Zambolis apartments

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Wednesday 25 June 2008

Baba ganoush (Μελιτζανοσαλάτα)

Much as I like to say I cook Cretan food in my kitchen, nost of the time, I'm actually cooking something that goes not just beyond the borders of the island, but the very country it belongs to, exhibiting a high degree of similarity with that of our neighbours, whose ancestors imported their cuisine into whichever land they conquered. Today, we're having baba ganoush (since there were no snails 'yiahni' leftovers), with eggplant dolmas, topped with yialantzi dolmas. The river of zucchini in our summer garden is still flowing, as it is in Riana's, but it now has a tributary - the aubergine.

As a trained linguist, I have always been interested in finding out the origins of the words we use in the language we speak. I was lucky to be bilingual, as were most of the children who attended Clyde Quay School in Mt Victoria when I was growing up. On leaving primary school, I was enrolled at Wellington Girls' College, where only a few of the 1000 girls attending were bilingual (poor souls). Although my English language skills were not as developed as my classmates', I never had any problems with academic language, since most technological and scientific vocabulary is derived from Greek or Latin, which I was studying anyway.

English belongs to the Germanic languages; in other words, it is related to a number of other languages (i.e. it isn't unique) like German, Swedish, Danish, among others. Greek comprises its own language group with no other related languages (i.e. it is unique); this is also the case with Armenian and, paradoxically, given its proximity to Greece, Albanian. Like all languages, in order to develop, they must borrow, and Greek is no exception to this, as our food words will attest.

Of course, a Greek would never call eggplant yemista 'dolmas' (we reserve that word for leaf parcels), and neither would they call melitzanosalata baba ganoush (nor would a Turk, for that matter), but vine leaves stuffed with rice are still called 'dolmadakia yialantzi', while our various regional versions of cheese pie are still called something that sounds like 'boreg'. One of our main herbs is 'maydanoz', which we often add to the 'kiyma' in our 'kofte'. Bairaktaris restaurant in Athens serves the best 'tas kebab' in all of Greece, and good 'baklava' is found all over the country. When we haven't planned anything for dinner, we might look into our fridge and prepare a meal 'tourlou tourlou'. All the words in inverted commas can be found in the Turkish language to denote the same food that they signify in Greek.

Here's a little quiz. See how many of the following words you recognize that are used in both Turkish and Greek cuisine:

cacik, pastirma, fasulye, pide, borek, ciger, karides, roka, Enginar, Dolması, Türlü, Ispanaklı, Pilav, Madaynoz, Kofte, Bamya, Defne, Lahana, Yahni, Helvasi, Guveci, tahin, yogurt, Peynirli, Portakal, Pekmez, Fistikli, Kaymak, Baklava, Sarması, Yalancı, Barbunya , Kiyma, Pırasa, Bezelye

When I was young, my mother would say to me (among the many down-to-earth things she said, at the risk of insulting her own race) that we must all have had Turkish ancestors in our family line, simply because Turks were living in Greece for 400 years. I remember her saying things like this when she felt angry about being put down by other Greeks in New Zealand, who might have seemed to her to be putting on airs, seeing themselves as more refined and cultured, quite unlike that of the country bumpkin that they once were when they first emigrated. She was too polite to tell them what she really felt, that we're all the same underneath.

Even though she hinted that her own origins might not be purely Greek, my mother never cooked foreign food; at least, she thought she never did. Our Bulgarian live-in taking care of my mother-in-law has on occassion cooked for us; all the meals were reminiscent of the ingredients and cooking style we are used to in our own homes, yet she insists that her recipes are Bulgarian. The Ottoman cuisine was more far-reaching than the regime, influencing the local food of the people living in the areas it passed over. Even though the Turkish yoke has ceased to exist in Greece, the Ottoman cuisine is still an integral part of life in Greece, and other parts of Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa, all of which are inextricably entwined.

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For a diachronic view of traditional Greek cuisine, click here.

