يطبخون الملوخية إلى اليمين: منظر ظريف… و لكنه مؤثر! هؤلاء المعتقلون من خيار أهل فلسطين حسباً ونسباً… وهم مع ذلك يطبخون الملوخية المحبوبة بأنفسهم لأن السلطات حرمت عليهم اتخاذ الخدم في طهي طعامهم واعداده… و تراهم هنا وقد شمروا عن ساعد الطبخ) وامسكوا بالكسرولات وراحوا يضعون القدوة على الملوخية لتكون لذيذة الطعم… حتى في النفى)….
Author: Antonio Tahhan
Syrian American food writer
Modern molokhia is simple, relatively
Source: Ustädh al-tabbakhin by Khalil Sarkis, Beirut, 1931, pp. 99-100 Takeaways: Thank you to Dr. Anny Gaul for sharing her copy of Khalil Sarkis’ book with me. 1 Medieval Arab Cookery. Devon, England :Prospect Books, 2001
What a 10th century agronomist from modern day Iraq had to say about molokhia
Source: The Nabataean Agriculture or Kitāb al-Filāḥa al-Nabaṭiyya (الفلاحة النبطية) by Ibn Waḥshiyya (ابن وحشية) The author of the source, Ibn Waḥshiyya, claims he translated this book from Syriac into Arabic in 903. He is from the village of Kufa in what is modern-day Iraq. The exact date of the original text has been heavily…
13th Century Pharmacology Text from Andalusia
Source: Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ li-Mufradāt al-Adwiya wa-l-Aghdhiya (كتاب الجامع المفردات الأدوية والأغذية) Analysis According to Ibn Al-Baytar, a 13th century pharmacologist and plant enthusiast from Andalusia, molokhia is slimy and “Egyptian.” The source is an encyclopedic categorization of plants based on works from other Arabic scholars and also authors from Ancient Greece. Al-Baytar describes the slimy…
Scents and Flavors – 13th Century Molokhia in Syria
Source Scent and Flavors (كتاب الوُصلة إلى الحبيب في وصف الطيّبات والطيب) is a 13th century Syrian cookbook that was translated by Charles Perry. The recipes in the book primarily represent “the cuisine of the Ayyubid rulers of thirteenth-century Syria.” (xxix) Although Perry also suggests these books were intended for “practical household use” given the…