Iraqi cuisine (pacha, sabzi, manelsama)

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IRAQI CUISINE (PACHA, SABZI, MANELSAMA)

   "Metrognome" Gersh Kuntzman in today's NEW YORK POST (www.nypost.com) writes about that elusive Iraqi cuisine.  OED doesn't have "pacha," has "sabzi" in a different meaning, and doesn't have "manelsama."  Iraq is one of the few places I haven't been to and have no current plans to visit, so here goes:


//metrognome logo//

A very wise philosopher once said, "Before attacking your enemy, you should dine at his table."

That's nice in theory, but on the eve of America's impending invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive investigation by The Post revealed that there is not a single Iraqi restaurant in the five boroughs.

In a city of 8 million -- where every national cuisine from Afghani to Yugoslavian are deliciously represented along with plenty of tribal, nomadic and ethnic subcuisines -- the estimated 957 Iraqis living in New York do not have a restaurant to call their own.

But one man is breaking down the U.S.-Iraq wall of enmity one lamb kabob at a time. True, none of Salam al-Rawi's downtown restaurants -- the exceptional Mamlouk and two Moustache eateries -- are exclusive outposts of that elusive commodity known as Iraqi cuisine, but they do offer a rare glimpse under the burqa that shrouds day-to-day eating under Saddam Hussein.

For example, did you realize that there really is no such thing as "Iraqi cuisine"?

"It's true. Even in Iraq, there are no Iraqi restaurants," al-Rawi told me. "Iraqi food is simple grilled meats and stews. All our refined dishes come from Iran."

Even national dishes such as pacha (a broiled lamb head whose description is best kept vague) and sabzi (a spinach and black-eyed-pea stew) are Iranian. That's so pathetic that instead of bombing Iraq, we could demoralize it into surrender by dropping leaflets reminding Iraq of its cultural debt to Iran. No wonder Saddam deported 3 million Iranians from Iraq. He was obviously jealous.

Not that al-Rawi doesn't have his culinary pride. The 47-year-old, who fled Baghdad in 1977, speaks lovingly of the lunchtime stews shared by garbagemen and government officials, the late-night grilled fish joints, the whole turnips boiled in date syrup, and the crisp Iraqi lager that he might serve at his restaurants were it not for U.N. sanctions.

And don't get him started on manelsama, a nougat ball made out of hazelnut sap that is indigenous to Kurdish-controlled northeastern Iraq. "It is so fantastic that it is imitated all over the Middle East," al-Rawi said. As proof, he called over a Lebanese waiter, who, despite an obvious sense of culinary superiority, admitted that manelsama is a true treasure (and explains why Saddam is so desperate to hold onto Kurdistan.)

It all sounded delicious. And maybe someday we'll all be able to eat at a genuine "Iraqi restaurant" -- if we can just remember the message of Salam al-Rawi's first name.

--30--

gersh.kuntzman at verizon.net


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SOMEBODY, ANYBODY PLEASE SHOOT ME! ("HOT DOG," CONTINUED)

   Although my work on the "hot dog" is about eight years old, my name hasn't been mentioned in any "hot dog" story on even a single television station, radio station, or newspaper. It hasn't been for lack of opportunities.
   From just yesterday, courtesy of the Dow Jones database:


MEATY MORSELS BUILD MORALE
Craig Lovelace
FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

01/26/2003
The Columbus Dispatch

Home Final
05H

Harry Hirschinger wants to help in the war against terrorism, and the only way he can think of is -- hot dogs.
Hot dogs?

The Columbus resident and Army veteran wants to feed troops serving in Afghanistan or elsewhere overseas a food as American as, well, apple pie.
(...)
Harry Hirschinger has spent a good portion of his adult life feeding hot dogs to U.S. troops overseas. Here's some background on his favorite food:

* Beginnings: Claims exist that the hot dog was invented in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, in 1487; others say the small sausage was created in the late 1600s by butcher Johann Georghehner in Coburg, Germany, who later traveled to Frankfurt to promote his product; still others claim it was invented in the Austrian capital, Vienna (Wien in German, hence the moniker wiener ).

* The name: References among German immigrants in the United States to ''dachshund'' sausages, or ''little-dog'' sausages, can be traced to the 1800s. Popular lore says that in 1901, Tad Dorgan, a New York sports cartoonist, saw vendors hawking ''red-hot dachshund sausages'' at a baseball game in the Polo Grounds. Unsure of how to spell dachshund for a cartoon, he simply wrote hot dog . However, the cartoon has never been found.

* Hot dogs and baseball: In 1893, Chris Von de Ahe, owner of the St. Louis Browns, introduced baseball fans to the ballpark hot dog.

* Hot dogs and buns: In 1871, Charles Feltman opened the first hot-dog stand at Coney Island amusement park in New York, selling 3,684 dachshund sausages in milk rolls. But lore says the bun was born in 1904, when Anton Feuchtwanger, a sausage vendor at the St. Louis Exposition, had his brother-in-law, a baker, improvise a long, soft roll to hold the sausage.

Source: American Meat Institute, National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, qualitystreetcarts.com