"The nutritional value of our food must be minded," says Wadi'a Khartabil.

Nahida takes notes, and al-Naqqash listens

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 intellectu-ally, 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 imagina-tion! 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,

"There is no pleasure to equal the pleasure of food,"

says Muhammad al-Naqqash