The guy who invented Ramen noodles is dead. I confess to consuming that stuff in my graduate student adjuncting days. At twenty cents a cup and with only hot water to add and three minutes to wait, it was seductive. Not exactly a substitute for my mother's cooking, but a notch above starvation. The fact it was warm was a definite plus, helping create the illusion of "home" in a desperate kind of way. Who cares about the taste?
Then one day, with my head buried in some sadistically incomprehensible Homi Bhabha essay for my theory class, I went on to eat the Styrofoam cup after finishing the liquid inside it. It tasted like Chinese fortune cookies stuffed with tofu. The fact that it didn't taste that bad sent me in a panic. I mean, what's next, student papers?
That's when I quit the Ramen-Bhabha habit and learned to cook.
The first dish I ever made was Mjaddara. As far as I'm concerned, it's the Palestinian national dish. Lentils, rice, cumin, a ton of onions (less than ten is Lebanese, and less than five is criminal) fried in olive oil to a crisp or until you can't stand anymore. It goes well with any Edward Said, but is absolutely delicious with his After the Last Sky. Now, I'm perfecting my fool recipe. Finding the read to go with it is proving challenging; fool, as we all know, has a reputation as anti-intellectual. But perhaps some Fanon would work? Something like Wretched of the Earth or A Dying Colonialism? Suggestions are always welcome.
However, I got the music to go with my fool: Sheikh Imam, the Pete Seeger of the Arab world and the coolest Sheikh on the planet (Are you reading Imam Hilali?). You can listen below; sorry it's not clear, but, hey, we're talking Ramen soup and fool. I'll get you the Palestinian youth orchestra for another dish.
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6 comments:
Mjaddara yum. I remember a story about demonstrators using tunjaret mjaddara as a national symbol instead of the flag in Nazareth in the 1970's; before the 1948 Palestinians trajjalu.
I agree about the onions, though I make it mainly with burghol. I hated it when I was a kid, especially served with laban but it grew on me.
BTW, I'm glad you called it mjaddara rather than the nonsensical mujadara.
So when they trajjalu they raised the flag? humm. I think a more inclusive national symbol should be the flag with a picture of tanjaret mjaddara smack in the middle.
I never ate it with burghol. Must be a Haifawi tradition. My son always loved it--not that he has much of a choice.
Yes hai il-marjali in our parts. I knew you'd enjoy that one. But I'm disappointed it only got a one line response.
You're obviously not familiar with Haifa aristocracy. Mjaddara i a bit too heavy for their delicate tastes.
Mjaddara with burghol is an Galilee dish (where my grand parents lived). Apart from our Galilee, it includes southern Lebanon and parts of Syria.
If you use rice its called mdardara in our areas (which for reasons you would appreciate some kids call mdarata.)
I prefer a flag with an olive tree in the middle:-)
Lol at "mdarata." Well, cumin should help! So what would the Haifa aristocracy consider a national dish? Something more meaty and less peasanty?
cumin hum that and the ton of onions fried in olive oil to a crisp is what Ihave left out all this time, yas it go's very well with After the Last Sky, But Sheikh Imama needs not Just fool but a cup of Saeady(southern Egypt) tea and hot home made wheat bread and Fool from a traveling vender and set your self on the ground and feel the joy if being one off the locales(even though they looking at you funny) OH GOD bless Egypt
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