Answers: tzatziki, pastrouma. fasolia, pita, boureki, tsiyeri, garides, keftedes, roka, anginara, Dolmas, Tourlou, spanakı, pilafi, maidanoz, Bamia, Dafni, Lahano, Yahni, Halva, yiouvetsi, tahini, yaourti, Peynirli, Portakali, Petoumezi, Fistiki, Kaymaki, Baklava, Sarmas, Yalantzı, Barbounia , Kima, Prasa, bizelia

9 comments:

  1. I recognized most of the Turkish words similar to Greek words. As for Babaganoush...they are related dishes but much different, with the Greek Melitzanosalata being more eggplant base than the melange of veggies in the babaganoush.

    As for origins of languages or foods, the Turks try as they may but we left them with a rich tapestry of food, language and edifices that still stand in what is now Turkey.

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  2. Maria, some words mentioned above don't derive from Turkish.
    Here is a list: Fasoli comes from Greek middle ages fasolin: from fasiolion: from hellenistic fasiolos: latin phasiolus: from ancient Greek fasilos.
    Pita: from ancient Greek pitta or pissa.
    Garida from Gr. mid. ages garida: from karida: from ancient Greek karis.
    Aginara: from hellenistic kinara: from ancient Greek kynara.
    Spanaki: from middle ages Latin spinachium: from arab. isbānakh.
    Dafni from ancient Greek dafni.
    Lahano: from Gr. mid. ag. lahano: from ancient Greek lahanon.
    Portokali from ital. portogallo, perhaps from south.ital. dial. Portocallo.
    Fistiki from fιstιk, a arabic loan from Greek mid.ag. fistoukion, from hellenistic pistakion, loan from a Persian word.
    Barbouni from venetian barbon
    Prason from ancient Greek prason.
    Biseli from ital. piselli.
    And... yes Peter, Turkih cuisine could not exist without Byzantine and Persian culinary tradition.

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  3. Your baba ganoush looks great! And, I enjoyed the word roots lesson, too! I've not heard of a baba ganoush recipe with zucchini, although there are some Italian caponata type recipes that call for both zucchini and eggplant that I ate a lot of growing up.

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  4. Baba ghanoush has only eggplant. The significant difference between baba ghanoush and melitzanolata is the tahini in baba ghanoush.

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  5. My great aunt (born 1902)was Cretan, from Ierapetra, and she used to tell me stories of how well they would get along with the Turks in Crete. I think we Greeks have more in common with the Turks that we would be willing to accept and food is definitely one of them!

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  6. peter - i've never heard of a recipe for baba ganoush that has a vegetable other than eggplant (if anyone has one for zucchini, I'd appreciate it), and the greek language does not contain all the roots to the words i've mentioned.
    thanks for the corrections

    Mariana, i've amended the wording to the quiz, thanks very much for your input - i feel such a ninny for not looking up all the words

    Ioanna, you have just reminded me of a very funny story - my two Turkish students at MAICh this year asked me about the holiday 25 March. I explained what we celebrate on that day, and they gave me a worried look. one of them asked me: "what should we do on that day?" and i replied: "stay in bed under the covers." we all exploded into laughter, and had a really good conversation about our similarities

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  7. LOL, great answer Maria!

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  8. One thing I have discovered by reading different blogs is that some cultures are very serious about their foods and the crossover into different cultures. To me growing up in Canada it is all a melting pot and no need to take food so seriously. It is all about the enjoyment of a meal and the company...and a nice glass (or two) of wine:D Zorba the Greek had the right idea, "On this coast I felt for the first time what a pleasant thing it could be to have a meal. We started eating and drinking, the conversation became animated. I at last realized that eating was a spiritual function and that meat, bread, and wine were the raw materials from which the soul is made. "

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  9. Baba Ghanouj is an arabic name that means (spoiled(Ghanouj) Dad(baba) in good and fun way:) the baba ghanouj always contains tahini.It can be eaten with some sour pommegrenate splinkled on the top.you can eat it with meat dishes in our family we eat it with the ratatouille( mixture of vegetable and meat dish). In Lebanon we use the following words Kofta ,fasoulia, foustuk, tahini,basterma bourak, baklawa, Halawa( xalva),bazela.
    The eggplant is bazenjan(arabic) benjan( indian ) melazena (Italian)they all sound the same it is believed that the plant originate in India and it was brought by Alexander the Great to Greece.

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