Baba Ghanouj is one of the popular dishes in the Middle Eastern cuisine. In Egypt-where I’m originally from-Baba Ghanouj is a side dipping that’s usually served with the main dishes. Baba Ghanouj is an Arabic term and “Baba” literally means dad. Sometimes, Coptic -Egyptian Christians use the term “Baba” to refer to the priest at the Church.
When I started searching up the story behind naming this popular dish as so, I learned that “Ghanouj” is a name of a well loved priest who used to teach at the church. One of his students wanted to offer the loved preacher a gift, but the student was poor and didn’t have much in hands, so the student decided to make a dish out of eggplants and vegetables, then gifted the dish to his teacher. The teacher/priest decided to share the gift with all of his students to encourage gifting and sharing among his community.
When I started to sell Baba Ghanouj dipping at one of those multinational cooking platforms, I had customers reaching out to me requesting to add more spices, hot spices to this dish specifically. They reach out and asked me to add spices liberally because they are Desi customers and they are fine with hot spices. And here’s when I felt that cultural competency and cultural diversity can be very tricky for customers who don’t share their preferences beforehand and they’re not familiar with slightly spiced dipping.
That reminded me of a friend of mine who is Caucasian and had allergies to Cumin, and another friend of mine who is Caucasian and has allergies to weed, and that Egyptian friend of mine who has allergies to alcohol.
Apparently, it’s not only White Caucasian folks who have different allergies, I, too, have allergies to hot chili. I discovered this allergy when I went to an Indian restaurant with a group of friends and my eyes started to get teary, my nose got runny from the smell of the spices and both my ears and throat turned sore and red. The Indian Chefs added spices to every dish, even treats.
Despite that the food was well made, and looked so great, I wasn’t able to finish a bite from the meal. Even water worsened my case. Afterwards, I learned that milk could help . 😁
So that’s my story for today. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to reach out with any questions. Or book a cooking class with me @shama_farag@outlook.com
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