Palestinian Cuisine: The Beautiful unknown and tasty cuisine of the Levant.
Palestine known for many things is rarely celebrated for it's food. And yet, It is food perfected over generations and it is what we call Cooking.
Most of today's food worldwide is not really cooking but what I call Assembly Food or fried stuff.
Real cooking such as French or Italian - Persian or Syrian and other cuisines is deep from the confines of the Terroir. We all know that authentic (I dislike this word) dishes originate from what grazed and grew in nearby fields.....
Palestinian food similar to Syrian food is home bred and grown.
I was utterly shocked, for example, to find Mohamara which is a pure Aleppian dish offered in the VIP lounge of Narita airport for crying out loud!
We had a very nice dinner at a newly opened restaurant offering Palestinian food:
Never mind the ubiquitous starters of Hummos and the likes. The mains were:
1- Mnazalat Eggplant
Eggplant or Aubergines for the French inclined: This is an Aubergines and Lamb Stew in a clay pot cooked in the oven and covered by rising bread dough a la Kashmiri rice type.
2- Jordanian Mansaf.
Lamb cooked in re-hydrated Yogurt on a bed of Shrek bread and rice. The lamb is marinated in Karak Jmeed. Karak being the original Goat yogurt from the town of Karak. The rice is drowned with the Karak Yogurt as well.
What a Royal dish and is in fact the National dish of Jordan.
3- Mosakhan:
Chicken on Shrekk bread cooked with tons of onions - Pine Nuts and Tons of Sumac.
This is a very famous Palestinian dish which did make it outside the borders of Palestine.
4- Maftoul: This is a unique labour intensive dish whereby the Bulgur is swirled petit à petit with white flour until the flour is fully absorbed by the Bulgur and the hand swirling effect turns the Burghul bead into a small ball. This is then steamed and doused with the chicken broth.. It is served with a tomato sauce of luscious hummos.
Dessert: Tamrieh Fried pastry filled with Semolina.
