Baba ghanoush

• 1. Introduction

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  Baba ghanoush is a dish with at least three common English spellings and two quite different pronunciations. Writers also render it as baba ganoush or baba ghanouj. In the Arabic script it appears as بابا غنوج. Even English speakers cannot agree on how to say it. British speakers often end the word with a hard "oosh" sound, while many Americans finish with a softer "zh". The disagreement hints at how far this Levantine dish has traveled from the place where it began. The chapters ahead ask a few questions. What gives the dish its smoky character? Who is the mysterious "baba" in its name? And why do cooks from Syria to Romania to Greece each claim a cousin of it?

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• 2. Fire and Eggplant

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  A whole eggplant, or aubergine, is held over an open flame until its skin blackens. That fire is the heart of the dish. Traditional cooks roast, bake, or broil the vegetable before peeling it. The treatment turns the pulp soft and gives it a smoky taste that raw cooking could never produce. The pulp is then finely chopped and blended with olive oil, lemon juice, tahini, and assorted seasonings. In the cuisine of the Levant, the result is a meze, a small starter set out before the main course. It is often served beside the main course too, and it works as a dip for pita bread. The flavor is only half the puzzle, though, because the name is odd.

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• 3. A Pampered Father

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  In Arabic, the word bābā is an affectionate way to say "father". The second half, Ġannūj, could be a personal name. Together the words have been read as "father of coquetry", or as an indulged, flirtatious daddy. Another reading is a spoiled old daddy. Nobody can say for sure who is being pampered. The name may point to an actual man treated to this dish, or it may refer to the eggplant itself, which Arabic calls bāḏinjān or bātinjān. A published record of the name appears in the 1979 fourth edition of Hans Wehr's A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic. It lists bābā ghanūj and abū ghanūj as a dish of mashed eggplants, sesame oil, and similar ingredients. It ties the term to Syrian and Lebanese Arabic.

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• 4. Spice, Cheese, and Borders

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  Mashed eggplant dishes turn up in kitchens stretching from West Africa to Russia, so the Levantine version is one voice in a very large chorus. Along the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula, cooks bring coriander and cumin into the bowl. Those versions can also be lightly spiced and finished with thinly chopped parsley or coriander leaves, which Americans call cilantro. In Syria, a cook may fold in sheep cheese, which makes the dip creamier. Turkey knows the dish as babaganuş, or sometimes abugannuş. Ingredients shift from region to region there. Still, eggplants, tahini, garlic, and lemon form the common core. Turkey's neighbors in the Middle East were not the only ones to borrow the recipe, as one later national cuisine shows.

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• 5. The Austerity Years

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  Between 1949 and 1959, Israel lived through a period of austerity, and cooks there reached for the food of neighboring Arab countries. Baba ghanoush entered Israeli cuisine in those years. Because meat was scarce, the eggplant dip served as a substitute for it. When the economic crisis ended, the dish did not fade. Households kept making it for snacks and for guests who arrived without warning. Food writer and historian Gil Marks eventually described it as a "cultural icon". A hardship-era stopgap had become a national favorite. Elsewhere, similar dishes took shape without any hardship at all, and some of them leave out the ingredient that defines the Levantine original.

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• 6. Cousins Without Tahini

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  Mutabbal, written متبل in Arabic, is the closest relative, and the two names are sometimes swapped. Strictly, mutabbal is mashed grilled vegetables with tahini, while baba ghanouj does not necessarily contain tahini. The Levantine mutabbal uses many vegetables besides aubergines. In Palestine and Jordan, a pumpkin mutabbal is a popular traditional dish. Romania has its own version called salată de vinete, meaning eggplant salad. It combines finely chopped roasted eggplant, finely chopped onions, sunflower oil, and salt, with mayonnaise as an option. Cooks there insist on sunflower oil rather than olive oil, because olive oil would make the dish bitter. Greece offers melitzanosalata, which also means eggplant salad and also omits tahini. It relies on olive oil, lemon juice, and seasonings such as garlic and onion, sometimes with pepper flakes. During the 40-day Lenten fast, it is extremely popular as an animal-free alternative to dips such as tzatziki, in a country with a strong Orthodox Christian tradition.

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