Comment by mschuster91
2 days ago
> Israel has always been a country trying to coopt the culture of its Arab neighbors. They've tried to claim shawarmas, falafel and hummus, dishes that are quintessentially Arabic, as their own.
That argument is just as much BS as the squabbles in the Balkans over who can claim Nikola Tesla, cevapcici, burek/börek, döner/gyros, pljeskavica and a whole other host of foods. Everyone got their own takes on food and trying to act like shawarma/falafel/hummus are "exclusively" Arabic (or Israeli) is borderline moronic.
Baklava is a fairly good example of a “regional, not cultural” food.
I have enjoyed Greek, Turkish, Lebanese, Moroccan, Afghan, and Iranian baklava.
Each culture puts its own stamp on the food.
Also dumplings, tortellini, Maultaschen, pierogi, ... Local pride across the globe, kinda boring around the world.
That's precisely my point. I didn't mean those dishes were Arabic by origin, but by prevalence. In fact, evidence points out to shawarma being an adaptation of the Turkish doner that was developed variously across the different provinces of the Ottoman Empire. But the fact of the matter is that these dishes ended up being the mainstay of Arabic cuisine long after the Ottoman Empire's end.
Then a bunch of white Ashkenazi/Sephardic/Mizrahi bois ship on over from Europe and Yemen and Morocco and try to claim themselves as the originators when they clearly aren't.