"middle east" news and stories

Coffee cherries are drinkable too. Photo: rohsstreetcafe, Flickr

Erin Meister trains baristas for North Carolina-based Counter Culture Coffee and sporadically maintains the blog Meet the Press Pot from her home in New York City. This is the ninth in a series of tips for the caffeine-addicted.

Coffee's origins as a beverage are as murky as the sludge left at the bottom of a French press: Were the beans really the discovery of a bygone Ethiopian goatherd with a hyper flock? Did the first coffee drinkers actually brew the plant's leaves as tea instead of the beans we use today -- or the cherry in which they grow? Can a drink be made from the cherry itself?

That last one, at least, is a definite "yes," and several beverages made from dried coffee-cherry husks are still imbibed around the world. Learn more about these rare-to-us brews after the jump.

When I think of pistachios, I automatically think sweet. Perhaps, this is due to the Egyptian and Syrian side of my family. From an early age, I associated pistachios with sweet syrupy nutty baklava and pistachio ice cream. We would alternate between pistachio baklava and the traditional one made with walnuts and almonds.

As I got older, I started to explore other pistachio flavored desserts. On a recent culinary adventure to Café Sabarsky in Manhattan I discovered the Austrian cake Mozart Torte. This one was made with pistachios, chocolate, and nougat cream. I haven't had any luck yet finding the recipe.

Below are 8 delicious pistachio recipes that are sure to fulfill your craving for something sweet and nutty:

1. Rice Pudding with Cardamom and Pistachios
2. Honeyed Goat Cheese Tart with Pistachio Crust
3. Pistachio Gelato
4. Meringue "Eggs" with Pistachio Custard and Chocolate Drizzle
5. Pistachio Almond Nougat Torroncini
6. Coconut Pistachio Meringues
7. Middle Eastern Nut Filled Multi-layered Pastry
8. Pistachio Baklava

What are some of your favorite pistachio desserts?

Having eaten more than my fair share of dense, nutrient-rich energy bars over the years, I have to admit that I was a little wary of Kind bars. After all, most protein bars, energy bars, and other supposedly healthy meal-replacement snacks are long on nutrients, short on flavor, and have a taste that is reminiscent of high school chemistry class. So, when I got my first "Mango Macadamia" bar, I closed my eyes, gingerly nibbled, and tasted...food. Truth be told, it was absolutely delicious, with a sweet, gooey nuttiness and a complex texture that pleased both my palate and my tongue. Looking at the ingredients, I was happy to note that the bar only contained two ingredients that I could not easily picture (potassium citrate, calcium sulphate), and had a pretty solid nutritional profile.

This is not to say that all Kind bars are created equal. While I loved the Mango Macadamia and Strawberry Nut Delight, the Almond and Cashew was bland and the Almond, Walnut, and Macadamia was dry, somewhat sawdusty, and a little too close to a traditional granola bar. Also, at $2 per bar (a fair bit less if you buy online), the price is a little high for a daily snack.

On the other hand, Kind, and its parent company, PeaceWorks Holdings, donate 5% of all profits to charity, focusing their efforts on promoting peace across the world. Thus, although the pricetag might not be a little big, it supports a good cause. Moreover, when a bar tastes as good as the Mango Macadamia, even $2 a pop seems like a great deal!

I have been hooked on Maras pepper ever since my first encounter with it a few years ago in lamb meatballs. It's a unique mildly hot red pepper from the Kahramanmara? region of Turkey, just north of Syria. After a lengthy process of drying the peppers and then grinding them, the pepper is sent to markets all over Turkey.

Maras is delicious with vegetables, seafood, and steak. Unlike many peppers, this one has a subtlety; a heat that seems to creep up on one's palate in the most gentle and delicate way. I find that many hot peppers offer a heat that overwhelms the flavor of the pepper. Maras pepper is unique in its well balanced complex taste and level of heat.

Below are 8 recipes that call for Maras pepper:

1. Turkish lamb kebabs
2. Pistachio-crusted halibut with spicy yogurt
3. Valerie's lamb kofte with garlic yogurt sauce
4. Vinaigrette - add a dash of Maras pepper to transform your common salad dressing.
   
5. Spiced lamb with eggplant yogurt sauce - substitute their suggested pepper for Maras. This is an excellent recipe from Develï restaurant in Istanbul
   
6. Poached sea bass with almond sauce (Badem Taratorlu Levrek) - drop the black peppercorns, and add maras pepper.
7. Mercimek Çorbas? (Red lentil soup) - Use Maras pepper where it calls for red pepper.
8. Grilled eggplant with lebneh - simple, yet probably one of my favorites on this list. Add Maras pepper at the end.

On Wednesday 1,500 cooks in Iran unveiled an attempt to smash Italy's Guinness Record for the world's largest ostrich sandwich. The event took place in Tehran's Mellet Park. At 4,920 feet, the humongous hero, which contained 1,543 pounds each of ostrich and chicken meat, easily beats the Italian record of 4,521 feet, set last May.

There's only one problem though. The sandwich was devoured in minutes by a hungry crowd before Guinness officials had a chance to measure it. The organizers are hoping that Guinness will accept video footage to authenticate the record.

It's a shame that something which took two days to prepare was gobbled up in mere minutes. The hero contained a mixture of ostrich and chicken meat with mustard and spices. The gigantic sandwich made from gigantic flightless birds was the brainchild of Tehran's city council along and a group of ostrich farmers. Ostrich meat is renowned for its flavor and is high in protein and low in cholesterol. Iran is the world's third-largest ostrich breeder behind South Africa and China.

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