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ktspktsp · 10-08-2008, 11:59 AM

Food fight!

It's interesting how nations get touchy about food.

Now, a lot of this food is pretty much the same across the Eastern Mediterranean. The issue is that borders were randomly drawn up in the early 1900's in what was pretty much one political-cultural entity (the largely Arab middle east under Turkish control). Since those foods are pretty old, they're not gonna conform to those new borders. That doesn't mean that there isn't specialization and variations between the areas, of course.

Also, it's pretty hard to tell what originated from where, as documentation is thin and histories are biased. And I do not claim to know that much about the origins

.

So falafel and hummus are from all around the region ("Greater Syria" to be exact) and a bit beyond. They're not specifically Lebanese or Palestinian or Israeli. They're just Middle Eastern! So it is a bit annoying to see "Israeli falafel" or "Palestinian hummus" and whatnot.

Now, tabboule is a bit different in that it's not as common in the area and is more specific to Lebanon (there's a Tunisian Tabboule but it's a different thing). I'm sure there are similar examples from the other countries in the area.

Anyway, these foods (falafel, hummus) shouldn't be copyrighted since they're not that different accross the area. I can sort of see tabboule being copyrighted, since it's a salad and you can have lots of different versions of it. I've seen something called "tabboule" here in Iceland with no parsley whatsoever and lots of barley

. Makes no sense! But I'm still not a fan of tagging and copyrighting food.

So yeah.

10-08-2008, 11:59 AM	#14 (permalink)
ktspktsp Addict Location: Reykjavik, Iceland	Food fight! It's interesting how nations get touchy about food. Now, a lot of this food is pretty much the same across the Eastern Mediterranean. The issue is that borders were randomly drawn up in the early 1900's in what was pretty much one political-cultural entity (the largely Arab middle east under Turkish control). Since those foods are pretty old, they're not gonna conform to those new borders. That doesn't mean that there isn't specialization and variations between the areas, of course. Also, it's pretty hard to tell what originated from where, as documentation is thin and histories are biased. And I do not claim to know that much about the origins . So falafel and hummus are from all around the region ("Greater Syria" to be exact) and a bit beyond. They're not specifically Lebanese or Palestinian or Israeli. They're just Middle Eastern! So it is a bit annoying to see "Israeli falafel" or "Palestinian hummus" and whatnot. Now, tabboule is a bit different in that it's not as common in the area and is more specific to Lebanon (there's a Tunisian Tabboule but it's a different thing). I'm sure there are similar examples from the other countries in the area. Anyway, these foods (falafel, hummus) shouldn't be copyrighted since they're not that different accross the area. I can sort of see tabboule being copyrighted, since it's a salad and you can have lots of different versions of it. I've seen something called "tabboule" here in Iceland with no parsley whatsoever and lots of barley . Makes no sense! But I'm still not a fan of tagging and copyrighting food. So yeah.