Beirut & Istanbul- The Baklava war ( in Lebanon Baklawa) intensified between the Turks and the Cypriot Greeks. Turkish baklava producers are protesting Greek Cypriot claims that the sweet dessert is their own national creation.
Sources: Ya Libnan, Kitchenproject, Hurriyet
with support for their protest coming from State Minister and EU Chief Negotiator Ali Babacan in the EU General Secretariat.
Plans for a press conference are underway for Monday May 16, and tomorrow a protest in which banners proclaiming "Baklava is Turkish, we will not allow the Greek Cypriots to feed it to the world" are held is planned for Istanbul. The owner of renowned baklava producer "Haci Sayid Baklava," Halil Dincerler, had this comment on the situation: "Baklava is Turkish, what the Greek Cypriots are presenting is just a copy. We will go all the way to Brussels, and we will let the EU ministers taste real baklava."
Another comment on the international food fight was made by the President of the Baklava and Dessert Producers Foundation, Mehmet Yildirim. He said that it was time for Turkey to stand up and claim its national treasures, and recalled that the Turks had brought baklava with them all the way from Central Asia. Yildirim also said that there were documents which proved that baklava belonged rightfully to the Turks.
To help our readers Ya Libnan did some research on Baklava to determine the real origin of this dessert and to help stop this sticky war!
Based on the above history it is clear that Assyria is the origin of the Baklava.The History of Baklava
THE ORIGIN:
Like the origins of most recipes that came from Old Countries to enrich the dinner tables of dessert lovers, the exact origin of baklava is also something hard to put the finger on because every ethnic group whose ancestry goes back to the Middle East has a claim of their own on this scrumptious pastry.
RECIPE FOR BAKLAVA:
It is widely believed however, that the Assyrians at around 8th century B.C. were the first people who put together a few layers of thin bread dough, with chopped nuts in between those layers, added some honey and baked it in their primitive wood burning ovens. This earliest known version of baklava was baked only on special occasions. In fact, historically baklava was considered a food for the rich until the mid-19th century.
In Turkey, to this day one can hear a common expression often used by the poor, or even by the middle class, saying: "I am not rich enough to eat baklava and boerek every day".
REGIONAL INTERACTIONS:
The Greek seamen and merchants traveling east to Mesopotamia soon discovered the delights of Baklava. It mesmerized their taste buds. They brought the recipe to Athens. The Greeks' major contribution to the development of this pastry is the creation of a dough technique that made it possible to roll it as thin as a leaf, compared to the rough, bread-like texture of the Assyrian dough. In fact, the name "Phyllo" was coined by Greeks, which means "leaf" in the Greek language. In a relatively short time, in every kitchen of wealthy households in the region, trays of baklava were being baked for all kinds of special occasions from the 3rd Century B.C. onwards. The Armenians, as their Kingdom was located on ancient Spice and Silk Routes, integrated for the first time the cinnamon and cloves into the texture of baklava. The Arabs introduced the rose-water and cardamom. The taste changed in subtle nuances as the recipe started crossing borders. To the north of its birthplace, baklava was being baked and served in the palaces of the ancient Persian kingdom. To the west, it was baked in the kitchens of the wealthy Roman mansions, and then in the kitchens of the Byzantine Empire until the fall of the latter in 1453 A.D.
THE PERFECTION:
In the 15th Century A.D., the Ottomans invaded Constantinople to the west, and they also expanded their eastern territories to cover most of ancient Assyrian lands and the entire Armenian Kingdom. The Byzantine Empire came to an end, and in the east Persian Kingdom lost its western provinces to the invaders. For four hundred years from 16th Century on, until the decline of Ottoman Empire in 19th Century, the kitchens of Imperial Ottoman Palace in Constantinople became the ultimate culinary hub of the empire.
