Middle East Meets Middle America
An ancient cuisine is finding a foothold in the mainstream.
Middle Eastern cuisine is a category as vast and broad as, well, the desert.
Distinguished by intoxicatingly aromatic spices and herbs, generous vegetable inclusions, plant-based proteins such as chickpeas and other legumes, and healthy fats pressed from sesame seeds and olives, it offers a bounty of dishes for vegetarians and vegans as well as for lovers of chicken, lamb, and beef (though not pork because of halal and kosher prohibitions).
A significant part of the Middle East lies on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, and although there is some overlap with what is commonly known as Mediterranean cuisine, the region’s food, like its population, is wide-ranging, distinctive, and diverse.