4 January 2006 (Wednesday)
minor etymological point
From a New York Times article on Libyan food:
The better restaurants in Tripoli often carry an array of meze-style salads, the highlight of which was usually eggplant dishes. Arab salad, a mixture of chopped cucumber, tomato, bell peppers and parsley, followed the soup.
I'm sure this is just an artifact of my cultural upbringing, but I grew up calling that stuff Israeli salad. Granted, I don't think it was invented in Israel or anything, but that line, for some reason, stung a bit...
# posted by shanna at 3:41 PM
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I don't care where it originated, it's tasty!
Posted by: Stella at 6:37 PM on 4 January 2006
I've also referred to it as "Israeli salad," but I wouldn't read too much into it. A Google search reveals that it's sometimes called "Arab salad" in Israel (to make things even more confusing) or "Turkish salad" (even though it's not what an American would call "Turkish salad") or "salad chai" (which makes me think of "Liberty cabbage"). Add some feta and it becomes "Greek salad."
Davar acher: Yesh omrim that the nationality is determined by the vegetable size. Go figure.
Posted by: elfsdh at 6:58 PM on 4 January 2006
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