Typical?

Let me tell you a story about this half moon shaped, flaky bread. It starts in 1683, when the Ottomans were knocking on the doors of Vienna. Working late one night, a baker heard odd rumbling noises and alerted the city’s military leaders. They found that the besiegers were trying to get inside by tunneling under the city’s walls. The tunnel was destroyed and the baker became a hero. As a reward, he was granted the sole right to bake a special pastry commemorating this event. The pastry was shaped like a crescent, the symbol of Islam. Marie Antoinette, the Austrian princess that married a French king, was said to have introduced the pastry to France one hundred years later, where it became the croissant.

History or myth, the story indicates that cultures do take elements from elsewhere and internalize them as their own heritage – just as the famous ‘Dutch’ tulips originate from my country, Turkey, as does Sinterklaas. On the other hand, where yogurt is proven to have it’s roots in Turkey, the Dutch consider the product that comes from Greece or Bulgaria to be the ‘real one’. An even funnier example of a cultural cross-over is döner kebab, which is sold all over the place in Germany and Holland. In Turkish we would write ‘kebap’ – an Arabic word, since it is considered to be an Arabic dish. But then the European Turks turned it into a fast food product, and as such it’s imported back into Turkey. So watch out for an easy ’typical such or so’ – there might be a surprise underneath. And who knows, in a hundred years from now, couscous just might be your ’typical’ national food.

Hamburger? Typical American. Bratwurst? Typical German. Sushi? Typical Japanese. Croissant? Typical French. Wrong. Or at least, not for sure. Let me tell you a story about this half moon shaped, flaky bread. It starts in 1683, when the Ottomans were knocking on the doors of Vienna. Working late one night, a baker heard odd rumbling noises and alerted the city’s military leaders. They found that the besiegers were trying to get inside by tunneling under the city’s walls. The tunnel was destroyed and the baker became a hero. As a reward, he was granted the sole right to bake a special pastry commemorating this event. The pastry was shaped like a crescent, the symbol of Islam. Marie Antoinette, the Austrian princess that married a French king, was said to have introduced the pastry to France one hundred years later, where it became the croissant.

History or myth, the story indicates that cultures do take elements from elsewhere and internalize them as their own heritage – just as the famous ‘Dutch’ tulips originate from my country, Turkey, as does Sinterklaas. On the other hand, where yogurt is proven to have it’s roots in Turkey, the Dutch consider the product that comes from Greece or Bulgaria to be the ‘real one’. An even funnier example of a cultural cross-over is döner kebab, which is sold all over the place in Germany and Holland. In Turkish we would write ‘kebap’ – an Arabic word, since it is considered to be an Arabic dish. But then the European Turks turned it into a fast food product, and as such it’s imported back into Turkey. So watch out for an easy ’typical such or so’ – there might be a surprise underneath. And who knows, in a hundred years from now, couscous just might be your ’typical’ national food.