dlish

just wondering what you guys think?

being of lebanese origin, this one hits close to home. i loveeee my lebanese food. i have to have it every day. i especially love my hummous and baba ghanouj. im not a salad person, but i still like my tabbouleh too!

do you guys think that these foods should be marketed as kosher israeli foods even though they are well known to be lebanese? does it matter at all? at the end of the day, i guess such a small place like lebanon wants it own piece in the world, and some recognition is a little consolation for all the hardship its gone through. for someone to steal its limelight, especially something the lebanese are so good at doing would be the ultimate insult.

the way i see it, im glad they're fighting over food and not over anything else!

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Halx

If you ever saw You Don't Mess With The Zohan, you'd know that Israelis use hummus in every way imaginable. I'd say its theirs simply because of their ingenuity. Who knew that you could put out fires with hummus?

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Xazy

Why even care, I just want it to be at a kosher place so I can eat it, I love hummous, baba ghouj, etc...

sapiens

Next thing you know, the French will try to claim credit for our Freedom fries.

I don't see the problem with Israeli merchants using the names.

Vigilante

If they argue over food like this, they are a lost cause.

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Willravel

If Lebanon wants better marketing maybe they should kick Hezbollah out first and then worry about culinary associations.

Hommus, btw, is an Arab dish. Either Israel gets along with the Palestinians or they don't get hommus. Willravel has spoken, and I suspect the world court will back me on this one.

dlish

i got your back will

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abaya

Just curious, but why does hummous have to be kosher? I thought that was a meat thing?

I leave the official opinion on the Lebanese vs. Israeli hummous to my husband...

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roachboy

isn't internation trademark and/or copyright law grand?

eventually, the turks will move to prevent turkish salad from being placed on lebanese felafels in israeli shops in paris.
tunisia could file a simlar suit to prevent people not only from using harissa but also from saying the word without paying a royalty to the tunisian state.

soon other conflicts erupt: because the word cabbage is derived from the italian capocchia, i can imagine similar claims being made about the word "cabbage" as an unauthorized knock-off, a bootleg like lovi's or wringler's jeans---at least about the word cabbage---which would generate problems for the continued serving of cabbage shredded underneath turkish salad (which will be forbidden in any event) because shredded leaves may still sit in a bin, but there'll be no way to refer to them.

"i'll have that" wouldn't help, because that could mean anything.

conflict over who owns the term "pita" could degenerate into a new balkan war, as it was stolen from maybe greek, maybe hebrew, maybe serbo-croatian, maybe bulgarian.

all in all i see nothing but an ever-escalating donnybrook following from this.
i'd say the felafel sandwich is in real trouble.

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dlish

abaya depends on how strict you want to be? heard of kosher kitchens? where even kitchen utinsils need to be seperated. you cant be mixing certain foods. anyone care to elaborate? its been a while since i read up on it.

tell ktsp to get his ass in here

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Willravel

Good question. By my understanding it's tahini sesame seed paste that created the problem once upon a time. If the seeds are roasted and shelled by non-Jews, they're not kosher. This is only one interpretation, that only foods prepared by Jews are kosher, but it's surprisingly prevalent.

I'm hoping Levite will stop by and drop some knowledge.

dlish

no im pretty sure its the mixing of meats with dairy that makes things un-kosher?

levite you get your ass in here too!

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Willravel

LOL, yeah this isn't my area of expertise. I'm only going on what I've heard. I also am not much of an expert on what's halal.

What do I know for sure?

ktspktsp

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.

Vigilante

Ha. I eat an entire pack of bacon in one sitting.... Not to mention a whole can of danish ham from time to time, sometimes pan fried and mixed with pasta roni.

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Lucifer

I have Kosher salt, where does that fit in with the whole meat thing?

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Cynthetiq

This is akin to the BBQ variants across America. recipes are just that... recipes.

The only thing that does make sense is to Denomination of Origin for specialized foods that are manufactured, grown, or harvested at the exact locale, for wines to pork products.

so if they make the baba ganouj or hommus and then ship it out... DOM is clear. But those are items that are freshest best. They won't travel well to other locations or locales.

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genuinegirly

Baba ganouj is delicious. So is Hummus. I don't care about what nation came up with them. They're delicious either way.

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Frosstbyte

What an odd debate. I definitely think of those foods as lebanese, but I suspect that's largely because I've eaten at Lebanese restaurants, as opposed to Jewish restaurants. I'm not sure either culture has a definitive claim on the foods in the way that Greeks might have a claim on Feta or the French on champagne. As people have mentioned, they're found all over the Arabian peninsula and have been for a lot longer than either Lebanon or Israel (in any modern, cognizable form) have existed.

I suppose as long as I can still eat it, I'm happy. Seems like a silly thing to get worked up about.

canuckguy

LOL, glad to see all the major issues have been put to bed so they can argue over something so meaningful! It is just fucking food.

Personally I love all the food mentioned above and consider it to be middle eastern in origin, not necessarily Israeli or Lebanese.

I am now officially starving and about to hit the grocery store!

xepherys

a) All above mentioned foods (including bacon) are delicious to a fault.

b) I don't know anything about feta and the Greeks, but the idea of a registered food item based on culture or country is retarded. If I make hummous or baba gannouj at home, it is certainly not Lebanese. No more than a "greek salad" I made at home is greek. It's American because I am American and am creating it in America. You wouldn't go to China and say "Unhand my hamburger you dastardly coward! How dare you lay claim to OUR beefy foodstuffs?"

Wait... where's GH when you're praising him anyhow?

At any rate, food is food. It can be culturally tied to a certain peoples. I obviously always associate tabuleh with Lebanon. However, if I am making it and eating it in my home, the Lebanese can make no claim to it. Besides, it's been around for how long? Unless the original culinary creator of tabuleh steps up and claims rights, I call it all bushwa!

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Charlatan

Who really cares where it's from as long as I get more on my plate?



If the Israeli population produces hummus and can't call it that... what would they call it?

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abaya

At our table, it's ALWAYS Lebanese. (Because my husband is Lebanese, and he's the cook in the house.) It's certainly not Icelandic!!

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percy

I can see it now. The Israelis go and steal the hummus from the Lebanese. It return the Lebanese steal thousands of bagels and purposely destroy them. The Israeli's then attack blowing up all the chick pea fields in Lebanon.

I think what ever culture invented the phrases,..hummana, hummana, hummana,...should lay claim to the hummus.

The Faba

I can see the EU ruling on something like this. Mainly because I have little respect for the EU.

This whole fight over food names is silly, at best. It's close to not being able to market any sparkling wine outside of the Champagn region of France as champagne. (The French also do this with cheeses and beans... the daft bastards )

Of course, the items in question are recipies, not raw products. I suppose cheese and wine could be marketed as recipes, but they're not exactly easy to make, requiring a fairly specific selection of equipment and time. Yes, I know that people can make cheese and wine at home... but the percentage of people who do so is rather small.