Middle East
Middle Eastern, or West Asian cuisine is the cuisine of the various countries and peoples of the Middle East (Western Asia). The cuisine of the region is diverse while having a degree of homogeneity. Many Middle Eastern dishes are made with a paste called tahini. Tahini is a sesame paste made with hulled seeds, unlike its Asian counterpart. It is used to make such popular meze, or appetizers, as baba ghanoush and hummus along with pungent dipping sauces served with falafel, keftes or kofta and vegetables. Hummus is made from chickpeas, which are staples of the diet. Some commonly used ingredients include olives and olive oil, lamb, pitas, honey, sesame seeds, dates, sumac, chickpeas, mint and parsley. Some popular dishes include kibbeh and shawarma.
Read more about this topic: World Cuisine
Famous quotes containing the words middle and/or east:
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—Lawrence Sutton, British prizewinner in competition in Sunday Correspondent (London)
“I know no East or West, North or South, when it comes to my class fighting the battle for justice. If it is my fortune to live to see the industrial chain broken from every workingman’s child in America, and if then there is one black child in Africa in bondage, there shall I go.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)