Honey has never ceased to play an important role in the traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean. It comes from the nectar of flowers and has been used since the Neolithic period to sweeten and preserve. There are many varieties; the best are honeys produced from single flowers, such as orange blossom, thyme, lavender, and acacia. Honey, when used in baking, also serves to extend the life of baked goods and gives a fine texture to bread crusts. Another virtue that made honey popular was the discovery that because it is almost pure sugar, honey ferments very readily and a honeycomb left in water for several days produces a delicious and mildly intoxicating liquid. This honey ale, more commonly known as mead, was a popular drink for thousands of years.
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COFFEE:
In no place has coffee become as indispensable to life as in the Middle-East. Just a little over a century ago, the American author Mark Twain travelled to Jerusalem. While there he observed that "the people drink coffee on awakening and then continue drinking coffee through the entire day. No business deal can be closed, no one can become a friend, and no one can be seduced without the presence of coffee." Not much has changed in the ensuing hundred years. Today, nearly every Mediterranean nation has its unique coffee habits. Throughout Greece and Turkey men and women consume a remarkable number of cups of strong Turkish coffee. On the island of Corfu, for example, it is considered perfectly normal to consume over twenty cups of strong coffee every day.
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RICE
Rice is a cereal grain of which there are many varieties. It has been cultivated for nearly 6,000 years. It probably originated in India and from there spread to the Mediterranean. Rice is pronounced "riso" in Italian, "aroz" in Spanish, and "riz" in French.
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LENTILS
Lentils are an ancient product that has been cultivated in the Mediterranean since as far back as 6700 B.C. and were one of the first seeds used as food. Lentils are annuals that are related to beans but are the seeds of a grass. They are legumes and are green, brown, or orange-red. Puy lentils are French lentils that are dark brown in color and come in varying sizes. Lentils are often used in salads, soups, or combined with pasta.
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CHICKPEAS
Chickpeas have been found in ancient Jericho and were commonly grown around the Mediterranean in ancient times. Remains of chickpeas have been dated to around 2000 B.C. Ancient chickpeas were cultivated with barley and rye crops. Chickpeas are annuals. They are also known as garbanzo beans, Spanish beans, or ceci. They are the edible pods from a branching bush grown throughout the Mediterranean. The pods wrinkle as they dry. They may be boiled, pureed, or baked.
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FAVA BEANS
Like pasta, the people of the Eastern Mediterranean have always perceived dishes based on grains and beans as "poor people's food." Despite this stigma, dishes based on beans, or pulses, are among the most popular of dishes in the region and are served as often in the homes and restaurants of the rich as in those of the poor. Broad beans, or fava beans, are thick, flat beans that are white, beige, or brown. They come from an annual leguminous plant that is harvested for its large, flat seeds, and can be bought fresh or dried. Broad beans been cultivated since the time of the ancient Egyptians and are used heavily in Mediterranean cuisines.
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EGGPLANT
There is no food item considered more indispensable to the regional diet than the eggplant. Sometimes referred to as "poor man's meat" and sometimes as "poor man's caviar," eggplant is one of the most reliable, and versatile foods of the region. So well received are dishes based on eggplant, that they are served as part of breakfast in exclusive hotels as well as in Bedouin tents and, in one form or another they are offered with both lunch and dinner at the simplest and the most prestigious restaurants in Athens, Tel Aviv, Istanbul and Alexandria. One well known humorist once wrote about the people of the region that "if they did not eat eggplant at least once a day, most of them would feel that things had gone terribly wrong in their world."
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SPICES
Spices have played such an important role in world history that the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt declared them to be sacred. Several Roman Emperors ordered specially designed ships to be built to sail to Asia and the eastern coast of Africa to attain them and Spanish armadas conquered more than half of the New World and a good part of Asia in order to guarantee their kings and queens as large a stockpile of spices as they wanted. The Romans used them primarily to hide the flavor and smell of rancid meat and spoiled fish, while the Spanish, who considered them more valuable than gold, hid supplies away in royal warehouses, well guarded from the common people who might want to do anything so foolish as to cook with them.
