An urban family in present-day Saudi Arabia prepares a festive meal to welcome a special visitor. Amina and Muhammad, seven and five years old, demonstrate manners and food ways in this story for children.
Background Notes
How many generations - or how many days - ago did you arrive from the Middle East? It doesn't matter: In these few blocks, the foods and flavours of the old countries are lovingly preserved.
A Glossary: Of Dishes—Ingredients—and Terms
Parrot-green cardamom, dried limes as light as Ping-Pong balls, lemony sumac and pine-scented mastic are among the unexpected flavors Arabian cooks can call on to build the complex, subtle taste of Peninsular cuisine.
Three clay tablets from 1700 BC ,found half a century ago, now turnout to be a unique collection of Mesopotamian recipes. The sophisticated dishes they describe push the dawn of culinary history back 2,000 years.
A Babylonian Banquet
History stirs the pot in the Middle East. The region’s past glories, defeats and triumphs, its isolated provinces and broad empires, are all reflected in a unified cuisine that provides a rich and nourishing culinary legacy.
