Falafel: The staple dish of the Middle East is as contested as the region | Hacker News Reader

Falafel: The staple dish of the Middle East is as contested as the region

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18 pointsbenbreen13 comments

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Israeli-Palestinian argue a lot... but they don't really argue about Falafel

Israelis generally see Falafel as an Arab origin dish.

+There are Jews that are in Israel for thousands of years (eating middle eastern food)

+There are Arab-Jews

+There are Arab-Israelis

You won't really hear a Jew with Russian origins claiming Falafel is his heritage

There were Arab Jews. Most the Arab countries kicked out their Jewish population.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_Arab_and_Mu...

They are still Arab Jews, their being 'Arab' wasn't removed when they left for Israel.

Whether pavlova is Australian or New Zealandy has also been frequently contested..

"The nationality of its creator has been a source of argument between the two nations for many years"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlova_(cake)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11897482

https://www.goodfood.com.au/eat-out/news/pavlova-research-re...

But we don't want to wipe each other from the earth over that or anything else.

It's not so much "contested", it's more that there are over 20 million Australians who prefer their own wishful thinking to the facts

I was at a bbq recently and the host lady had made a pavlova (or "Pav" as it's known). I jokingly asked if it was Australian and everyone including her laughed, but there were daggers behind the eyes...

Outside of the middle east, the best falafel I’ve eaten has been at Jalla Jalla[1] in Malmö (arabic tradition) and L’As du Fallafel in Paris (jewish tradition).

[1] https://www.facebook.com/JallaJalla2003/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27As_du_Fallafel

Shalom Falafel in Jerusalem is excellent, although the lack of a queue was a bit of an adjustment for this non-hebrew speaking foreigner -- you basically just shout (or wave your arms wildly in my case) to get someone's attention.

> While the Israelis have fêted it as one of their national dishes, the Palestinians are resentful of what they perceive as the ‘theft’ of a distinctly Arab speciality.

This sentence doesn't quite make sense. From what I read around half the Jews in Israel are Arabic.

Not sure why this being downvoted, I don't think anyone disputes it. If you want a source, Bari Weiss from the NYT discussed this on Joe Rogan a few days ago.

What does levantine mean?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levant

they are good!

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