Palestinian cooking--LOW PROFILE, HIGH FLAVOR

Tuesday, BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- It's the most talked about conflict in the world -- but the food remains a mystery.

Despite decades of attention to the Mideast, Palestinian cooking is all but unknown to a world more familiar with images of angry Palestinians with AK-47s than chefs creating delicate salads or carefully roasted stuffed pigeon. "We do have (Palestinian) fighters," said Fadi Kattan, organizer of the Second Palestinian Culinary Competition, a recent effort to raise the profile of the region's cuisine. "But we also have other things that make us Palestinian."

One reason so little is known about those other things, Palestinians say, lies with politics: Years of Israel-Palestinian fighting have ravaged the Palestinian middle class, leaving enough patrons for only a handful of high-end Palestinian restaurants.

With so many families destroyed by poverty and fighting -- more than 80 percent of Gazans and almost 50 percent of West Bankers live on less than $2 a day -- the attention paid to food elsewhere in the world can seem frivolous.

Still, other warring Mediterranean countries have had better luck propagating their cuisines. Thousands of migrants who left neighboring Lebanon after its 15-year civil war have made tabbouleh, a finely chopped salad, a global staple.

But small steps, such as Kattan's competition, which was held in the biblical West Bank town of Bethlehem in October, and the growing popularity of a Palestinian cookbook, might signal the region is ready for its cuisine to be taken more seriously.

"We can't wait forever," said Abu Mahmoud, a Jerusalem taxi driver who cheered the idea of a competition.

Palestinian cooking is a regional variation on the Arabic-Mediterranean kitchen. It generously uses fresh seasonal vegetables such as cauliflower, zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, onions, carrots, beans and potatoes.

You can count on tasty spiced stews, padded with rice. Chicken or meat tend to flavor dishes, not star in them, except for celebrations, where roasted whole goats and sheep are still served on platters of rice.

There's also traditional Palestinian 'fast food' -- shared with its regional neighbors -- hummus, falafel and shawarma.

High-profile cooking competitions have been embraced elsewhere in the world, but it's a fresh concept in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where even the sight of a Palestinian chef is rare.

In conservative Palestinian culture, women mostly marry young and stay home, learning to cook from their mothers and neighbors. There's no need for cooks to teach them new tricks.

And while food television isn't unknown -- popular Arab lifestyle shows are beamed throughout the Mideast -- the superstar chefs that host them mostly are Lebanese, and stick to a mix of their own and French dishes.

There also is the challenge of distinguishing Palestinian food from other Middle Eastern cuisines. Such distinctions can be difficult to translate for the outside world. Sometimes even for locals.

Palestinians and Israelis both claim ownership of some foods, especially hummus. That's prompted an online protest called "Hummus not Chummos," a dig at the inability of some Israelis of European origin to pronounce the guttural "h" in hummus.

During Kattan's competition this year, 11 Palestinian chefs from Israel, the West Bank and Jerusalem were invited to innovate on traditional Palestinian recipes, as well as produce a freestyle dish of their choice.

Iyad Jallaf, 28, stood nervously before cool-eyed judges, presenting a slightly tweaked traditional Palestinian dish: grape leaves stuffed with rice and herbs alongside chicken filled with crushed nuts, instead of rice or barley.

Meanwhile, George Srour piled small rounds of flatbread topped with fried onions and chicken to create the classic Palestinian dish, musakhan. His variation controversially added garlic, which traditionally is never used in this dish, because it can overpower the delicate taste and smell of chicken, onion and herbs.

But it was Johnny Goric, who works at the restaurant of the YMCA club in west Jerusalem, who won with a sampler of his interpretations of musakhan, makloubi (chicken and vegetables with rice) and maftoul (spiced balls of semolina flour).

The event received little attention beyond local Palestinian television and newspapers, but Goric was pleased.

"This is our first step," Goric said of the 2-year-old competition, adding that it shows "Palestinian cuisine is important."

The competition has inspired new takes on Palestinian cooking, he said. And those approaches already are finding their way to buffets at high-end restaurants -- an easy way to introduce fresh ideas to skeptical customers.

Meanwhile, copies of Christiane Dabdoub Nasser's "Classic Palestinian Cookery," a sleek, beautifully-photographed English-language cookbook published in 2000, is selling at the relatively brisk pace of two copies a week at one popular east Jerusalem bookstore.

Nahed Mona, who works at the shop, says buyers mostly are Westerners looking to recreate meals enjoyed in the region.

The publisher, Saqi Books, attributes the success of the book in part to growing interest in Palestinian food and the lack of similar books on the market. An updated edition of the book is planned, and the company hopes to publish other cookbooks.

But change is slow. Even many Palestinians don't see the need for paying more attention to their food.

"Palestinians know how to cook their own food. They don't need a book to tell them that," said Mona.

Anthropologist Ali Qleibo said despite the Palestinian notion that their food has always been the same, he said Palestinian kitchens had already seen dramatic changes during the past 80 years -- and should change more.

Qleibo has found the Palestinian kitchen initially was based on wheat boiled with seasonal vegetables and thickened with bread. Meat was reserved primarily for religious festivals.

But as Palestinians have become wealthier, their food has grown to reflect the cuisine of the Turkish overlords who once ruled this region, adding meat and vegetable stews to the repertoire.

Now Qleibo thinks Palestinian food should be pushed forward again and improved for modern tastes and the small Palestinian middle class who want to try new things.

Chickpeas are a staple of the Palestinian diet. In this salad, they are seasoned with a pungent but pleasing blend of cumin, olive oil and lemon juice.

To make the salad more substantial, add crumbled feta cheese and several seeded and diced tomatoes.

In a medium bowl, combine the chickpeas, scallions and parsley. Toss to combine.

In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients, then pour over the chickpeas and toss to coat evenly. Let sit 10 minutes for the flavors to develop.

Servings: 4 to 6 (Recipe adapted from Christiane Dabdoub Nasser's "Classic Palestinian Cookery," Saqi Books, 2001

Palestinians/Arabs in general are obsessed with the idea that Jews are “stealing” their food, music, culture. “Just like they stole our land!”

Even though they claim to have solidarity with Arab Jews, their solidarity stops at the idea that Arab Jews have just as much right to Middle Eastern culture as any Arab. Moroccans are the notable exception to this.

It’s a sore point that’s come up several times with Arab friends. Once had a big argument over maftoul/Israeli couscous/ptitim. :rolleyes:

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