sorry for the hiatus, readers. mama and papa were here this weekend, and i just got lazy. so, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
in the new yorker i received today i (as i always do) immediately turned to the "tables for two" writeup - does that come as any surprise? the restaurant, a high-minded israeli joint, sounds fine. no complaints there. what gets me is this: "Admony brushes [the pitas] with olive oil and a mixture of sesame, salt, and zatar, an herb that grows on a mountain near Jerusalem". this triggered a pretty strong reaction, because i've only ever seen zatar sold as a blend of (some combination of) sesame, sumac, and wild thyme or oregano. it's an herb now? before i sent off an angry email to the new yorker fact-checkers, i did some due diligence. here's the full story: za'atar, traditionally, is unblended syrian hyssop - so maybe i was wrong. maybe they're using the real thing. but, it's also a protected plant in israel (most websites argue that this was done just to give checkpoint guards yet another reason to fuck with palestinians, but i'm not wading into that part) - so if they're using syrian hyssop at this place, it's certainly not from a "mountain near jerusalem". the blended non-hyssop za'atar just sort of tastes like the real thing, apparently.
so what gives? have i out-checked a venerable magazine? or is this whole thing just silly?
2 comments:
Hyssop is a very not important herb. I have grown it, and it is just another greyish plant with little bluish flowers and a taste like thyme or possibly a little skunkier, like summer savory. The other hyssop is more interesting. I have been asked about it when doing herb talks in church basements, as it is one of the Bitter Herbs, and some people care more about this stuff than you can possibly imagine. It actually does grow on the hills of Palestine and is dried and sprinkled on bread. It seems to be an origanum, but beyond my reach here in Zone 5. Politically, it is probably like Greek thyme v.
Turkish thyme on Corsica.
Obviously, I mean Cyprus. I think I have nominal dyslogia, like that Man in the White House. And why aren't you a fact checker,vaunted or humble? I bet they all went to Brown.
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