Social Aspects

The activities of cooking and eating reflect many subtly intricate facets of the Middle Eastern character and way of life. They are intensely social activities, while the dishes hold within them centuries of local culture, art and tradition.

Hospitality is a stringent duty all over the Middle East. ‘If people are standing at the door of your house, don’t shut it before them’, and ‘Give the guest food to eat even though you yourself are starving’, are only two of a large number of sayings which serve to remind people of this duty, a legacy of nomadic tribal custom when hospitality was the first requirement for survival.