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60 stories for“history”
Tunisia has the strongest claim, the name means roughly a mixture, and no version of the dish can be older than the sixteenth century. The argument about who owns it is really about something else.
Aug 14, 2026
The version most of the world eats is the Levantine one, and it is a revision. Egypt still makes it the older way, with fava beans, under a different name. The argument about who owns it is genuinely political.
Aug 21, 2026
The name is a loanword from Turkish, the technique is a nineteenth century invention, and the man usually credited with it was a butcher in Bursa who turned the spit on its end. Here is where shawarma actually comes from.
Aug 21, 2026
It contains four things and one of them is not optional. The supermarket version usually gets the ratio wrong, the ownership argument is genuinely political, and the earliest written record does not point where most people expect.
Aug 21, 2026
Three of those words literally mean turning. The fourth means shepherd, and it exists because a hundred thousand Lebanese migrants arrived in Mexico and their children swapped the lamb for pork and added pineapple.
Aug 21, 2026
Thailand's national dish with a surprising history: born during wartime, promoted by government decree, now the world's favorite Southeast Asian noodle.
Jan 23, 2024
A Levantine spice blend and a Mexican corn tortilla share no history at all. What they share is a logic, and that turns out to be entirely enough to build on.
Aug 2, 2026
This Middle Eastern and North African classic transforms tomatoes, spices, and eggs into something elegant enough for company but easy enough for any night. Serve it straight from the pan with crusty bread.
Jan 10, 2024