The artisans and craftsmen of all Guilds, the bakers, cooks and pastry chefs who worked in the Ottoman palaces, at the mansions of Pashas and Viziers, and at Provincial Governor (Vali) residences etc., had to be recruited from various ethnic groups that composed the empire. Armenian, Greek, Persian, Egyptian, Assyrian and occasionally Serbian, Hungarian or even French chefs were brought to Constantinople, to be employed at the kitchens of the wealthy. These chefs contributed enormously to the interaction and to the refinement of the art of cooking and pastry-making of an Empire that covered a vast region to include the Balkans, Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Persia, Armenia, Iraq and entire Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa and the Mediterranean and Aegean islands. Towards the end of 19th Century, small pastry-shops started to appear in Constantinople and in major Provincial capitals, to cater the middle class, but the Ottoman Palace have always remained the top culinary "academy" of the Empire, until its end in 1923.
Here, we must mention that there's a special reason for baklava being the top choice of pastry for the Turkish Sultans with their large Harems, as well as for the wealthy and their families. Two principal ingredients, the pistachio and honey, were believed to be aphrodisiacs when taken regularly. Certain spices that were added to baklava, have also helped to fine-tune and to augment the aphrodisiac characteristics of the pastry, depending on male or female consumer. Cinnamon for females, and cardamom for males and cloves for both sexes.
From 18th century on, there was nothing much to add to baklava's already perfected taste and texture. There were however, some cosmetic modifications in shaping and in the presentation of baklava on a baking tray (called Sinii). The Phyllo dough (called Youfka) which was traditionally layered and cut into squares or triangles, were given a "French touch" in late 18th century. As the Empire began opening itself to Western cultural (and culinary) influences, the General manager (Kahyabasi) of the Imperial Kitchen didn't miss the opportunity to hire Monsieur Guillaume, a former pastry chef of Marie Antoinette, who in exile at the Ottoman Turkish Palace after learning how to bake baklava, created the "dome" technique of cutting and folding of the baklava squares which was named "Baklava Francaise" (French Baklava) after the nationality of its creator.
The Assyrian empire stretched from Southern Lebanon in the south to the Zagros mountains in the north( bordering present day Iraq and Iran) and included areas of present day Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. The heartland of Assyria is the area that is now dominated by the Kurds.
Baklava , in fact has been the sweetest unifying dessert between all the countries of the Middle East and the Mediterranean sea. Each country makes it its own way but they are all sweet and sticky.
Lebanon has been the leader in promoting Baklava throughout the world. Lebanese baklava bakers such as Samedi were the first to Franchise it in the Gulf region, Europe and throughout the Middle east. In the United States the most famous Baklava is made by Shatila in Michigan.
As Lebanon continues to promote this dessert it will become the ultimate original Baklava.
Turkey and Greece therefore should stop this crazy Baklava war, because they both copied the dessert, but Lebanon did a better job at copying.
One baker told me after hearing the history of the dessert " You know, I never though about this before, but since Lebanon was at one time part of the Assyrian empire...perhaps Lebanon was the origin of this dessert and the Assyrians copied it from us and then passed on the recipe to the Turks and Greeks !!"
I was not surprised to hear this from the Lebanese baker and will comment no further since we had enough wars in Lebanon and we don’t want to start another one with Turkey and Greece.
By Christina Salerno
Bee Staff Writer
Hundreds of people attended the eighth annual Assyrian Food Festival, held Saturday and Sunday at the Assyrian Cultural Center of Bet-Nahrain in Ceres.
"I love to see people gather here together," said Fred Chalita, a native of Iraq who has lived in Turlock for the past 19 years.
"People come from all over to meet each other," he said.
Janet Shummon, chairwoman of the festival, said the event is designed to present several different facets of Assyrian culture — food, art, history, and traditional dancing and music.
"The idea is for both Assyrians and non-Assyrians to celebrate and understand the culture," Shummon said.
By Deborah Horan
Tribune staff reporter
Lamb bakes in the oven as Kamel Botres works the customers on a lazy afternoon. He's serving up a taste of Iraq to Arabic-speaking clientele, a slice of homeland for Iraqis in Chicago.
Walk into his restaurant, Mataam al-Mataam, at the corner of North Kedzie and West Lawrence Avenues in Albany Park, and you walk into any eatery in Baghdad: The scent of roasting meat floats in the air, shawarma spins on a spit and leathery men smoke cigarettes over glasses of syrupy tea.
