Middle East | Gherkins & Tomatoes

War. Cook. Eat. Love.

April 10, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Annia Ciezadlo, author of Day of Honey* (Free Press, 2011) , isn’t the first person to cook her way through trying times. Nor will she be the last. But the makeshift kitchens where Ms. Ciezadlo peeled purple eggplant or stirred onions caramelizing for Mjadara Hamra (Lentils with Bulgur Wheat) happened to be in a couple of war zones, neither one in a New York high-rise or a Tuscan olive grove. No, unlike the heartbroken cook in Lily Prior’s La Cucina […]

Categories: Arab cooking, Book Reviews, Food News, Food writing, Garlic, Iran, Middle East • Tags: Annia Ciezadlo, Baghdad, Christian Science Monitor, Day of Honey, Iran, Iraq, Middle East, Mohamad Bazzi, New York Times

Peregrinations and Pilgrimages: Egeria and the Flour Soup

September 30, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Rocks tumbled down the rugged sloping ground and dust spun like little tops as Egeria, a nun from early fourth-century Galicia, climbed toward the rocky summit of Mount Sinai. From that craggy point, she gazed at a world she defined by the holy sites mentioned in the Bible. And from there we saw beneath us Egypt and Palestine, the Red Sea, and the Parthenian Sea which leads to Alexandria, and finally the endless lands of the Saracens. (53) At night, […]

Categories: Lit & Food, Middle East, Reference • Tags: Christianity, Desert Fathers, Egeria, Holy Land, Middle East, Mount Sinai, Pilgrimage, Red Sea, Religion and Spirituality, Saint Benedict

The British Melting Pot

March 13, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I recently ran across these books, mentioned on an interesting British Web site providing glimpses and glances at cookbooks published in Britain, cookbooks that we here in the US of A rarely see. Maybe it’s my imagination, but it seems that the British cookbook market features more books concerned with other cultures and not so much with “slimming,” as our friends across the pond call dieting. So here they are, some books to fascinate you on a rainy day in […]

Categories: Africa, Book Reviews, Cookbooks, Cooking, India • Tags: Africa, Cookbooks, Cooking, India, Middle East, Peru

Arab Food and Cuisine — Inspirations

September 24, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Cooking in the Arab world, in general, adheres to one of the most healthful food patterns on earth, probably healthier in many ways than the Mediterranean model (and that is the stuff of a special future post). The freshest food, the most beautiful colors, the greatest imagination in wielding the pan, this is what the food of the Middle East offers. But most of all, I hold women like this woman in my heart, because she is Everywoman, Arab and […]

Categories: Bibliographies, Middle East • Tags: Arab cooking, Bibliographies, Books, Cooking, Food, Middle East

Bedouin Life Shaped Arab Culture (Photo credit: C. Bertelsen)

FOOD AND THE STRANGER IN THE MIDDLE EAST : A Different Look at a Misunderstood Culture

September 23, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Warriors universally used to lay down their swords or knives at the doorway of their enemy when they broke bread together. Eating together, praying together, speaking together were possible only when no one felt vulnerable. Only in that way could “the Other” become human. Like their Bedouin neighbors, and ancestors, Arabs today offer their guests – even strangers – the best they have, often denying themselves of basic comfort and food in order to please guests. By killing and roasting […]

Categories: Bread, Middle East, Recipes • Tags: Arab cooking, Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Middle East

Gherkins & Tomatoes

Meditations and Photographs about Food, Cooking, and Life

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War. Cook. Eat. Love.

Peregrinations and Pilgrimages: Egeria and the Flour Soup

The British Melting Pot

Arab Food and Cuisine — Inspirations

FOOD AND THE STRANGER IN THE MIDDLE EAST : A Different Look at a Misunderstood Culture

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