Last night we accidentally discovered what just may become my favorite Arabic food dish (apart from fatoosh—see below):
Fatteh (fat-eh).
Fatteh is an appetizer made from garbanzo beans, yogurt, olive oil, garlic, toasted pita chips, and meat optional. It comes in a medium-sized bowl with the toasted, broken up pita on the bottom, topped with warm whole garbanzo beans, garlic and the grape skin spice (a very light sour/bitter taste), yogurt is spread over all of this and then the olive oil and tiny pieces of sautéed meat are put on top. Kind of like a bowl of Arabic nachos. So delicious! The combinations of warm and cold food, spicy and bland flavors, and different textures were great. Harry and I saw the bowl and said, well, I guess we will have some leftovers. But surprise of surprises when we realized it was all gone.
I am loving “Arabic” food (I did not come up with the label “Arabic”—that’s what the restaurants call it -this chef was Syrian). Despite my previous moaning about eating to much, the truth is this food is quite healthy—olive oil is good for you, the meats are all grilled so they are generally not too fatty, and everything seems balanced with carbs/protein/veggies etc. If you avoid the sweets (which I have not tried much of yet so don’t have much to say at this point) I guess you can see why the Mediterranean diet is so applauded!
While I am on this topic, Harry and I have been spending way too much time in malls as we have one week to furnish our house before Harry has to go on a business trip and I will be on my own for a few days. I have noticed, looking around the malls (where everyone goes thanks to the blessed AC!) that there are a lot of people—perhaps most people who appear to be on the robust side. And everyone is eating, eating, eating—all kinds of mall food stuff from delicious corn with butter and spice to Dunkin Doughnuts frosty coffee chillers (like a frappaccino on crack I think) to burgers, pizza, Indian/Thai/Chinese/etc. I commented to Harry that the people here are similar in girth to Americans, only shorter, yet it seems Americans generally are far more concerned with the overweight and obesity epidemic supposedly taking place in the US. He laughed and said, yeah, but Americans feel guilty about being overweight—here it is not such a judgment call. And perhaps that is the answer—Do we Americans have some kind of guilt/moral judgment about eating too much and not being svelte? Your comments are welcome (and maybe it is just in my family…..).
PS: Here is an addendum on several Arabic dishes I wanted to describe in more detail—next time will be Indian.
Fatoosh (Fa –too –sh): Basically a salad made of greens, whole herbs like mint/rosemary/tarragon/etc., and tomatoes. Can include cucumbers, radishes, and onions. Has a really light, non-oily dressing with lots of lemon and the grape skin spice. Toasted or fried pita pieces are sprinkled on top like croutons. Very fresh and juicy—nice when you are thirsty, which is basically all the time.
Motabal (Moo – ta – bal): Another cold appetizer made from grilled eggplant that is lightly mashed with a little tahini and lemon and olive oil. It is different than baba ganouj, which has the same ingredients but blended more finely and is heavier because it has more tahini and olive oil I think. Both are de-lish-ious!
Lime soda: Not really soda, but fresh lime juice with soda water added and simple sugar syrup to your preferred level of sweetness. In Indian restaurants it seems to come in sweet or salty.
Fatteh (fat-eh).
Fatteh is an appetizer made from garbanzo beans, yogurt, olive oil, garlic, toasted pita chips, and meat optional. It comes in a medium-sized bowl with the toasted, broken up pita on the bottom, topped with warm whole garbanzo beans, garlic and the grape skin spice (a very light sour/bitter taste), yogurt is spread over all of this and then the olive oil and tiny pieces of sautéed meat are put on top. Kind of like a bowl of Arabic nachos. So delicious! The combinations of warm and cold food, spicy and bland flavors, and different textures were great. Harry and I saw the bowl and said, well, I guess we will have some leftovers. But surprise of surprises when we realized it was all gone.
I am loving “Arabic” food (I did not come up with the label “Arabic”—that’s what the restaurants call it -this chef was Syrian). Despite my previous moaning about eating to much, the truth is this food is quite healthy—olive oil is good for you, the meats are all grilled so they are generally not too fatty, and everything seems balanced with carbs/protein/veggies etc. If you avoid the sweets (which I have not tried much of yet so don’t have much to say at this point) I guess you can see why the Mediterranean diet is so applauded!
While I am on this topic, Harry and I have been spending way too much time in malls as we have one week to furnish our house before Harry has to go on a business trip and I will be on my own for a few days. I have noticed, looking around the malls (where everyone goes thanks to the blessed AC!) that there are a lot of people—perhaps most people who appear to be on the robust side. And everyone is eating, eating, eating—all kinds of mall food stuff from delicious corn with butter and spice to Dunkin Doughnuts frosty coffee chillers (like a frappaccino on crack I think) to burgers, pizza, Indian/Thai/Chinese/etc. I commented to Harry that the people here are similar in girth to Americans, only shorter, yet it seems Americans generally are far more concerned with the overweight and obesity epidemic supposedly taking place in the US. He laughed and said, yeah, but Americans feel guilty about being overweight—here it is not such a judgment call. And perhaps that is the answer—Do we Americans have some kind of guilt/moral judgment about eating too much and not being svelte? Your comments are welcome (and maybe it is just in my family…..).
PS: Here is an addendum on several Arabic dishes I wanted to describe in more detail—next time will be Indian.
Fatoosh (Fa –too –sh): Basically a salad made of greens, whole herbs like mint/rosemary/tarragon/etc., and tomatoes. Can include cucumbers, radishes, and onions. Has a really light, non-oily dressing with lots of lemon and the grape skin spice. Toasted or fried pita pieces are sprinkled on top like croutons. Very fresh and juicy—nice when you are thirsty, which is basically all the time.
Motabal (Moo – ta – bal): Another cold appetizer made from grilled eggplant that is lightly mashed with a little tahini and lemon and olive oil. It is different than baba ganouj, which has the same ingredients but blended more finely and is heavier because it has more tahini and olive oil I think. Both are de-lish-ious!
Lime soda: Not really soda, but fresh lime juice with soda water added and simple sugar syrup to your preferred level of sweetness. In Indian restaurants it seems to come in sweet or salty.
1 comments:
I think there is guilt and moral judgement about over-eating and being thin, but underlying that, I think, is a very real fear about heart disease and diabetes. I tend to think that American over-eating is a different kind of phenomenon with different implications than that of Aboo Dobbians. For instance olive oil and yogurt are much better things to indulge in than margarine and saturated fats and meat, etc.
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