Arab Cuisine - Regional Arab Cuisines - Mashriq

Mashriq

Main article: Levantine cuisine See also: Lebanese cuisine, Syrian cuisine, Iraqi cuisine, Jordanian cuisine, and Palestinian cuisine

Levantine cuisine is the traditional cuisine of the Levant, Mashriq, or Greater Syria area. Although now divided into Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Palestine, the region has historically been more united, and shares most of the same culinary traditions. Although almost identical, there is some regional variation within the Levantine area.

In general, Levantine foods have much in common with other eastern Mediterranean cuisines, such as Greek and Turkish cuisine.

Some of the basic similarities are the extensive use of olive oil, za'atar, and garlic, and common dishes include a wide array of mezze or bread dips, stuffings, and side dishes such as hummus, falafel, ful, tabouleh, labaneh, and baba ghanoush.

It also includes copious amounts of garlic and olive oil, often seasoned with lemon juice — almost no meal goes by without including these ingredients. Most often foods are either grilled, baked, fried, or sautéed in olive oil; butter and cream are rarely used, other than in a few desserts. Vegetables are often eaten raw or pickled, as well as cooked. While the cuisine doesn't boast a multitude of sauces, it focuses on herbs, spices, and the freshness of ingredients.

Iraqi cuisine utilizes more spices than most Arab cuisines. Iraq's main food crops include wheat, barley, rice, vegetables, and dates. Vegetables include eggplant, okra, potatoes, and tomatoes. Pulses such as chickpeas and lentils are also quite common. Common meats in Iraqi cooking are lamb and beef; fish and poultry are also used.

Soups and stews are often prepared and served with rice and vegetables. Mansaf is a popular dish. Biryani, although influenced by Indian cuisine, is milder with a different mixture of spices, and a wider variety of vegetables including potatoes, peas, carrots, and onions are also used. Dolma is also one of the most popular dishes.

The Iraqi cuisine is famous for its extremely tender kebab, as well as its tikka. A wide variety of spices, pickles, and amba are also extensively used.

In the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jordan, the population has a cooking style of their own, involved in roasting various meats, baking flat breads, and cooking thick yogurt-like pastes from goat's milk.

Musakhan is a common main dish, famous in northern Jordan, Jerusalem, and northern West Bank area. Its main component is taboon bread, that is topped with pieces of cooked sweet onions, sumac, saffron, and allspice. For large dinners, it can be topped by one or two roasted chickens on a single large taboon bread.

The primary cheese of the Palestinian mezze is Ackawi cheese, which is a semi-hard cheese with a mild, salty taste and sparsely filled with roasted sesame seeds.

Maqluba is another popular meal in Jordan and central Palestine. Mujaddara, another food of the West Bank, as well as in the Levant in general, consists of cooked green lentils, with bulghur sauteed with olive oil. Mansaf is a traditional meal, and the national dish of Jordan, having roots in the Bedouin population of Jordan. It is mostly cooked on occasions such as Ramadan, Eid ul-Fitr, a birth, or a large dinner gathering. Mansaf is a leg of lamb or large pieces of mutton, on top a markook bread that has been topped, usually, with yellow rice. A type of thick dried yogurt made from goat's milk, called jameed is poured on top of the lamb and rice to give it its distinct flavor and taste. The dish is garnished with cooked pine nuts and almonds.

However, of all the Levantine cuisines, Lebanese cuisine is by far the most popular. Being renowned internationally for its wide range of dishes, Lebanese cuisine has been winning awards on an international level. Some famous dishes include salads like Fattouch and Tabbouli, Kebbeh, Fatayir, Sfiha, and Shawarma.

Lebanese cuisine is also famous for its wide range of cheeses like Shanklish, Halloum, and Arisheh. Kishk is also a famous Lebanese soup, alongside many soups made of lentils. Lebanese food also has a wide range of dips like Hummous, Baba Ghannouj, and Labneh, and also caters many raw meat dishes. Lebanese food could be either extremely vegetarian or a meat lover's paradise. Lemon, oregano, zaatar, paprika, and various other Mediterranean spices and herbs are used in Lebanese cuisine.

To top it off, Lebanese cuisine also incorporates wine made in Lebanon and the Lebanese equivalent of the Greek Ouzo, known as Arak. Many towns and cities have invented their own dishes over the centuries, some of the most popular being Zahle known for its raw Kebbeh and Arak; Baalbek for its meat Sfiha; and Zgharta for its grilled Kebbeh.