal of time in the Mediterranean region, wrote A Book of Mediterra-

nean Food (London: Lehman, 1950) as an introduction to the many foods of
the region. Her book is full of interesting descriptions and recipes. Today, Paula
Wolfert is known as an authority on Mediterranean food. Her Web site, www.
paulawolfert.com, is an excellent resource for readers curious about Mediterra-
nean food and cooking techniques. Wolfert’s Mediterranean Cooking (New York:
Harper Perennial, 1994) is authoritative and informative. Cookbooks have more
recently combined personal stories or journalistic accounts of the Mediterranean
with recipes and cooking tips. Fiona Dunlop’s book, The North African Kitchen.
Regional Recipes and Stories (Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2008) follows ordi-
nary women around their kitchens and their home cities to understand how and
why they prepare food. Florian Harms and Lutz Jäkel, The Flavours of Arabia
(London: Thames and Hudson, 2007), discusses many aspects of food culture
in North Africa and the Middle East. In between the many recipes from this
region are forays into history and contemporary culture, as they relate to food, its
preparation, and consumption. Anissa Helou traveled around the Mediterranean
region, sampling all kinds of street foods and writing about them. Her experi-
ences and the recipes she collected are in her book, Mediterranean Street Food
(New York: HarperCollins, 2002). And Mary Taylor Simeti, who has lived on
the island of Sicily for a number of years, wrote Pomp and Sustenance. Twenty-Five
Centuries of Sicilian Food (Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1989) as a tribute to the rich
culinary history of the island.
 Selected Bibliography

Andrews, Colman. Catalan Cuisine. New York: Atheneum, 1988.

Counihan, Carole. Around the Tuscan Table. Food, Family and Gender in Twentieth
Century Florence. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Counihan, Carole. “Bread as World: Food Habits and Social Relations in Mod-
ernizing Sardinia.” In Counihan, Carole and Van Esterik, Penny, eds. Food
and Culture. A Reader. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Dalby, Andrew. Siren Feasts. A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece. New
York: Routledge, 1996.
Dunlop, Fiona. The North African Kitchen. Regional Recipes and Stories. Northamp-
ton, MA: Interlink, 2008.
Faas, Patrick. Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome. New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Farris, Efisio. Sweet Myrtle and Bitter Honey. The Mediterranean Flavors of Sardinia.
New York: Rizzoli, 2007.
Fox, Robert. The Inner Sea. The Mediterranean and Its People. New York: Knopf,
1993.
Harms, Florian and Jäkel, Lutz. The Flavours of Arabia. Cookery and Food in the
Middle East, trans. Andrew Cowin. London: Thames and Hudson, 2007.
Heine, Peter. Food Culture in the Near East, Middle East, and North Africa.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004.
Helou, Anissa. Mediterranean Street Food. New York: HarperCollins, 2002.
Hyman, Clarissa. Cucina Siciliana. Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2002.
Jansen, Willy. “French Bread and Algerian Wine: Conflicting Identities in
French Algeria.” In Peter Scholliers, ed. Food, Drink and Identity. Cooking,
Eating and Drinking in Europe Since the Middle Ages. Oxford: Berg, 2001.
186 Selected Bibliography

Keys, Ancel. How to Eat Well and Stay Well the Mediterranean Way. Garden City,
NY: Doubleday, 1975.
Keys, Ancel. Seven Countries. A Multivariate Analysis of Death and Coronary Heart
Disease. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980.
Kochilas, Diane. The Glorious Foods of Greece: Traditional Recipes from the Islands,
Cities, and Villages. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.
Medina, Xavier. Food Culture in Spain. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005.
M’souli, Hassan. Moroccan Modern. Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2005.
Nathan, Joan. The Foods of Israel Today. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
Ricotti, Eugenia Salza Prina. Meals and Recipes from Ancient Greece. Los Angeles:
J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005.
Rivera, Oswald. The Pharaoh’s Feast: From Pit-Boiled Roots to Pickled Herring.
Cooking Through the Ages with 110 Simple Recipes. New York: Four Walls
Eight Windows, 2003.
Rosant, Colette. Memories of a Lost Egypt: A Memoir with Recipes. New York:
Clarkson Potter, 1999.
Simeti, Mary Taylor. Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food.
Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1989.
Torres, Marimar. The Catalan Country Kitchen. New York: Aris Books, 1992.
Wolfert, Paula. Mediterranean Cooking. New York: Harper Perennial, 1994.
Woodward, Sarah. The Ottoman Kitchen. Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2001.
Young, Daniel. Made in Marseille. New York: HarperCollins, 2002.

