Iraqi cuisine

Dates are an abundant harvest in Iraq.

Iraqi cuisine is Iraq's traditional cuisine developed since antiquity in Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, Assyria). It is considered one of the oldest kitchens.

As Baghdad became the centre of the Abbasid Caliphate during the Islamic Golden Age, Muslims and other scholars from many parts of the world came to visit, live and study in Iraq, which gave the Iraqi cuisine new twists to its food. This is most commonly seen in the greater use of spices (e.g. Saffron) used in the Iraqi cuisine in comparison to other Arab cuisines.

Iraqi cuisine has absorbed influences from all the neighbouring countries and has much in common with Levantine, Persian, and Turkish cuisines. With the Ottoman rule of Iraq, influences of Turkish cuisine also became incorporated into Iraqi recipes (and vice versa).

Furthermore, as the rest of Iraqi history, the Iraqi cuisine has been deeply influenced by its fertile land between its two rivers Euphrates and Tigris. This influence is seen in Iraq's national (river fish) dish "Masgouf" as well as in Iraq's national cookie filled with dates: "Kleicha".

Iraqi cuisine

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See also

• Arab cuisine
• Assyrian cuisine
• Iranian cuisine
• Lebanese cuisine
• Levantine cuisine
• Mediterranean cuisine
• Middle Eastern cuisine
• Ottoman cuisine
• Palestinian cuisine
• Syrian cuisine
• Turkish cuisine

External links

• Delicious Iraqi recipes from MoTV cooking show
  
• Delights from the Garden of Eden - A Cookbook and History of Iraqi Cuisine
  
• Ancient Mesopotamian cuisine
• My Iraqi Recipes