Sunday, May 23, 2021

1545. Preserving Palestine's Food Heritage, Part I


The watermelon (red, white, green, and black) has become the symbol of resistance in Palestine. It is not only people's homes and lives that are being stolen, but also our very own heritage. My Palestinian recipes are almost as popular as my Iraqi recipes on the blog. Another parallel, many Iraqi foods are suddenly being introduced to the world as Israeli kubba and what have you. As different as the originating causes of the nakba of Iraq and of Palestine, there are undeniable parallels going back to one single source: zionists. I will never grow tired of saying it: Jerusalem is Muslim. Palestine lives. Israel does not exist. Allah is most great.
I had to divide this feature into three parts, because of the sheer quantity of Palestinian and Palestinian-inspired recipes I have. Palestine is a lush green and fertile land with so many bounties and blessing that are demonstrated in their food culture. The vegetation is so lush, one would live a happy life just on their vegetarian dishes. In fact, almost all 53 recipes in this Part I are completely vegetarian. Gutsy in flavors, Palestinian food is rich in onion, garlic, summac, zaatar, pomegranate, olives, sesame, cheese, all kinds of fruit, aubergines, pumpkins, tomatoes, coriander, mint, chilli... I could go on and on. Naturally, many counties in the region with similar climate and vegetation have overlapping and shared recipes with Palestine. Up above is watermelon feta mint salad.

Watermelon and cheese is a classic combination in Iraq and it is in Palestine.















































Felafels

2 comments:

Tamara said...

Salam sister, your blog is my favourite. Jazakallah khair thank you for keeping it up and thank you for sharing these beautiful recipes. I have a bunch of Palestinian cookbooks if you'd like the links for the pdf. Tamara

Maryam said...

Salam Tamara, thank you! Unfortunately they recommend against sharing links for the time being. Maybe you can share the book titles for our readers to search?