Levantine cooking still rests on the bread, olive oil and wine of antiquity
Hummus and tabbouleh are recent chapters in a long story. Bread, olive oil and wine sat at the heart of Levantine eating from the days of the Canaanites and Phoenicians, and they still do. Every conqueror since added something, but the Ottomans left the strongest mark on today's tables.
The early peoples of the eastern Mediterranean coast, among them Arameans, Israelites, Hittites and Phoenicians, built farming systems that grew the grains, pulses, fruit and vegetables still central to the diet. Recipes were written down early: a thirteenth-century cookbook from Aleppo records many dishes, and a nineteenth-century Lebanese author, Khalil Khattar Sarkis, compiled another. Traditionally, seasonal produce was kept through the year by pickling, fermenting and drying.
The cuisine is best known for meze, spreads of small hot and cold dishes eaten with bread. Smoky baba ghanoush is mashed baked eggplant with lemon and garlic; muhammara blends peppers with ground walnuts and breadcrumbs. Labneh, yogurt strained of its whey, is a breakfast favourite, as is manakish, a flatbread topped with za'atar, thyme or minced meat. Shanklish cheese is rolled in Aleppo pepper and za'atar and left to age, while kibbeh combines ground lamb with bulgur and may be served cooked or raw.
Bigger dishes lean on rice, wheat and slow sauces. Maqluba is a casserole of meat, rice and fried vegetables turned out of its pot at the table, which is why its name means upside-down. Mansaf cooks lamb or chicken in fermented dried yogurt. Musakhan, a classic of Palestinian cooking, bakes a whole chicken with onions, sumac and saffron over taboon bread. Freekeh is green durum wheat roasted and rubbed for flavour, and kebab karaz pairs lamb meatballs with sour cherries.
Eating habits have changed quickly. Studies from the 1960s described diets that were mostly plant-based and seasonal, with modest amounts of animal products. By the 1990s researchers were recording far more processed food, meat and dairy, and refined carbohydrates.
Source: Levantine cuisine
