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 in the south of the country. In the relatively wet north ( ancient Assyria ) wheat and stone fruit is grown in the dry south ( the ancient Babylonia ), there is rice and dates. The Kurds, who make up the majority of the north who are sharing the cuisine of the North.

The northern Iraqi cuisine is largely of the neighboring country Syria, while the southern Iraqi kitchen is independent and is based primarily on rice, fish and dates. Cereals generally plays a major role as a staple food, often combined with meat. Are often eaten with meat Breispeisen different insert, bread with meat and a dish of cereal and meat called kubba. In spring, when flowering period is " yaprax " ( = very yaprach ) is often eaten boiled grape leaves stuffed with rice, as the vine leaves are at the time particularly well suited for cooking. Widespread is the well known throughout the region porridge Harissa. In the area of Mosul kaschki is very popular, a porridge with meat, seasoned with dried lime and cumin, which is stained with tomato juice or turmeric. It is eaten at the usual picnics family on special occasions in the vicinity of the tomb of Qadib al -Ban, who is venerated as a saint.

Dishes of meat and broth mixed with bread, are in the Arab Tharid or called taschrib. In Baghdad, the bread is crumbled into the broth while taschrib is eaten for breakfast and consists of all bread pieces are soaked in broth, then topped with meat for tharid. In Mosul, there is a refined version called taschgiba be added to the other ingredients like lentils, pasta and pomegranate.

Kibbeh is a popular dish in the Middle East from grain and meat, that is in Iraq kubba. The ingredients are comminuted, mixed and shaped into a kind of dumpling. In Mosul, there is a deviating variant, which has a flat patty form and is filled with meat, almonds, raisins and spices and either baked or cooked in hot water. In the south, rice replaces the usual bulgur in the north, some of the fat tail sheep will take meat fat used.

An Iraqi specialty is bread, is given for the shredded roasted meat into the dough before baking, added spices. Depending on the dialect it is referred to as uruq or ghug. There are also fermented wheat dishes. For tarchina bulgur and yogurt are mixed and dried. Another is Kaschk of cooked vinegared and bulgur.

While bulgur is considered eating the simple kitchen, rice in Iraq has a much higher status. In a folk tale from Mosul it is, in Paradise there to eat rice with apricots, in hell, however, Bulgur with tomatoes, bulgur which is far healthier and more satisfying.

In Iraq Cooked meat is referred to not as a kebab, but as a tikka on skewers. Kabab are here Mince kebabs, which are called in Persian Tschelo Kabab and be prepared similarly in different countries. The preferred type of meat is lamb or beef. Also fish plays an important role in the kitchen. The fish dish Samak masquf is sometimes called the national dish. It is made with barbs, which are grilled on sticks on an open fire and finish cooking on the ashes. Some dishes were adopted from the Persian cuisine, for example Fisinjan, cooked wild fowl with walnuts and pomegranates, others are originally from the Turkish kitchen as the pastries " paklawa ".

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• Alan Davidson: The Oxford Companion to Food, 2nd. ed Oxford 2006, article Iraq, pp. 405 f

• Arab cuisine
• Culture ( Iraq)