Tanishian Food Culture
Food in the Eni Belul region has always been controlled by the agricultural limitations of growing food in a desert. The oldest recipes involve dates and millet; things that grew well in the fertile areas along the river but otherwise got very little rainfall. After the kingdom expanded to include Zeh, it became easier and more common for food to cross the lower desert and reach the communities along the river.
Table Manners
Generally, the whole family eats together at a table low to the floor, and family members sit on pillows surrounding it (or the bare floor if it's a poor house). Food is served in communal dishes rather than individual plates. Nobody eats or takes food until the head of household (almost always the father/husband) begins. Meals are seen as a time to relax and appreciate your company. People usually talk and linger over the meals, so a large lunch in Tanish could take over two or three hours. Except for particularly large feasts where there isn't room on the table, all courses are served at once. This allows the cook (typically the women) to sit and take part in the meal without getting up to serve mid-way through. The majority of foods are eaten with the hands. Licking your fingers at the table tells the host you enjoyed it. Food is usually served communally, so there isn't a problem of leaving food on your plate because it's a group effort. However, if you have an individual portion like a soup, or a smaller plate that you place your food on, you should not leave any behind. If you take food from the group, put it on your plate to make it yours, and then don't eat it, that is very rude.Structure of Meals
Breakfast
People in Tanish typically wake up before dawn and get started on the day's work. They might sometimes eat something very small, like a handful of dates. They take advantage of the early morning temperatures to do outdoor work. While men are outside, the women are busy with indoor work, especially preparing breakfast. Once the sun has fully risen, about an hour or two after most people are up, they come inside for a proper breakfast. Some popular breakfasts include:- Falafel, freshly cooked pitas, and fava bean dip
- Labneh made from goat milk, either spread over a plate and seasoned with spices and honey or rolled into balls and soaked in olive oil. Balls are sometimes rolled in nuts or spices like oregano or thyme, especially in wealthier homes. Eaten with dates and pitas.
- Manakish, topped with thyme, sesame seeds, or goat cheese (ground meat in wealthier households).
- Tea is the most popular drink, especially hibiscus tea. Wealthy households import coffee from Maloa and prefer to drink that.
Lunch
After breakfast, everyone goes back to work. Work continues until a few hours after noon, approaching the hottest time of the day. That is when they have lunch, which is usually the biggest meal of the day. If a friend is invited over to share a meal, it will be lunch. Lunch generally lasts 2 or 3 hours; even after the food is gone, people remain at the table for a while. This is the hottest part of the day, so they stay inside to socialize and avoid the heat. Meals are generally served as a collection of small dishes and you can pick and choose from. Popular dishes are:- Couscous
- Hummus with pitas or Khubz
- Dried fruit
- Olives and olive oil drizzled on flatbread
- Roast goat with grilled onion
- Taga stew
- Mixed vegetables
- Falafel
- Goat cheese or yoghurt
- Along with tea, lunch frequently features beer made from fermented millet
Dinner
After the long lunch break, people go back to work and until well after dark. Like the morning, they prefer to relax indoors during the heat of the day and then keep working in the late evenings once it starts to cool down. The meal at the end of the day is similar to breakfast, with the addition of some sweet treat such as:- Pitas drizzled with honey
- Butter cookies topped with almonds
- Pastries fried in palm oil and filled with cheese
- Fried pancakes filled with dried fruit and nuts
- Tea
