Too sweet?
Some years ago, an Iraqi Jewish friend of ours refused an invitation to our house for a holiday after I told her that I'd be cooking the chicken in fruit juice. She said that fruit and meat or poultry just didn't go together.
I thought it was just a matter of personal taste. But it turns out that I may have been wrong.
Recently, a Syrian Jewish buddy told me that her community never cooks b'sari (meat and/or poultry/fleishig) dishes with fruit, except the occasional raisins or currants, because they consider it inappropriate to mix sweet foods with savory foods. So now I know: If I invite someone from the B'nei Edot haMizrach (roughly, Children of the States of the East) community, I'd be better advised to cook the chicken in tomato sauce.
I thought it was just a matter of personal taste. But it turns out that I may have been wrong.
Recently, a Syrian Jewish buddy told me that her community never cooks b'sari (meat and/or poultry/fleishig) dishes with fruit, except the occasional raisins or currants, because they consider it inappropriate to mix sweet foods with savory foods. So now I know: If I invite someone from the B'nei Edot haMizrach (roughly, Children of the States of the East) community, I'd be better advised to cook the chicken in tomato sauce.
posted by Shira Salamone at 8:27 AM
5 Comments:
say what? Get yourself a copy of "A fistful of lentils". It's a fabulous Syrian-Jewish cookbook. TONS of recipes for meatballs in cherry sauce, beef stew with prunes, etc., etc.
Really? Was I right the first time?
Oh, yes, now I remember—I’ve had Moroccan tajine a few times. The version I had was made with prunes.
Are Moroccan Jews B'nei Eidot haMizrach or Sefardi (or both)? I seem to recollect reading somewhere that Moroccan Jews from the coast are more likely to be Sefardi, but that Moroccan Jews from further inland were probably there before the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain.
It ain't necessarily so: Libyan Jews have at least one bsari dish with fruit that I know of - tbekha bl mishmish (a stew with apricots).
Nu, you're making me hungry, already! :)
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