The war in Iraq intrudes--it's piped in via Al Jazeera on a big-screen TV whenever customers flip to that channel--but Botres, 49, an affable Assyrian Christian with big arms and a balding head, maneuvers to keep it out as often as he can.
"I try to put music on the TV instead so people don't think too much about it," Botres said, flipping to a Lebanese station called Dandana, which loosely translates to "having fun," he said.
He wants people to think of something other than the daily bloodshed that comes to mind when they think of Iraq.
He wants them to think of the food.
The dolma and gus and tashreeb and pacha.
Ah, yes, the pacha.
The boiled lamb's head is a savory delicacy to the people of Iraq. They eat the meat straight off the skull after boiling it in salted water with a pinch of parsley and spice. The cheeks are considered the best part. The eyeballs are removed before cooking.
At Mataam al-Mataam, Botres offers the popular dish during the winter, usually from October to March, when the hot broth can chase away the winter chill. His sister, Najeeba, one of the cooks, boils the skulls in a big vat in the morning, and they are usually sold out by mid-afternoon.
"If you don't come by 3 or 4 o'clock, it's gone," Botres said.
Botres also offers other savory dishes Middle Easterners everywhere know and love. Tashreeb or lamb shank, beef kabob and a chicken dish called shish taouk top the menu. Some of the most time-consuming dishes are the most popular.
There is dolma, a light doughy pastry filled with spinach and rice. There are grape leaves stuffed with meat and spice. And there is maqlouba, Arabic for "upside down," a rice and chicken dish prepared in a giant pan and then turned over like Bundt cake.
"Ooh, they take a lot of time," said Madeleine Daoud, another cook, slapping her hands on a flowered apron as she sprinkled salt into a vat of boiling rice.
The dishes have spawned a cottage industry in Albany Park that caters to Iraqi and Arab tastes. The lamb's heads come from a Lebanese butcher. The thick, football-shaped bread, called sammoun, is brought in piping hot by an Iraqi baker. The sweets, called hilwayat, come from an Arab confectioner.
The business niche has been good to Botres. "It's going well."
Better, he said, than the situation in Baghdad at the moment, foraying for a minute into politics before he turns his attention again to the food.
When Botres came to America in 1978, an eager 21-year-old student, he left behind a country "in super condition," he recalled. Saddam Hussein had not yet been elected president. Botres' family was middle class.
He left to study in the West but always figured he would return to Iraq.
He hasn't been back for years, and the reports he receives from his brother, Gabriel, a translator for the U.S. Army, based in Baghdad, have not been good, Botres said.
So he concentrates on the food, the restaurant and the clientele, trying to forget about the troubles in his homeland. The patrons are mostly Arabic-speaking: Assyrians and Shiites from Iraq, as well as Jordanians, Palestinians and Syrians.
They come for the familiarity, the friendship and the food.
"We all know each other," said Shmoyel Derywosh, 53, an Assyrian day laborer from northern Iraq. "I come every day."
"I can't go to Iraq so I come here," said Younan Younan, 62, a retired construction worker.
They talk, laugh and whittle away the hours drinking tea and catching the news on Al Jazeera--until Botres catches them and flips the channel back to music on Dandana.
The atmosphere, straddling East and West, is both exotic and familiar. Pictures of Elvis and New York--with the Twin Towers intact--hang on either side of the big TV, where heartthrobs such as Lebanese singer Wael Kfoury croon on the Arab music station.
Botres has big plans to build a second restaurant, one that's a notch more upscale than Mataam al-Mataam, which he describes as a cafe. He has purchased property in Skokie, he said, and hopes to begin construction soon.
The new place won't feature a big-screen TV. No news will be good news, Botres figures.
And he won't call the new restaurant Mataam al-Mataam, Arabic for "the restaurant of all restaurants."
He plans to name it Dandana.
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dhoran@tribune.com
By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner
CHAMPAGNE was said to have been invented on this day in 1693 by a Benedictine monk called Dom Pierre Perignon.
