Bizarre foods of MENA

[hollyw 0]

I LOVE escargot!!! omg that's my favorite appetizer smothered in butter/garlic sauce that you dip the crusty bread in afterwards. YUM!!!

AGREED.

although quite often i've thought, maybe it's not the escargot that i love, maybe it's just garlic bread.....

[mybackpages 0]

My husband is forever eating liver. BLECH.

I hated liver growing up and then I had some grilled liver on bread from one of those street vendors in some little town in Morocco. It was sooooo yummy. I think it has something to do with the freshness, the spices and how its cooked. With Idir now here we tried to recreate it on our grill, it's okay but not just the same. We will cook it about once a month.

with organ meat, I think you really have to know how to prepare it. Roman cuisine is famous for using all the bits and nothing I ever had there was anything but fabulous.

[Henia 11]

It is rumoured that they eat liver to built their stamina (as well as other parts)

[doodlebug 3]

It is rumoured that they eat liver to built their stamina (as well as other parts)

[allousa 1]

I tell ya...Middle Eastern men are serious about eating whatever is good for their "stamina"!!!! Aren't they!!!!???!!!!

[sereia 0]

i know! my fiance ALWAYS brings up that i should always have tons of almonds in the house and prepare calamari often for that reason! lol

[allousa 1]

One time when his parents came to visit us, it was the first time that I had met them. This was after we were married but before he got stuck in Morocco. We were sitting around resting after having dinner and my husband just came right out and asked his mom what kind of foods would help with his "stamina". I just about spit my tea out!!! But she just started naming off stuff and how to prepare it and they both had this big conversation about it. I could tell my father-in-law was getting a kick at how I was red-faced about it.

Since then, I've gotten comfortable at how open they are about stuff like that.

Yeah...Arab men don't play with the whole "stamina" bit. But none that I've ever known would ever consider taking something "pharmaceticul' to help. Funny huh?

Would you say that it's true...that once you go Arab, you'll never go back to anything else? lol

[slbois 0]

What??? Calamari and almonds....I had no idea.

My husband forced me to try octopus. Tasted like seasoned rubber bands to me.

i know! my fiance ALWAYS brings up that i should always have tons of almonds in the house and prepare calamari often for that reason! lol

[sandinista! 1,816]

One time when his parents came to visit us, it was the first time that I had met them. This was after we were married but before he got stuck in Morocco. We were sitting around resting after having dinner and my husband just came right out and asked his mom what kind of foods would help with his "stamina". I just about spit my tea out!!! But she just started naming off stuff and how to prepare it and they both had this big conversation about it. I could tell my father-in-law was getting a kick at how I was red-faced about it.

Since then, I've gotten comfortable at how open they are about stuff like that.

Yeah...Arab men don't play with the whole "stamina" bit. But none that I've ever known would ever consider taking something "pharmaceticul' to help. Funny huh?

Would you say that it's true...that once you go Arab, you'll never go back to anything else? lol

bleh.

i find this kind of compartmentalizing, fetishizing, generalizing about entire ethnic groups utterly repugnant and distasteful. once i met MY HUSBAND i'll never go back to ever even thinking about any man that isn't him. his ethnicity is besides the point. ethnicity as a factor for who you form relationships with? sounds bigoted to me.

[deemabrouk 0]

I gotta agree with Melly.. ALHAMDULILLAH i am a Vegetarian!!!!!!!!!!

BUT my husband and SIL convinced me to eat some shrimp... Reluctantly I said ok.. SOOO.. Hanan whipped us up some dinner and left it at our flat.. We all came home.. set up our dinner... and my husband took off the lid to the pot with the "shrimp" in it... i LITERALLY had to swallow back the vomit that came up... There were all these Critters face up STARING at me.. a whole pot of them.. with these black little eyes :blink: :blink: :blink:

I couldnt do it.. I never knew they look like little lobsters!!!!!!!!!!

My husband got annoyed.. But I honestly dont think I have even seen them with their heads on

and I agree with you Allousa lol It is true

One time when his parents came to visit us, it was the first time that I had met them. This was after we were married but before he got stuck in Morocco. We were sitting around resting after having dinner and my husband just came right out and asked his mom what kind of foods would help with his "stamina". I just about spit my tea out!!! But she just started naming off stuff and how to prepare it and they both had this big conversation about it. I could tell my father-in-law was getting a kick at how I was red-faced about it.

Since then, I've gotten comfortable at how open they are about stuff like that.

