Beyond Hummus and Falafel: Social and Political Aspects of Palestinian Food in Israel (California Studies in Food and Culture)

California Studies in Food and Culture #40

by Liora Gvion, David Wesley (Translator), Elana Wesley (Translator)

Beyond Hummus and Falafel is the story of how food has come to play a central role in how Palestinian citizens of Israel negotiate life and a shared cultural identity within a tense political context. At the household level, Palestinian women govern food culture in the home, replicating tradition and acting as agents of change and modernization, carefully adopting and adapting mainstream Jewish culinary practices and technologies in the kitchen. Food is at the center of how Arab culture minorities define and shape the boundaries and substance of their identity within Israel.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Food History

234 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2012

Reviews

[Mohammad Zakerzadeh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is an important piece in completing the picture of the role of the foods and culinary cultures in power relations and political identity, highlighting one of the most politicized lands on the earth, Palestine.
The title is wisely chosen to reflect the content: how is the food is more than just proteins and carbohydrates, and how an ethnic cuisine of a minority group is beyond some famous appropriated dishes by the majority group, here world-widely known hummus and falafel.
This is a very critical observation in the study of ethnic cuisine that why some dishes are accepted while most of them cannot find their ways beyond the minority sphere.