But you can thank English tipplers for actually prompting its development.
Back in the 17th century, the winemakers of Epernay and the Champagne region produced a whole range of speciality wines.
These were exported in barrels and bottled on arrival at their destination. In England, a grey wine that was often found to be sparkling, became very popular.
The bubbles were caused because the young "vins gris" went through a second fermentation during travel. Experts back home in France were intrigued and began to try to produce it by design rather than accident.
And that is what happened 312 years ago when Dom Perignan - whose name is now synonymous with the delightful drink - supposedly produced the first batch successfully.
Cheers, Dom.
The Champagne area has attracted bon viveurs and celebrities ever since. My wife Maria and I even visited Epernay, back in the 1960s. We were with Jenny and Gerry and driving down to the South of France and camped on the outskirts of the town to sample a bottle or three.
As a cultural experience, this was memorable for the wrong reasons. Like the wineshop owner who saw us coming and offloaded a batch of red to his unsuspecting English customers that should have been used for commercial purposes only. Perhaps he didn't understand our French?
"Good afternoon. Could we have six bottles of your finest paint stripper, please?"
Or, "Hello, pleasant and friendly French wineshop keeper. Could you supply us with something appropriate for sprinkling on our fish and chips?"
As a consequence, I faced the ultimate challenge: finding the way to the lavatories at dead of moonless rain-swept night across a field of guy ropes with a severely delicate stomach. This, I discovered, is best attempted sober. Except that had I been sober, I wouldn't have needed to.
Then there is the journey back, an even greater challenge which few people rarely consider.
To arrive at the ablutions block all you have to do is keep stumbling forward until you hit concrete. But getting back? When all tents look alike? I'm still not sure whom I cuddled up to that night.
I have since drunk champagne only occasionally, but only because I can't afford it on a regular basis. It really is a delightful drink and to be without it is unthinkable.
How would we toast brides at weddings? In brown ale?
And I doubt if Grand Prix winners would find it quite as exhilarating to spray each other with a magnum of fizzy Tizer?
Indeed, would we have won the war without it?
Winston Churchill reputedly had a pint of champagne every morning at 11am. He had pint-sized bottles specially produced for him. Usual sizes are 75 centilitre, Magnum (1.5 litres), Jeroboam (3 litres), Rehoboam (4.5 litres), Methuselah (6 litres), Salmanazar (9 litres), Balthazar (12 litres) and Nebuchadnezzar (15 litres).
Strange names, you may think, even for the French. What do they mean? Listen carefully, I shall tell you:
Nebuchadnezzar (King of Babylon, 605-562 BC); Balthazar (Regent of Babylon, son of Nabonide, 539BC); Salmanazar (King of Assyria, 859-824 BC); Methuselah (Biblical patriarch who lived to the age of 969 so it didn't do him any harm); Rehoboam, son of Solomon (King of Judah, 922-908 BC); and Jeroboam (Founder and first king of Israel, 931-910 BC).
And Magnum?
He was a television detective in the 1980s.
By Andrei Molokov
The Moscow News
Fact: if traces of foam remain behind in your glass after you have enjoyed a beverage, it was beer; if there are no traces of foam, then you have drunk something else.
By Faye Levy
Tribune Media Services
With the difficulties in Iraq so constantly in the news, I was pleased to discover that there are vibrant, established communities from that country in the United States, one not far from my home. As my husband and I drove around our Los Angeles neighborhood, I spotted a banner announcing an Assyrian Food Festival.
By THOMAS BROWN
The Times and Democrat
Kabobs, meat and vegetables cooked and served on skewers are a touch of man's ancient culinary past. They can be traced as far back as the second millennium BCE in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). They were peasant food, as they were cooked by shepherds on sticks over open fires in the fields where flocks grazed, according to "Food: A Culinary History" by Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. Commonly found, after their appearance in Mesopotamian cuisine, among many cultures that kept herds, kabobs have withstood the test of time. They have remained popular not only for their convenience but for the taste that is imparted by the use of marinades rich in herbs and spices or by simply adding the herbs and spices during the cooking process.