Pita, Zilabka (1925); Mezzlik (1904); Halva from Philadelphia, Turkey

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

PITA, ZILABKA

TWO VAGABONDS IN THE BALKANS
by Jan and Cora Gordon
London: John Lane
1925

Pg. 112:  The climax of her culinary efforts was reached with the "Pita."  If one walks around any Serbian farmhouse one will probably find hanging outside upon the whitewashed wall in some sheltered spot a flat circular low-legged table.  This is the pita board.  Upon it a paste of flour and water is rolled and rolled again with a long narrow roller, until the paste is as thin as writing paper and has spread to equal in surface the diameter of the table itself, about two feet six inches.  This paste is then sprinkled with lumps of the clammy white cheese, or with mincemeat, gathered up into a loose roll like a packet of Christmas tissue paper, and coiled within a flat cooking dish.  Sucessive coils are added until the dish is filled; it is then greased and fried.
   Pita properly made can be delicious, although it is over-luscious for the Western palate; but peasant-made pita almost defies the gastronomic imagination.
(OED has 1951 for "pita"--ed.)

Pg. 197:  The grapes here are of the low stumpy variety, and the best wine is of two kinds, a white wine called Zilabka,* not unlike white Bordeaux, and a ruby red not unlike a medium flavoured Chianti, both, however, strong in alcohol: indeed the local drinkers were complaining that owing to the weakening of the vines the wines were losing their potency and were becoming undrinkable.
*Z, pr. Zh.
(OED has 1926 for "Zilavka"--ed.)

---------------------------------------------------------------
MEZZLIK

TURKISH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY
by Lucy M. J. Garnett
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1904 (1911 edition)

Pg. 331 (Glossary):
_Mezzlik_--a _hors d'oeuvre_.
(Mezzlik=Meze?  If so, this antedates that by about 10 years and is useful for the etymology of "meze"--ed.)

---------------------------------------------------------------
HALVA FROM PHILADELPHIA, TURKEY

EVERYDAY LIFE IN TURKEY
by Mrs. W. M. Ramsay
London: Hodder and Stoughton
1897

Pg. 198:  The ladies of the house were charming and very kind, and gave me _halva_, a sweetmeat for which Ala-Sheher is renowned, as Forfar is for "rock" and Banbury for its cakes.

Pg. 194:  ...Ala-Sheher...the ancient Philadelphia, still so named by the Greeks.

(Ah!  So "halva" originated in Philadelphia, Turkey and not Azerbaijan?--ed.)