The Eastern Kitchen Today... Do You Think It Is Being Influenced by the Western Kitchen??

The Woman's Voice Symposium

Our traditions abound in a wealth of Eastern cooking, which we relish and whose delicious dishes we sing...
And we are in the midst of an age marked by speed and by the importance of money, an age impatient with the sacrifices of time and money that the Eastern kitchen demands.
To what extent, then, are we prepared to keep pace with this age and be swayed by its practical currents — and, in consequence, to give up some of the dishes we hold dear?

The strange thing about The Woman's Voice symposium on the Eastern kitchen is that it was theoretical.
And it is notorious that no (Arab) gathering is complete except around a laden table!!
How much more so when the discussion turns on the most delicious of dishes: mahshi, vine leaves, kibbeh, maqlubeh...?
Yet the symposium remained theoretical, despite the presence of the two cavaliers Muhammad al-Naqqash and Rashad al-Bibi, who acknowledge no pleasure equal to the pleasure of food — not even that of finding themselves alone among five women: Aliyya al-Saidi, Wadi'a Khartabil, Maliha Fakhoury, Edvick Shayboub, and myself...

The first round went to al-Naqqash, who said: It is not necessary that we imitate the Westerners in abridging food on the grounds that we imitate them in their civilization — for the simple food the Westerners generally eat came as a result of their industrial life, and how far we still are from that. We hope that in the future, once we have filled this gap, we shall not fall into their excess of enslavement to the machine, which has made their lives half mechanical!!

Then al-Naqqash insisted on establishing a theory — I know not where he got it. He said: the more a man advances intellectually, the finer his taste for food; and the peoples of long-standing civilization are the owners of the rich kitchens... On the strength of this theory al-Naqqash clung to the Eastern kitchen, calling for artistry in the serving of food without touching its substance — for devotion to rich food is a mark of civilization and imagination! The Americans themselves wait a month or two for the chance at a respectable meal in a famous restaurant, and at a great price.

Maliha could not stomach al-Naqqash's theory. She refuses to admit that the more a man advances mentally, the greater his passion for delicious food; and she knows that this kind of cooking condemns a woman to spending long hours of her day in the kitchen — which

deprives her of many intellectual pleasures and, in consequence, of sharing her life companion's way of thinking...

Al-Naqqash realized that unless he hastened to adjust his position he would lose the beautiful lady's smile, so he put in quickly: We never stipulated who is to do the cooking — the woman or the man; and whichever of them we choose, we may rest easy. Except that this age allows her to listen to Beethoven while she stuffs the squash!!...

And from his last sentence we understood that he had chosen the woman for the kitchen!

Wadi'a watched the battle in silence — but a strange silence: with all her senses she was with al-Naqqash. She wants the woman to cook, to spend her free hours preparing delicious food for her husband and her children — on condition that she always mind the nutritional value; and by force of profession — she is a doctor's wife — she set about itemizing this nutritional value: vitamins, protein, iron, and, and...

Here Aliyya sprang up to defend the nutritional value of the Eastern kitchen, comparing it with the Western kitchen, which she had witnessed at close quarters and whose poverty she had touched with her own hands; how often she had heard the Europeans sighing over the delicious dishes that we enjoy and they are denied.

And Maliha said: Fine — our food is good, but we take no account of quantity in our kitchen; it always exceeds the family's need. Take the common people, for example...

Maliha did not finish her sentence. At the mention of the people, Rashad cut her off: "The common people cook better than we do; they use Hama ghee and take artful pains over the taqliya, and there is nothing more delicious than the smell of a popular quarter at cooking time. Then, as to quantity, I agree that it should run to excess, so that a dish is left over for the next day. Eastern dishes have proved their pedigree: let them sit a day or two in the refrigerator and they grow tastier — and thus we hit two birds with one stone: the woman's rest and her freedom for other work, and the goodness of the food!!"

And Rashad waited for the reaction... He was expecting agreement that day-old food is tastier, but not a head was raised!

And al-Naqqash said: My friend, all I care about is that the food be delicious, for man eats with his tongue before his mind... Every pleasure is followed by some disappointment — except the pleasure

of eating, without excess... Eating gives the eater pleasure three times a day... it gathers the scattered family together... and it assures the woman the contentment of having pleased those she loves — her husband and her children!

Wadi'a remarked that a woman captures a man by one thing... "his stomach!"

Rashad went on saluting the Arab kitchen, counting it one of the links that strengthen the family's bond; then he turned to Maliha and said: We have all stood by it — except you! And before Maliha could open her mouth to speak, al-Naqqash had dispatched to her a phrase of condolence for her husband, Mr. Fakhoury, surmising that he goes deprived of delicious food...

Maliha could not bear this accusation — she who knows perfectly well that her husband will relish fawaregh with vine leaves from no hand but hers! And she cried: Long live the Arab kitchen!...

And everyone cried it with her.

Wadi'a wished to correct an error, saying: There is no such thing as an Arab kitchen; let us call it Eastern, for it combines the Indian, the Persian, and the Turkish.

As for Aliyya — the believer in the Eastern kitchen — her one concern was to convince us that we live in bliss, and she began telling us amusing incidents about the Westerners' passion for our dishes, and how they count the moments they sit at our tables among their happiest.

Naturally al-Naqqash joined her in recounting anecdotes about the Europeans, the Canadians, and the Americans...

We came back to our own country — and there was Wadi'a surprising us: she cooks only over charcoal, although she has given up cooking with Hama ghee and frying all the vegetables before cooking them, which harms the digestive system.

No, said Maliha... We want to preserve our kitchen — on condition that we strike from it the element of time, and that we cut down the quantity of food while varying it, serving two dishes instead of one... There is a question that was raised at the start of the session and to which we gave too little attention... I believe the root of all our ills is the manner of serving — arrangement and order.

Here opinions differed... Some of us favor lining up all the dishes on the table — Rashad says "there is a psychological comfort in that"... and some object; al-Naqqash says: "Where is the element of surprise if we know all the courses of the meal in a single instant?!"

We reached no agreement on the manner of serving, but we were unanimous that, whether we like it or not, we are influenced by Western habits — and however much the Eastern kitchen suffers from this influence, it must be preserved as an entity standing on its own!!