chefzadi

That looks like cuttle fish to me. ← I think the main difference in appearance between cuttlefish and squid is the head, squid has those "wings' I leave it to others to wax poetic about the difference in flavor and texture (the Korean cuttlefish are delicious, btw) and to do the scientific breakdown. King Phillip comes over from Germany soon with a bag full of cuttlefish.

Oui me too.

The Chinese invented the typewriter, couscousiere, TVs, light bulbs, phonetic alphabets....

Seiche

Cereals? Quel dommage .. comment triste! Between this post today and the post on the decline of French specialty cheeses, apparently America has some atoning to do .. or do they? ← I wonder if anyone knows the ratio of articles written by the British about French food and dining habits as opposed to the number of French articles about British food and dining habits?

Maghribi cuisine It's turning into THE source in English for ACCURATE information on North African cuisine. There is a Tunisian chef, a Moroccan woman, myself, as well as well known writers, Paula wolfert posted an excellent article on how to "rolll your own...couscous", Clifford Wright and Anissa Helou have promised to start posting very soon. Many more writers to follow. In answer to the question, "What is North African cuisine or Magrhebi cuisine?" I'll say that one person cannot answer that question IF you want relevant cutural details.

Isn't variety the s p i c e of life?

I'm for, sometimes, other times not. I was thinking about posting a similar question about spices and I found this thread, although I wouldn't ask it as an "either or" proposition. But I'm obviously missing alot of the background information for why this thread was started.

Really? Do you have a list?

Don't know, I don't speak English. And I think the pigeons ate all the breadcrumbs tracking me back to that place. Read The Mediterranean Feast first, to give you a sense of history and context. Anyone who is truly nterested in Mediterranean, North African and Middle Eastern cuisines should read this book. EDIT: I've never seen a copy of Roden's book. I found this. Moroccan is not characaterized by a "heady mix of hot and sweet" and it's not in the Middle East.

As far as Algerian I do my research based on what I saw on my visits there, what I understand to be 'traditional' cooking techniques and methods, history of different cities, interviews and shared cooking time with other Algerians and try to place recipes within a historical/cultural context. There are dishes that have names but it's not strict, it usually refers to a a cooking method, a vessel, a set of ingredients (not strict, for instance prunes can be subsituted for apricots, or pine nuts for almonds), description of the primary flavor (such as "sweet", "spicy" or "hot"), the names can be as vague as "meat" or simply name a vegetable for a wide range preparations. Alot of Algerians don't even know bother to give specific names to certain dishes, "We're having eggplant with meat" does not refer to a codified dish. That's why there are so many recipes and variations, alot of inventiveness and very few arguments about "authenticity" although comments like "you put cinnamon into your chorba *ACK*" aren't uncommon. As far as Lebanese, no I haven't seen anything like what you're looking for, I haven't really been looking at Middle Eastern cooking that much. There are several librarians and researchers who have been very helpful with questions I have, so I'll ask around. I have some good search engines I'll send you.

How's the weather Adam?

Isn't rice the main dish in Korean dining? LA's Korea town is pretty impressive. Next time you're here you should try some of the places that specialize in specific dishes. Glad you had fun.

How was your trip? July and August are my least favorite months to be in Paris. Someone mentioned upthread something about nightlife. On my last trips there, I was traveling as a family man so we didn't go to any night clubs. But when I was going to school and working there I remember a really good night club scene that went well into the night, early morning and going out to eat at 4:00 AM.

It's flavored with locally grown plants in other parts of the Med as well. I have another project now, tracing the spread of arak.

Maybe fava beans or haricot blancs? It could be chick peas, but I assume you would be able to recognize that easily.

The Phoenicians were from North Africa? : I emailed them, no response. ← My other favorite dubious factoid: edit: if you notice the recipes on the bottom of the Lebanon page -- a fattoush with hummus in it, and a red-pepper hummus. Interesting... ← Just so we don't confuse other readers even though the regulars here in the Africa/ME forum know this, The Phoenicians are modern day Syrians and Lebanese. And as far as who invented alcohol, distillation and the origins of arak (pastis) look here. It's an Arab invention, not something that French farmers or monks came up with themselves.

The linked page also says... Pastis is not a French "invention" it is an Arab invention. The French farmers did not invent distilling alchohol or anise flavored alcohol. There is a thread on this somewhere. I'll look for it and link to it.

There's alot out there. I keep finding more and more and it's really a continuum (correct word for this?) of many writers throughout history. Hey, there was a Syrian historian writing about Maghrebian (couscous) way back when. There's an Andalusian cookbook from the 13th century that documents Mashriqi recipes. There's been trade and communication between North Africa and the Middle East since ancient times, cradle of civilization, seafarers, traders and all that. Clifford Wright and Charles Perry are the most rigourous sources in English, not that they wouldn't be in other languages, but they write in English. EDIT: An example of food scholarship beyond the writer's realm of knwledge and research This article The Phoenicians were from North Africa? : I emailed them, no response.

That's a really good price. I'll have to see what they go for in LA where we tend to pay more for certain products. Thank you.

You mean it was about ratings not creating a "master chef"

Maybe I'm not caculating the prices correctly off their website. It looks really, really expensive. How much for a single whole chicken at a supermarket?

Is Lebanese cuisine really strictly codified? Does changing one ingredient change the dish so much that it has a different name? Or make it inauthentic? I can think of at least ten different versions of Alegerian Chicken with Olives and the names of the dishes don't really change even though some of the dishes are very different. French dishes of course have very specific names, even for potato preparations that vary only in the type of cheese used for instance or whether or not garlic is used. So my question is, is there a Lebanese tradition of generations of writers codifying the cuisine and documenting precise names?

I can't think of any off the top of my head. ←

I can't think of any off the top of my head. ← I was kidding, I have no idea about Lebanese kitchens. Whad do people do in areas where there aren't commercial butchers? Even in France farmers cook larger cuts of meat, whole animals.