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Meze

Sunday, 19 January 2025 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Levant / Levante
Category/Kategorie: General, Bon appétit, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  5 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Meze (also spelled mezze or mezé) is a selection of small dishes served as appetizers in eastern Mediterranean cuisines: Syria, Iraq, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Armenia. It is similar to Spanish tapas and Italian antipasti. A meze may be served as a part of a multi-course meal or form a meal in itself. Meze are often served with spirits such as arak, rakia, raki, oghi, ouzo, or grappa at meyhane and ouzeri or at regular restaurants.

Even if you sometimes get the impression that wars could start because of the different mezze and their preparation, the variants usually only differ minimally and represent the typical variations of each country. The topic of hummus is particularly important. Every family has its own recipe, which is of course the best in the world.

In Turkey, meze often consist of beyaz peynir ‘white cheese’, kavun (sliced ripe melon), ac?l? ezme (hot pepper paste often with walnuts), haydari (thick strained yogurt with herbs), patl?can salatas? (cold eggplant salad), beyin salatas? (brain salad), kalamar tava (fried calamari), midye dolma and midye tava (stuffed or fried mussels), enginar (artichokes), cac?k (yogurt with cucumber and garlic), pilaki (foods cooked in a special sauce), dolma or sarma (rice-stuffed vine leaves or other stuffed vegetables, such as bell peppers), Arnavut ci?eri (a liver dish, served cold), octopus salad, and çi? köfte (raw meatballs with bulgur). A selection of mezes can be served as appetizers in a multi-course dinner, or as snacks accompanying drinks such as rak?.

In Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and the rest of the Balkans, mezé, mezés or mezédhes (plural) are small dishes, hot or cold, spicy or savory. Seafood dishes such as grilled octopus may be included, along with salads, sliced hard-boiled eggs, garlic bread, kalamata olives, fava spread, fried vegetables, melitzanosalata (eggplant salad), taramosalata, fried or grilled cheeses called saganaki, and sheep, goat, or cow cheeses.

In Greece, meze is commonly served as a plate of snacks to accompany drinks such as ouzo and tsipouro.

In Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, and Israel, meze is often a meal in its own right. There are vegetarian, meat or fish mezes. Groups of dishes arrive at the table about four or five at a time (usually between five and ten groups). There is a set pattern to the dishes: typically olives, tahini, salad, and yogurt will be followed by dishes with vegetables and eggs, then small meat or fish dishes alongside special accompaniments, and finally more substantial dishes such as whole fish or meat stews and grills. Establishments will offer their own specialties, but the pattern remains the same. Naturally the dishes served will reflect the seasons. For example, in late autumn, snails will be prominent. As so much food is offered, it is not expected that every dish be finished, but rather shared at will and served at ease.

In the Balkans, meze is very similar to an Italian antipasto in that cured cold-cuts, cheese and salads are dominant and cooked foods are not included. In Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro it includes hard or creamy cheeses, kajmak (clotted cream) or smetana cream, salami, ham and other forms of suho/suvo meso (cured pork or beef), kulen (paprika flavoured, cured sausage), cured bacon, ajvar, and various savory pastries. For Muslims, meze replaces pork products with sudžuk (dry, spicy sausage) and the pastirma-like cured beef suho meso. In southern Croatia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro, cured meat such as pršut and panceta and regional products like olives are common. Albanian-style meze platters typically include prosciutto ham, salami, and brined cheese, accompanied with roasted bell peppers (capsicum) or green olives marinated in olive oil with garlic. In Bulgaria, popular mezes are lukanka (a spicy sausage), soujouk (a dry and spicy sausage) and sirene (a white brine cheese). The Bulgarian-made shopska salad is also a very popular meze. It is made with tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, peppers, and sirene. Ajvar and pindjur are popular mezes in North Macedonia. In Romania, mezelic means a quick appetizer and includes zacusc?, cheeses, and salamis, often accompanied by tuic?.

Read more on Levantine cuisine, Greek cuisine, Ottoman cuisine, Turkish cuisine, Balkan cuisine, Arab cuisine and Wikipedia Meze (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.