Middle Eastern Cuisine

Feature Writer: Debbie Kwiatoski

How do you describe the cuisine of a region as diverse as the Middle East? How do you explain how it all comes together into a tapestry as remarkable as an Oriental carpet?

The “tent food” of the Bedouin, the peasant dishes, the high cuisine of some of the world's oldest cities, they are all part of this culture and this cuisine.

I suspect that the threads that first bound this region of contradictions together were the trade routes: the Great Silk Road that wove its way from India and China to the West and the smaller paths trod by traders and travelers, armies and missionaries. They spread their food styles throughout the region and the admixture that remained became a cuisine in its own right. These are the foods and traditions we will explore as we develop this section.