While the United States is completely in bed with companies that manufacture genetically modified organisms (GMOs), countries in other parts of the world are resisting their relentless push to populate the planet with their patented seeds. Turkey is the latest country to ban 26 GMOs following an incident involving the unauthorized entry of genetically modified […]
Miriam sees Israel’s most famous open-air market through new eyes. When I lived in Jerusalem, the Machane Yehuda shuk (market) was my grocery store. Vegetables, grains, fruit, chicken for Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest. There were nuts and sweets…everything we ate came from the shuk. (Read about 5 Israeli shuks here.) My kids grew […]
Even if you didn’t give birth to the baby, you can still feed it to make it “yours” in Muslim communities. Here’s how. Under Islamic Sharia’a law, western adoption practices are frowned upon. When children are abandoned by their birth parents, they may become foster children of other families, but they are not allowed to […]
There are many ways to fund terror, and one way is by consuming opium or heroin: Opium production in Afghanistan is seeing record increases for the third year straight, reports the United Nations. This is because foreign military have started leaving the country and as they do drop Afghani farmers back into the hands of the […]
All you can drink coffee for $50 a month at CupsTelAviv.
Science puts a new view forward in the anti-brassiere argument. Women have bound their breasts since antiquity, for modesty’s sake or to conform to an aesthetic ideal. Exposing the breast for human survival in breastfeeding is supposed to be kept politely minimal, even with the known multiple benefits of breastfeeding. In the Western world, women […]
From Iraq with love, a great jam with a surprising ingredient. Nawal Nasrallah, a food historian and author, writes about Iraqui cuisine in a warm, rich style that beautifully highlights each recipe’s historical and cultural background. Her newly revised cookbook, Delights From The Garden Of Eden, is about to be released in a new edition, […]
Eating too fast leads to poor digestion and poor weight control. No brainer. But do we need a digital fork to help adhere to that maxim? Goofing around online, I spot a cool-looking kitchen gadget: a fork that could be a love-child of IKEA and Apple. I click on the video and nearly spit out […]
An Iranian confectioner packed five tons of ice cream into a a single container to scoop a new world record in desserts. When you’ve just clinched the title as “monster rat” breeding grounds, why not sweeten your international appeal with the world’s biggest tub of ice cream? Last week in Tehran, Iranian dairy company Choopan popped […]
Increasing evidence shows that sugar is a natural enemy to the body. “Don’t you think I know how hard it is, honey/To get some “sugar” from the phone,” sings country singer Bonnie Raitt, vividly summing up the difficulty of maintaining a long-distance romance. Sugar represents all that’s sweet and desirable, but in the light of […]
Known as turmos in the Levant, lupine beans – poor folk’s food – are a tasty Middle-Eastern snack in need of more recognition. Except in some South American countries, the Western world doesn’t give lupines much regard. Chickpeas get much more publicity (like our vegan chickpea and artichoke salad). Maybe it has to do with the long […]
For centuries, kombucha lovers have been drinking the fizzy tea beverage and claiming amazing health benefits from it. Some people are now making hard kombucha… this is kombucha with alcohol. The origins of kombucha tea are veiled in ancient history. Some say that man first brewed tea with a “mother” kombucha culture in Korea. Others […]
Build a Better Rubber, They will Come? The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will grant $100k to the inventor of the next generation condom. Condoms have been around for 400 years, with very little improvements over the last 50 years, according to Grand Challenges in Global Health, a research foundation established by the Bill and […]
Farming is risky business in Morocco, where a 30 percent drop in precipitation since 1970 makes steady, predictable annual crop yields virtually impossible. So the World Bank was called in to help implement Plan Maroc Vert – an ambitious initiative designed to boost the country’s cereal production and create a more sustainable agricultural sector by 2020. […]
If you told someone from the Middle East that progressive, health-conscious Americans have fallen in love with freekeh, they might raise their eyebrows in surprise or roll their eyes in utter boredom, since people in this region have enjoyed the benefits of the ancient grain said like “freak eh” for eons. But for westerners, freekeh is […]
Miriam has been covering a series of sustainable meal recipes from the Middle East region, from countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iran to help people reconnect with their local food (click the countries to get some great local recipes). We know that food industry is shaping the future of our bodies and our planet, […]
A new book holds your hand and walks you through the stuff you already sort of know: 7 simple steps to bring you back to food basics. Once a week, a small group of arty pals convene after work to play with papier-mâché, share a simple meal and unwind. It’s wonderful. With our hands busy, […]
It sounds like a sci-fi B movie, but the problem is real: Super-sized rats infesting Tehran are so huge that a special team of sharpshooters using night-vision-equipped rifles have been tasked with extermination. Rats have long plagued Iran, and the problem worsens when springtime arrives: melting mountain snows flood the critters’ nests, and millions are flushed […]
Matzah balls, the only Eastern European food that crossed over to Sephardic cuisine. While Ashkenazic Jews have enthusiastically adopted the spicy foods of Israeli’s Sephardic communities, there hasn’t been much culinary exchange from the other direction. Ordinarily, Sephardic Jews (Middle Eastern and North African origin) wrinkle their noses at the foods of Eastern European Jewry. […]
If new anti-smoking images slapped on Jordan’s smokes don’t help puffers kick the habit, maybe Jordan should look Down Under for greater motivation: Beginning this year, as part of Jordan’s obligations to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the Ministry of Health asked cigarette companies to feature graphic anti-smoking images on cigarette […]
Ahmed Abdel Azim and his team at Suez Canal University advance research in mycology (fungi) Its not the first time that Green Prophet covers stories on how Egyptian scientists are applying science to public policy. In 2011 Azza Abdel Hamid Faiad, winner of the European Union Contest for Young Scientists, found a new way of turning […]
I grew up eating horsemeat. It was considered a treat –– a Dutch delicacy. Maybe once every four or five months my dad would come home with half a pound of it wrapped in waxed paper from the Dutch store. It was sliced thin, like prosciutto. Salty and delicate it almost melted in my mouth. […]
Coffee can have a secret life beyond your kitchen filter or your Turkish coffee pot. From compost to creative solutions. Give new life to the mountains of used grinds we toss out every week. Your favorite bean just became even better! 1. Keep your garden cat-free The jury’s still out on this: supposedly grounds spread around […]
The European Commission (EC) approved a pork-based feedstock for farm-raised fish. Next year, your mullet and trout might contain chicken and pork: Horsemeat in burgers, meatballs and frozen lasagna is startling, but while these products include a “secret ingredient”, they remain as advertised: meat-based foods. But what happens when the fish on your dish also […]
A new report published by a non-for-profit organization that promotes crop biotechnology has cast doubt on the status of a 40 ton shipment of genetically modified Monsanto maize that entered Egypt last year, local paper Egypt Independent recently reported. Hot on the trail of GMOs in the food-scarce country, journalist Louise Sarant talked with activists and […]