Lecture 12: Islam—A Thousand and One Nights of Cooking
the ninth month on a lunar calendar. In many places, they prepare
very elaborate meals during that time, so you can actually gain
weight during Ramadan, but it is nonetheless considered a hardship
to fast during the day. Muslim customs, rather than law, also dictate that people eat sitting
on the fl oor for the evening meal in Ramadan with a tray in front
of them containing food, from which they eat using three fi ngers of
the right hand that have been washed. There are no utensils, apart
from spoons to drink soups and such. In most of the Islamic world,
food would be accompanied by a fl at bread used to scoop up or grab
food, so it’s not unrefi ned at all. In fact, there’s a kind of immediate
tactile sensuality and connection to the food when eating with your
hands rather than cold metal utensils. In the Islamic world, there is also something that seems to be an
inheritance of the Berber custom of sharing food with any stranger
who appears at your door—a kind of necessity in the desert, but
it translated into a kind of effusive hospitality. There’s also an
implication of equality because everyone is seated around a low
table (with no one at the head of the table) with round plates of
appetizers, or meze. Most Muslims can eat with whomever they like, or sometimes only
with people of the book, but there are some sects who would only
eat with other Muslims and would only be served food prepared
by Muslims. Some foods take on a kind of semisacred status. The date is one
of these, probably because it formed a major part of the diet in
Arabia, but it’s used in all sorts of rituals and festivities. There is
also great attention paid to mutton, which is probably the most
important meat. Fat from the mutton tail was considered a delicacy,
as was camel’s hump and camel’s milk. Long after Muslims had
spread out of the Arabian peninsula, these remained elite foods—
associated with Arabia and the prophet and actively sought out by
the aristocracy or people who wanted to eat like them.