Some Like it Hot

Hot chiles and dill: the Gazan combination par excellence. How Gazans developed this love affair with the chile pepper is a culinary mystery for the ages. Whereas Lebanese cooks tolerate no spicy heat at all and cooks from other parts of Palestine and the greater region use spice in moderation, Gazan cooks (specifically those from Gaza City itself, as opposed to rural areas) make you sweat, whether using a local variety of fresh hot green chile peppers—generally crushed in a mortar with lemon and salt—or else ground red chile peppers conserved in oil and sold as the condiment and ingredient filfil mat’hoon.