Category Archives: Food and Drink

Resolving the New Year

Folklore and Proverbs, Food and Drink


Wilfrid Scawn Blunt, left; Mark Twain, right

There is a curious annual custom inherited in many of our families, but one I am resolved not to take too seriously this year. I refer to the half-drunk notion of making resolutions for the new year (which I see no sound reason to capitalize, as my German blood is very far removed), as though the arbitrary turning of the calendar is a time to reflect on what went wrong over the last 365 days and pretend that things should go better in the next eighteen and a quarter score days. I have heard the rural urban tale that the pin-up 19th century cowgirl sharpshooter Annie Oakley started the custom of sending out Christmas Cards, but I am not sure which genius came up with penning new year’s resolutions, unless it was Johnny Walker in one of his more sober moments. Most people, and I surely fall into this anomalous category, do not remember the resolutions made a year ago. But then most godfearing redneck Americans could not repeat the 10 Commandments in order to save their souls, unless perhaps they were dead drunk. So my re-solution, since it is the defacto one I have been following for quite a few years, is to resolve to forget any resolution before I even make one. This saves me from having to make up a resolution, which is the same as making as silly a resolution as I can imagine.

I am not the first person to take aim at this impotent cultural pastime which has long since ceased to have any influence on what people really do. Mark Twain said it well over a century and a half ago:

New Year’s Day–Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Continue reading Resolving the New Year →

Ignorance is no Excuse

Anthropology/Sociology, Development, Journalism and Media, Plants, Qat (Catha edulis), Travel, Yemen


Selling qât in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital. Photo: Bryan Denton

These days if you run across an article on Yemen, it will no doubt feature a scenario of gun-toting tribesmen swearing allegiance to Al-Qaeda, the latest German tourist hijackings or feigned shock at the terrible, terrible addictive drug called qât. At least this was the case in Sunday’s New York Times in another piece of mixed journalistic pablum by roving reporter Robert Worth. Entitling the article “Thirsty Plant Dries Out Yemen,”, the author seems unaware that the site of his posting (Jahiliya) is in fact the Arabic term for the time of “Ignorance” before the rise of Islam. I doubt this reporter stepped out of a Queen-of-Sheba-era time machine and interviewed Abraha about his recent defeat at the “Battle of the Elephant” before Mecca. So where exactly is the fabled posting site of Jahiliya? Ironically, it is part of a World Bank irrigation project. I will leave the irony about IMF money being poured into Jahiliya in the strict sense to the imagination of the reader. And I strongly suspect the posting was made from a fancy hotel in the capital Sanaa and not from a rural internet cafe, while sipping qishr. But for a front page article on a major newspaper, ignorance is no excuse. Continue reading Ignorance is no Excuse →

For the Love of Bread

Food and Drink, Poetry

Arab poets extolled just about everything under the soon and in the moonlight. Even a loaf of bread could inspire passion. The following is a poem by Abu al-Mukhaffaf, an early 9th century Baghdadi poet. Here is the introduction (nasîb) in his ode:

Please, no abodes abandoned in the wastelands!
Spare me your lines about expensive wines;
No virgin girls with narrow waists and waistbands.
Describe a noble loaf: a sun that shines,
Or like the moon when it is full and round;
For only them my poetry is sound.

I’ve given up all contacts with attractive girls.
I’ve sobered up: no more consorting with all those
Who please the eye until you die from love. Continue reading For the Love of Bread →

A Poet’s Recipe

Books You Should Read, Food and Drink, Iraq, Miniatures


A host tending to the needs of his guests, Maqâmât al-Harîrî, 1236 CE

As richly illustrated in Geert Jan van Gelder’s delightul God’s Banquet: Food in Classical Arabic Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), Arab poets loved food and wrote extensively on the adab of cuisine. There are poems devoted to specific foods, but even a few recipes for the cook with a wit as well as a greasy thumb. Here is van Gelder’s translation of a recipe poem by the Baghdadi poet Kushajim (died 961 CE):

You have asked me about the best of dishes:
You’ve asked today someone who is not ignorant!
Now take, my friend, some ribs of meat,
And after that some meat of leg, and fat,
And chop some fat and succulent meat
And rinse it with sweet and clear water. Continue reading A Poet’s Recipe →

Healing Herbs in Yemen

Anthropology/Sociology, Conferences and Talks, Food and Drink, Islamic Law, Islamic Texts, Scholars, Yemen


Aloe and Opuntia (balas Turkî) in al-Ahjur, central highlands of Yemen

Today I am flying on Lufthansa to Leipzig, and then on to Halle Wittenberg for a conference called “The use of herbs in Yemeni healing practices. An interdisciplinary workshop on traditional knowledge and cultural concepts in scientific perspective.“ The conference takes place September 25-26, 2009 at the Orientwissenschaftliches Zentrum , Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. It has been funded by the Royal Ontario Museum Foundation, Ryerson University (both Toronto/Canada), and Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. Click here for the order of the program.

The organizers are Dr Hanne Schönig (Orientwissenschaftliches Zentrum
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, homepage: http://www.owz.uni-halle.de/owz.php?pid=2) and Dr Ingrid Hehmeyer (Department of History, Ryerson University, Toronto, homepage: http://www.ryerson.ca/history/faculty/Hehmeyeri.html) and Dr Anne Regourd, Collaborateur Scientifique, Dept of Islamic arts, Musée du Louvre, Paris – France, homepage: http://www.anne.regourd.org.

The conference participants and papers are noted below: Continue reading Healing Herbs in Yemen →

Walk a Mile for a Chocolate Bar?

Animals, camels, Food and Drink, United Arab Emirates

World’s First Camel-Milk Chocolates Going Global

Asharq Alawsat, July 22, 2009

DUBAI (Reuters) – Dubai’s Al Nassma, the world’s first brand of chocolate made with camels’ milk, is in talks to expand into new Arab markets, Europe, Japan and the United States, its general manager said Tuesday.

Martin Van Almsick said the United Arab Emirates company planned to enter Saudi Arabia first, followed by Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United States within the next few months.

Al Nassma is also in talks with British department store Harrods and San Francisco’s Chocolate Covered to sell its products.

Founded and owned by Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Al Nassma was formally established in October last year and aims to produce 100 tons of premium camels’ milk chocolate a year. Continue reading Walk a Mile for a Chocolate Bar? →

Syrian Cuisine, Two Centuries Ago

Bible and Holy Land, Food and Drink, Syria, Travel

[Note: The following account is by the English traveler William Wittman, who commented on the foods and crops he saw while passing through the Levant in what was then Syria. The spelling is that of the original, from a time when proof reading was a distant concern and spelling was a democratic venture. The picture above is from the original 1803 edition.

Wherever the land is susceptible of cultivation, and has not been neglected, it affords abundant crops of wheat, barley, Indian corn (dourra), tobacco, cotton, and other productions. Fruits and vegetables are in equal abundance. Among the former are pomegranates, figs, oranges, lemons, citrons of an uncommonly large size, melons, grapes, and olives. The melons are large, and have a delicious flavour; as have also the grapes. of which we partook so late as the month of December, when we found they still retained their exquisite flavour. I have already adverted to the uncommon size of the water-melons, many of which weight from twenty to thirty pounds. they are a great and valuable resource to the inhabitants, who are so passionately fond of them, that, during the summer months, they form a great part of their subsistence. Notwithstanding they are as cooling and refreshing, as grateful to the taste, I was surprised to see the natives eat them in such immoderate quantities, without experiencing any unpleasant consequences. Continue reading Syrian Cuisine, Two Centuries Ago →