Iraqi cuisine
The Iraqi cuisine is the national cuisine of Iraq . However, it is not homogeneous, but consists of two different regional cuisines in the north and south of the country. In the relatively humid north (ancient Assyria ) wheat and stone fruit are grown, in the dry south (ancient Babylonia ) there is rice and dates . The Kurds , who make up most of the north, share the cuisine of the north.
The northern Iraqi cuisine largely corresponds to the neighboring country Syria , while the southern Iraqi kitchen is independent and especially on rice, fish and dates based. Grains generally play an important role as a staple food , often combined with meat. Various porridge dishes with meat, bread with meat and a dish made from grain and meat called kubba are often eaten . In spring, when it is flowering, people often eat “yaprax” (= pronounced yaprach), boiled vine leaves filled with rice, as the vine leaves are particularly suitable for cooking at this time. Harissa, a cereal porridge known throughout the region, is widespread . In the Mosul area , kashki is very popular, a cereal porridge with meat flavored with dried lime and cumin colored with tomato juice or turmeric . It is eaten near the tomb of Qadib al-Ban , venerated as a saint , during the usual family picnics on certain occasions .
Dishes made from broth and meat mixed with bread are called tharid or tashrib in Arabic . In Baghdad is for tharid the bread crumbled into the broth while taschrib is eaten for breakfast and consists of all the pieces of bread that are soaked in broth, then covered with meat. In Mosul there is a more refined variant called taschgiba , in which other ingredients such as lentils , noodles and pomegranate are added.
Kibbeh is a grain and meat dish common in the Middle East and called kubba in Iraq . The ingredients are chopped up, mixed together and shaped into a kind of dumpling . In Mosul there is a variant that has a flat flat shape and is filled with meat, almonds , raisins and spices and either baked or cooked in hot water. In the south, rice replaces the bulgur common in the north , and fat from the fat- tailed sheep is sometimes used instead of meat .
An Iraqi specialty is bread for which shredded roasted meat is added to the batter before baking, with added spices. Depending on the dialect, it is called uruq or ghug . There are also fermented wheat dishes. For tarchina , bulgur and yogurt are mixed and dried. Another is kashk made from cooked and soured bulgur.
While bulgur is considered the food of simple cuisine, rice has a much higher status in Iraq. In a folk tale from Mosul it is said that in paradise you can eat apricots with rice, in hell you can eat bulgur with tomatoes.
In Iraq, meat cooked on a spit is called tikka rather than kebab . Kabab are minced meat skewers, which are called Chelo Kabab in Persian and are prepared similarly in different countries. The preferred type of meat is lamb or beef. Fish also plays an important role in the kitchen. The fish dish samak masquf is sometimes referred to as a national dish . It is made from barbels that are grilled on sticks over an open fire and cooked on the ashes. Some dishes were adopted from Persian cuisine , for example fisinjan , boiled game fowl with walnuts and pomegranates, others originally come from Turkish cuisine, such as baklava .
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- Alan Davidson: The Oxford Companion to Food , 2nd. ed. Oxford 2006, article Iraq , pp. 405 f.