Yeah...Arab men don't play with the whole "stamina" bit. But none that I've ever known would ever consider taking something "pharmaceticul' to help. Funny huh?

Would you say that it's true...that once you go Arab, you'll never go back to anything else? lol

bleh.

i find this kind of compartmentalizing, fetishizing, generalizing about entire ethnic groups utterly repugnant and distasteful. once i met MY HUSBAND i'll never go back to ever even thinking about any man that isn't him. his ethnicity is besides the point. ethnicity as a factor for who you form relationships with? sounds bigoted to me.

Um.. where'd you come from??!! and could you go back?

[Henia 11]

i know! my fiance ALWAYS brings up that i should always have tons of almonds in the house and prepare calamari often for that reason! lol

Mmm no wonder almost every sweet has almonds in it Men eat alot of kidney and liver (I have heard calamari too, but not that often) for short bursts of stamina" as my husband calls it they also swear by hops, passionflower (lol)

The women swear by jasmine oil and figs, .... and give large doses of cilantro (coriandre) in their men's food.

Kinda reminds me of those Siberian Ginseng little vials I saw in every market when I lived in Cali

Alousa: Yes, I would have spit my tea out too...they are sure not shy about that conversations.

Slbois: seasoned rubber bands? LOL they cooked it waaaay too long. It is should be cooked similar to shrimp (not long)

LOLOLOL Spanish fly anyone?

Edited June 23, 2007 by Henia

[allousa 1]

One time when his parents came to visit us, it was the first time that I had met them. This was after we were married but before he got stuck in Morocco. We were sitting around resting after having dinner and my husband just came right out and asked his mom what kind of foods would help with his "stamina". I just about spit my tea out!!! But she just started naming off stuff and how to prepare it and they both had this big conversation about it. I could tell my father-in-law was getting a kick at how I was red-faced about it.

Since then, I've gotten comfortable at how open they are about stuff like that.

Yeah...Arab men don't play with the whole "stamina" bit. But none that I've ever known would ever consider taking something "pharmaceticul' to help. Funny huh?

Would you say that it's true...that once you go Arab, you'll never go back to anything else? lol

bleh.

i find this kind of compartmentalizing, fetishizing, generalizing about entire ethnic groups utterly repugnant and distasteful. once i met MY HUSBAND i'll never go back to ever even thinking about any man that isn't him. his ethnicity is besides the point. ethnicity as a factor for who you form relationships with? sounds bigoted to me.

You don't even know me and yet call me a bigot. That's funny. I actually have a "COEXIST" bumper sticker on my car. The comment about not going back to anything but Arab is not a sexual remark. I think most of us on this site would agree that the Arab culture that we've come to know is far more enchanting than anything we've known. At least it is for me. I was married to a good 'ole boy American and was not anywhere near happy as I am now. I've learned so much about the world (not just Arab culture) and I could never go back to who I was before.

I find your passing judgment on someone that you know nothing about repugnant and distasteful.

[allousa 1]

I can imagine that it's got to be tough to be a vegetarian sometimes. I have friends that are and I've been out with them before and people give them such a hard time about why they don't eat meat. Good God, what's the big deal! People like to eat what they like to eat!

I'm used to eating several small meals and whenever I'm eating with my husband's family, they keep piling the food on my plate. My father-in-law is so sweet to always make me my own little plate while everyone else eats off of the big one. But I can't ever finish what they keep piling on. My husband and his mom start arguing about trying to make me eat more. Not argue in a bad way. It's funny though.

I did have to chuckle though about the eyes staring out of the pot. I'm sorry...I know it must not have been funny to you at the time...but I can just picture that.

Edited June 23, 2007 by allousa

[deemabrouk 0]

no one here has YET to mention raw oysters.. !!!!

That is supposed to be one of the BEST for ...........

[Henia 11]

Waaaaoa I missed that one. I guess their cartoony pic mezmoried my eyes into passing it by. Waw I doubt she was compartmentalizing anyway Newbie. Sounds like trouble with a T is stirring here. Any negative comments I think should be PMed... MENA has enough closed threads, surely not wanting more. Thannks bunches! Also fill out your profile, so we know who you are. Sooo we donnot think you are a lurker or troll or whatever they are called. Thanks!

no one here has YET to mention raw oysters.. !!!!

That is supposed to be one of the BEST for ...........

Yes that is a classic, but in MENA they rarely eat anything raw so...