The Mexican Kitchen's Islamic Connection

[Darienne]

Found this interesting article, The Mexican Kitchen's Islamic Connection , although I can't figure out quite how I got there... Wasn't sure where to post it.

It certainly made me sit up and think. No wonder I love both Mexican and Indian food.

[Snadra]

That article is absolutely fascinating. I love learning about how food traditions travel and change from one place and time to the next, but I've never come across this connection before. Thanks so much for sharing this.

[EatNopales]

While its certainly true that there is an "Islamic" influence (although that is not a good phrase) in Mexico cuisine, the article is quite flawed and simplistic. Many said "Islamic" influences fall under three categories:

• Native Mexican Cognates
  
• Native Spanish Cognates
  
• Pre-Islamic Influences from the Mediterranean
  

The article is written for an organization whose vested interested is promoting the impact of Arabian culture in the Western world, and there is a lazy assumption that any dish in the Spanish speaking world whose name is derived from Arabic can be credited to the various Moorish caliphates. It also assumes that Arabians invented everything that was in their cultural profile at the time of the Caliphates it ignores earlier influences from Berbers, Egyptians, Persians etc.,

Moles, for example, predate the existence of Islam by 4,000 + years. Is there a connection between Mole and the culinary traditions of countries which today practice Islam? Yes absolutely, Spain was obviously influenced by the Moors for what 7 or 8 centuries and of course made great contributions.. but prior to that Spain (and its European colonial masters of Antiquity... Greece, Rome etc.,) were influenced by modern day Tunisian, Moroccan, Algerian & Eastern Mediterranean cultures. But the real smoking gun is that the Spanish conventual & palace cuisines of the 17th Century were deeply influenced by Turkish cuisine... you see this in old cookbooks published in Mexico at the time the phrase Cocina Turka, or a la Turka to describe melanges of Spice Route ingredients with Dried Fruits & herbs etc., At is at that time that a certain style of Mole developed, nowadays immortalized as Mole Poblano, Mole de Xico, Manchamanteles etc.,that combined the Pre-Hispanic mole traditions with the "Cocina Turka" of baroque era European civilization.

To make a long story short that article is full of naivete and lacking in academic rigour.. way overplays the hand of the "Islamic" influences in Mexican and Indian cuisine (the latter part of the sentence is even more laughable if you have a sense of the timelines of Arabian & Indian sub-continent cuisines... it is clear that India has long had the more sophisticated and varied cuisine of the two... it was the grand Abyssinian, Persian & Indian cuisines that influenced Arabian cuisine not the other way around).

[Darienne]

Hi Nopales, Thanks for adding your knowledge to this topic and putting another perspective into the ring. This entire subject is new to me and so it is all interesting and challenging.

[EatNopales]

My pleasure

[EatNopales]

I should also note the Mexican phenomenon of the "3rd Root".

In the rebuilding following the Mexican revolution (1910 to 1921), there was a nationalist movement to increase the prominence of Ancient Mexico in modern Mexican culture reversing 4 1/2 centuries of Anti-Native Mexican rhetoric... where Spain & later the Criollo (Spanish descendant) leaders of Mexico sought to make Mexico just another Spanish nation. By the end of the 20th century, this movement had succeeded in affecting the Mexican identity.. and Mexico was now a "mestizo nation" with two roots.. Native & Spanish (I am sure this much is obvious but can't be taken for granted).

Following that accomplishment.. Mexican academics & cultural leaders have now been working feverishly to raise a 3rd Root... it mostly began with proponents of the African 3rd root... in the last decade or so there has been a big push for an Islamist 3rd root.. and to a lesser degree there is a Filipino / Pacific Islander 3rd root movement... all have historical merit particularly in specific regions African influence in the coasts of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Tabasco & Campeche, the North African & Levantine influence in Veracruz, Puebla, Mexico City.. and the Filipino / Pacific Islander influences in coastal Colima, Nayarit, Jalisco & Michoacan.

So what I am getting at is there is a lot written from within Mexico, by Mexicans (not necessarily of middle eastern origin) on the "Islamic" third root.. there is even a music documentary out there about the connection between Son Jarocho & North African / Arabian / Levantine music

[EatNopales]

Check this teaser for Third Root the Movie... staring Camilo Nu a Mexican of Levantine origins... halfway through the clip he is in Morocco and playing with local musicians a gnawu arrangement of La Guanabana (a traditional Son Jarocho whose lyrics are all about celebrating the cunnilingual arts)... doesn't get much more surreal than that.

The whole clip is fascinating of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNBWIiSi57c