WEB SITES
www.chowhound.com: a Web site for food fans, also known as “chowhounds,”
started by a group of food editors and fans to provide news, information,
recipes, and tips. Contains information about eating out or finding food in
Mediterranean countries, as well as recipes and travel tips.
www.faithandfood.com: The faith and food initiative is part of Global Tolerance
Limited, a United Kingdom based company that seeks to promote inter-
faith understanding. Contains information, recipes, and ideas for celebra-
tions and holidays, covering all aspects of interfaith eating.
www.mediterranean-food.net: A Web site that contains many recipes for Medi-
terranean dishes as well as some information about the Mediterranean diet
as a health or weight reduction regimen.
www.paula-wolfert.com: Cookbook author Paula Wolfert’s Web site, with lots of
information, recipes, and tips about Mediterranean cooking and cuisine.
Especially strong on Moroccan food.
www.slowfood.com: The official Web site of the Slow Food movement, this site
contains information about the organization in the United States as well
as around the world. Recipes, news stories, and a calendar of events are
featured and updated daily.
 Index

Americanization, 167–72 popularity of, 108; social aspects

Athens, 18, 120, 123 of, 108, 121, 127
Celebrations. See Special occasions
Baklava, 86, 89, 104, 118; recipe for, Chefs, 6, 56; concerns of, 74; dietary
27–28 restrictions and, 138; gender
Barcelona, 123, 124 division of, 58; ingenuity of, 64;
Barley, 4, 5, 7, 15, 16, 26, 134, 142, 163 in media, 72–73; workload of, 57
Beef: as important ingredient, 96, Chometz, 133
97, 100, 113, 115, 141; increased Christmas, 14, 143–47
consumption, 174; as kosher Coffee, 10, 12, 21, 49, 79, 84; as
meat, 137 breakfast, 124; as common
Bouillabaisse, 55, 66, 67, 94 menu item, 88–91; as dessert,
Bové, José, 74 80; popularity vs. tea, 119; social
Breakfast: common foods, 40, 41, 46, aspects of, 69; Turkish coffee, 49, 87
47; importance of, 84; regional Coffee houses, 87, 119
differences, 67; relationship Coffee shops, 107–8, 119–21
to lunch, 84, 85; times, 84; Conquest, 9–14
variations in, 84–85 Cooking, 55–75; future of, 71–75;
Bûche de Noël, 14, 144–45 gender roles, 57–59; and
Bulgur, 13, 29, 30, 43, 81, 82, 92, 97, hospitality, 55; in kitchen, 59–63;
100, 152, 163 learning, 63–66; outside, 59–63;
work, 66–71
Cafés, 12, 14, 21, 49, 50, 84, 87, 107, Côte d’Azur, 118, 122, 125
109, 119–21; in Italy, 113, 117; Couscous, 11, 29, 39, 51, 70, 71, 98,
as lunch location, 85, 123–24; 99, 109, 125, 141, 153
188 Index

Cyprus, 9, 10, 40, 46, 53, 124, 125, Halal, 72, 138
171, 174 Hametz. See Chometz
Haram, 138
Dairy, 46–47 Harira, 96, 109, 116, 140; recipe for,
David, Elizabeth, 1–2 141
Dessert, 80, 85, 86; in ancient Harissa, 33, 70, 71, 97, 117; recipe
Greece, 5–6; in ancient Rome, 7; for, 34
baklava, 37; in celebrations, 154; Hummus, 1, 38, 81, 92, 95
fried eggplant with honey, 35; Hyman, Clarissa, 155
fruit in, 39–41, 86, 104–5, 163; as
street food, 117–18 Israel: and baklava, 27; breakfast
Dietary laws (kashrut), 136–37 in, 85; popular ingredients in,
Dinner, 5, 14, 55, 78, 86; in eastern 43, 47; restaurant culture in,
Mediterranean, 85; in Levant, 85; 124–25
meze, 81–82; in North Africa, 85;
popular dishes, 91–105 Kashrut, 132, 136, 137
Doner kebab, 43, 72, 101, 113, 114 Keys, Dr. Ancel, 161–62, 165,
Drinks, 47–50 171
Kibbeh, 30, 43, 81, 92, 93
Eggplant, 34–35; baba ghanouj, 81, Kofta, 4, 153
92; as important ingredient, 77, Koshari, 112, 116; recipe for, 117
99, 104, 153; origin of, 31, 34;
stuffed, 100 Lawrence, D. H., 2
Emmer, 4, 25 Leb-lebi, 116; recipe for, 97
Levant, 38, 42, 102, 104, 118, 133,
Fast food, 17, 20, 57, 59, 71–72, 141; celebrating birth in, 151;
113–14, 177; American, 71–72, 74, dining out in, 121–22; lunch and
107–8; Americanization and, 21, dinner habits in, 85–86
167–68, 170–76; globalization and, Lunch, 70, 78, 84; change in habits, 122;
22; increase in popularity, 71–72 as main meal, 85, 122; relationship
France, 12, 14, 48, 53, 73, 79, 104, to breakfast, 85; relationship to
133, 144, 146, 170; dietary dinner, 71, 85; at restaurants, 85;
changes in, 168–69 and schools, 123, 126
Fruits, 39–41
Ful medames, 5, 7, 38 Maccu, 7
McDonald’s, 20, 72, 74, 79, 123, 167,
Garum, 5, 7, 53 170, 176
Grains, 25–30 Meal order, 78–83
Greece, 13, 14, 16, 22, 26, 27; ancient, Meat, 42–46; as halal, 139; as haram,
3, 5–6, 53; appetizers in, 92–93; 138; increase in consumption,
meze in, 81; obesity in, 173–74; 169; kosher, 137
popular ingredients in, 29, 30, 32, Melokiyah, 4, 37
35, 40–41, 42, 43, 44, 53; typical Meze, 27, 47, 80–82, 92–93, 95,
meals in, 89; World War II and, 65 125–26
Index 189