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HERBS
For five thousand years the people in the Eastern Mediterranean have been enamored by the aromatic plants known as herbs. The ancient Hebrews, Egyptians, Babylonians, Sumerians and Assyrians all had extensive knowledge about herbs and, in addition to their use in seasoning foods and as medicines, these delicate plants have also had a large role in legend, fable and witchcraft. Egyptians once considered basil so godlike a plant that only the Pharaohs were allowed to cut it, and then only with a golden sickle. So important were tarragon and bay to the Sumerians that somewhere about 4,500 BCE they appointed Gula, the goddess of sorcery, as guardian of them. In ancient Greece and Rome, Hectate, the mother of the enchantresses Medea and Circe, found hundreds of ways of using herbs to bewitch or poison her enemies.
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GARLIC
Perhaps because it is indispensable to the cooking style of the entire Mediterranean basin, there is very little that we do not know about garlic. Certainly since the time of the ancient Egyptians, there has been no food bearing shrub that has inspired more discussion and speculation than the garlic plant. The Greeks and Romans found many marvelous medical reasons to justify its use. Many Greeks remain convinced to this day that it protects them from vampires. Heroditus wrote that the Hebrew slaves who built the great Pyramids were fed raw garlic for their health and strength and the slaves who built the Pyramid of Cheops refused to work without their daily portion of garlic. Aristophanes advised athletes to eat garlic before competitions in order to maintain their endurance and Pliny the Elder maintained that garlic was a cure for tuberculosis.
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OLIVE OIL
The national cuisines of the Mediterranean basin tend to be the best suited to the use of olive oil. In fact, the cookery of Italy, southern France, Greece, Turkey, and the entire Middle-East would fade into pale oblivion were it not for the heavy reliance on olive oil. Although the best olive oils come from the process of cold pressing (that is to say, in which olives are pressed without the use of hot water or other tricks to make their oil flow more easily), this is only one of many factors that are involved in the making of high quality oil. Many truly fine olive oils are now available and the very best of are called "Extra Virgin," however those called "Virgin" and Pure are also good.
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YOGURT
There is no question that the most popular dairy product of the entire Eastern Mediterranean is yogurt, which is consumed at breakfast, lunch and dinner, as snacks and even in hospitals where it is firmly believed that it will restore energy to people who are, for one reason or another, feeling under the weather. Whether it has been made from cows' milk or that of goats' or sheep, most of the people of the region also know that the best yogurts are thick enough to cut with a spoon and have a distinctive and pleasant flavor that lingers comfortably for several minutes and then leaves the mouth with a clean, clear feeling. In addition to having the color of cream, truly good yogurt should also be thick and smooth, with no trace of lumpiness.
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FRUITS
Socrates, surely one of the wisest of the ancient Greek philosophers, observed that "a man who loves not the fruits of the season knows not how to love life itself." The fruits of the Eastern Mediterranean offer a remarkable abundance of pleasure, and among the most popular are dates, figs, grapes, apples, citrus fruits (including oranges, grapefruits and lemons), watermelons, apricots and strawberries. Despite their popularity, however there is no fruit more important to the diet of the entire Eastern Mediterranean than the olive. As much as fresh fruits are popular, they are only in season for a limited number of months every year, so the region has also developed a deep devotion to dried fruits, used both in cooking and to be eaten on their own.
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TEA
The Chinese drank tea from the 6th century on; it was only in the 16th century that tea was introduced to Europe by Portuguese traders. Tea became stylish in the 17th century and soon became imported quite heavily. It became popular in Britain, where it is considered the national beverage. The tea bag appeared in the late 1950s -- it is considered a great convenience by some, while others see it as an aberration. Some popular varieties of tea are Earl Grey, lapsang suchong, and pekoe.
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ARAK
Since Biblical times, those who have inhabited the region have had a special place in their hearts and on their palates for the flavor of anise. When an alcoholic beverage is drunk nearly anywhere in the region it is frequently the anise-flavored colorless spirit called arak. Aniseed berries are diluted in a neutral spirit to produce this liquorice flavored liqueur, the favorite of the Mediterranean area. The best known are called pastis in France, arak in Arabic nations, ouzo in Greece, and raki in Turkey. Libyan kasra has a similar taste but is based on wine. This is a beverage that can be taken either with or without water. Under any circumstances it is a fairly strong intoxicant which, when mixed with water becomes cloudy. There are also several recipes that rely on arak as an ingredient.
