New: Baghdad
Burning, 11/15/03 below.
Iraq Recipes and
Country Links 1/28/03
This page follows in the manner of the
Afghanistan page installed over a year ago. That page has proven one of
the most popular on the site, so we assume that it has filled a need.
Perhaps this Iraq page will do the same.
We have found surprisingly few recipes. We are
not alone. On one site we found this
note:
I
am also looking for recipes from Iraq. I think that eating food of a
region helps one's understanding of the culture. It is interesting that
I have found NO recipe books for Iraq. I am sure the cuisine is similar
to other middle eastern cultures, but are there not some unique Iraqi
dishes?
John from Terre Haute, IN 12/23/02
We wouldn't
state our own attitude any differently.
Iraq Recipes on the Web
Our search of the Web produced very few
recipes. This is doubly surprising when you think that the history
of Iraq began in 10000 BC, Mesopotamian times. We have
uncovered about two dozen recipes. That is one recipe for each 500 years
of history.
Clearly something has been lost here. Through
the years Sumerians, Assyrians, Abbasids, Seleucids all must have eaten something. But what? Maybe viewers can augment
our results.
We were disappointed on the search results, but
there was perhaps an upside. If anybody ever again says to us, "You
can find anything on the Web," we have a counter: "Yeah, but
try Iraq Recipe."
Baghdad Burning
11/15/03. This site is a genuine
find. The author has lately started to put up recipes, which are
valuable, and we'll get to those, but there's much more to the site than
that.
"Girl Blog" writes an article every few
days from Baghdad. Reading these articles, we can almost feel what it is
like to live as an Iraqi through these days. She writes with great,
though unobtrusive, skill. Her descriptions are better than journalism,
more like a novelist's, I should say. She seems personal and objective
at the same time, an unusual accomplishment. Whatever our politics, we
need this counterpoint to the conventional news.
On top of everything else, she provides
valuable links.
Oh yes, the recipes. She has begun these with a
description of Ramadhan, in the 10/31/03 letter, with a follow up
11/5/03. The recipes themselves are found at "Is Something
Burning?" in the sidebar. There are two, Lentil Soup and Kabab
Iroog. She promises more.
riverbendblog.blogspot.com
Food Down Under
This is the most prolific site,
listing all of ten recipes.
Try Chickpea Soup, Dates Halva, Iraqi Cardamom
Cookies, Iraqi Pomegranate Soup, Iraqi Cholent (with cinnamon), Khinta
(Wheat Porridge with Stuffed Beef Pocket), Moroccan Chicken and Prune
Tagine, Pomegranate Soup (again), Timman (Iraqi-style Rice), Turkish
Style Green Beans with Leeks and Carrots.
The latter, like a couple of others, doesn't
seem to be Iraqi, but does have Iraq as a keyword, for no reason evident
to our eye.
www.fooddownunder.com, search
Iraq Recipe.
Eating the Iraqi Way
Here is a brief characterization of Iraqi
cooking. In this account, it seems to follow Arabic cooking generally,
with few or no distinguishing characteristics.
A recipe is provided: Rice with Saffron,
Almonds, and Raisins.
cwr.utoronto.ca/cultural. Click English, then Iraq, then food.
Sephardic Iraqi Recipes
A viewer of this site has recommended a book,
and provided the book's list of 19 Sephardic Iraqi recipes. See
Recent Mail, Denise 2/7/03.
Denise notes that "a lot of these dishes
are a labour of love as they're so time consuming and fussy but mmmm,
they are good."
Babylonian Jewish Center
This page is famous in Web terms. That is, we keep being
brought back to it from other sites. There are three recipes:
Eggplant Wrapped Meat (Lis-zan el qua-thi), Katayef Sweet and Delicious
Dessert, and Melfoof. They all look great.
www.bjcny.org, click Recipes.
Delicious Globe
Besides providing recipes, this site is a
portal to many sites for Middle East History.
For recipes, there are two Iraq sites. One
takes you to bjcny, noted above.
The other takes you to www.riceweb.org
which has two recipes: Chalabis Red Magloube (Lamb Shanks with Rice),
and Yaprakh (Iraqi Rice) with tomatoes, eggplant, and other vegetables.
These sound most interesting.
www.deliciousglobe.com,
click Middle East.
The Middle Eastern Cookbook
This may be the most intriguing of the group.
Author Sabria Farid Toma was born in Iraq in 1925. Her school teacher
father moved among various villages, settling in Basrah, Iraq, for
Sabria's teenage and early adult years.
In 1977 she moved to the US, to Lafayette,
California. She continued to cook traditional dishes, while having to
adapt to unfamiliar cooking tools, spices, and ingredients.
On this site she has a large number of recipes,
obviously the result of experience and love. She presents these as
Middle Eastern, but does identify at least three as Iraqi. To find
these, on the Recipe page search for Iraq. Near the bottom of the list
you will find: Arough (the rage in Iraq and Lebanon), Kibba, and
Oven Barbecued Fish with Traditional Stuffing.
www.mecookbook.com, select
Recipes.
Knowledge Hound
This site lists a large number of other sites for Iraq
recipes.
www.khound.com, select Cooking, then Middle Eastern Cuisines,
scroll down to Iraq.
Recipe Cottage
Provides recipes for Iraqi Cholent and Iraqi
Tabbouleh.
www.recipecottage.com. Search
Iraqi.
Minnesota Public Radio
The home of Garrison Keillor supplies a recipe
for Iraqi Lamb.
table.mpr.org. Click Recipe Box, scroll to Main Dishes, find
Lamb, Iraqi.
Information About Iraq
Saleh Iraq
This presents the long history, in not many
words, from Mesopotamia 10,000 BC through Sumerian culture 4000BC, up
to September 2002. A good place to begin.
http://www.achilles.net/~sal,
select History. (Click on Recipes, and you are taken to
Sabria Toma's site above. Sometimes the Web seems like a very small
place.)
Angel Fire: Iraq's History Page
This covers the same ground, to 1988, but at greater length.
A detailed Table of Contents is provided, helping to get the different
periods straight.
www.angelfire.com, but the only
access we know is in www.google.com,
search for Iraq History. This is currently the second listed.
Maps
University of Texas at Austin
This remains our primary source for maps.
www.lib.utexas.edu/maps.
Click on Middle East, then Iraq for a number of maps: political, relief,
cities.