Morocco, 12, 14, 16, 68, 73, 101,103, part of dinner, 89, 91, 103, 123;
115; gender roles in kitchen, as part of lunch, 85, 89, 90, 122;
58; and harira, 140; popular regional differences in, 79
ingredients in, 28, 30, 37, 44, 47; Schmidhuber, Josef, 173–75
popularity of tea, 119–20 Seasonings, 50–53
Shawarma, 43, 44, 102, 113
Naples, 20, 110, 111, 115, 123 Slow food, 66, 74
North Africa: dietary change, 172; Slow Food International, 155
Jewish population in, 133; obesity Souk, 109
in, 174–75; Passover meal in, Special occasions, 129–57; births,
133–34; special occasions in, 143 153–54; childhood, 154; death,
154–55; harvest, 155; sagra,
Obesity, 172–77 155–56; weddings, 152–53
Starbucks, 108, 121
Paella, 30, 38, 44, 51, 60, 97, 99, 103 Stifado, 89, 96
Pareve, 33, 137 Street food, 108–19
Pilav, 30, 89, 97, 99–100
Pizza Hut, 72, 167, 170 Tahini, 1, 34, 38, 42, 81, 92, 113,
Pork: ancient Rome, 6, 8; Christians 114, 126
and, 45, 101, 147; forbidden, 137, Tajine: as clay pot, 38, 60, 95, 118; as
138 food, 1, 19, 38, 42–44, 55, 62, 66,
95–96, 103, 112, 125, 133; recipe
Recipes: avgolemono, 40; baklava, for, 39
27–28; büza, 118; chicken tajine, Tapas, 92–93, 124–26
39; dolma (stuffed zucchini), Tea, 12, 21, 49, 69, 84–85, 87, 108–9,
64–65; dried fruit compote, 105; 120–21, 151; as common menu
fattush, 82–83; fried eggplant item, 89–90; as dessert, 104;
with honey, 35; froga, 98; harira, popularity vs. coffee, 119
141; harissa, 34; kakavia, 67; Tgilla, 62
koshari, 117; lahmacun, 115–16; Tripe, 5, 102, 117
latkes, 135; leb-lebi, 97; midnight Tunisia, 12, 14, 16; and leb-lebi, 97;
spaghetti, 88; pan bagnat, 114–15; popular ingredients in, 26, 32,
pizza margherita, 111–12; spinach 33, 37, 47; popularity of tea in,
pies, 83; tabbouleh, 82; Turkish 119–20; sandwiches in, 113; and
wedding soup, 152; vassilopita, tajine, 62
145; watermelon pudding, 150; Typical menus, 88–91; Egypt, 91;
yogurt soup, 47 Greece, 89; Italy, 88; Lebanon,
Rosant, Colette, 152, 161 90–91; Syria, 90; Turkey, 89

Sacred celebrations: Christianity, Vegetables, 30–39; as side dishes,

143–51; Islam, 137–143; Judaism, 103–4
132–37
Salads, 35; important ingredients in, World War II, changing diet and,
35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 46, 51; as 168–71
About the Author

CAROL HELSTOSKY is Associate Professor of History at the University

of Denver. She is the author of Pizza (2008) and Garlic and Oil: Politics
and Food in Italy (2004).
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