Difference between Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food?

To think Waco doesn’t rhyme with taco.

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Don’t even ask about through and tough.

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You say tock-o, I say tack-o. You say tomato, I say tomato.

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It should rhyme with whacko.

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So, the Brits brought the cauliflower to India in 1822, and the Portuguese sailors brought the potato in the early 1600s.

Curious to see when Aloo Gobi became a thing.

Yes, trying to work out a timeline would be interesting.

At a guess, the cauliflower was probably first grown as a crop to feed British colonialists. And probably first cooked as it would have been in the UK. You would then have two questions. First, when did it marry up with the spuds. Second, when did the cauli break out of being just a dish for the Brits and become popular amongst the general Indian population.

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Everything I’ve found online says Aloo Gobi originated somewhere in Punjab / Northern India, which we knew.

I guess narrowing it down is like trying to figure out where the first Colcannon originated in Ireland.

The combo could have happened a few different places around the same time.

I had to look up a little more info


You guys are funny.

Indians will make “sabzi” out of anything — broccoli and mushrooms are fair gane these days. Broccoli showed up in my sambhar in Delhi once, and when I asked how come, I was told it was the cheapest vegetable in season at that time, so it’s in everything. Broccoli Aloo? Now a legit dish.

And potato is the great extender — adding potato to anything (meat, veg) makes it go around to feed more people so Aloo ANYTHING is all over — bhindi, gobi, cabbage, chicken, kheema, etc etc etc.

Gobi (and Aloo) is the Hindi word, but it’s widely eaten everywhere, so as for the “dish” being North Indian — it’s just that outside India, North Indian / Punjabi food is what people encounter first.

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Even Colcannon, Col being Cabbage, is one of the 2 foods Together at Last dishes, like Avgolemono, Spanakorizo, Chocolate Almonds, Riz au Lait, Choripan, or Mutter Paneer. :sweat_smile:

FWIE, I’ll note that Portuguese cuisine is often included as Mediterranean, but Portugal does not border the Mediterranean Sea.

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Portugal is usually included as a Mediterranean country partly because it has a Mediterranean climate.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEurope/s/Ke6VxtIv4S

Whilst Mrs Beeton may well have written a recipe for “caulifower cheese”, It’s most unlikely that this was her invention . We have grown cauliflowers for many years prior to the mid-19th century and our history of making cheese goes back centuries. I would have thought it certain folk would have put the two together. Her use of Parmesan is interesting - it was probably around that time that “foreign” cheese was starting to become known here. By the by, cauliflower cheese makes for a fairly regular vegetarian dinner in this house - usually we just have it with spuds and the cheese is usually a mature cheddar or, occasionally a Lancashire. We will also add a couple of rashers of bacon if any are lurking in the fridge - nice but no longer a virtuous vegetarian supper.

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