KITCHENS
-MAKHRATA, Egypt- The ROUNDED BLADE, DOUBLE HANDLE knife for cutting MULUKHIYA (an EGYPTIAN WEENING FOOD), LIKE THE ITALIAN MEZZALUNA HERB KNIFE AND THE INUIT ULU FOR SKINNING ANIMALS, IN EGYPT used to cut mulukhiya more finely TO INCREASE its MUCILAGINITY - THE SLIMIER THE SOUP, THE BETTER THE CHILD. NB the coincidence that the Egyptian colloquial word mukhaat, snot or mucus, is very close to makhrata, missing only a single consonant
-TAJINE POT, MOROCCO- on coals or in an oven, a covered clay pot for long slow stewing of lamb, couscous, nuts, dried fruit, etc
-TANDOOR OVEN, INDIA and PAKISTAN- its etymology from the Akkadian word tinûru- “tin” meaning mud, “nuro” meaning fire- a cylindrical clay jar shaped oven for baking bread slapped onto its sides, roasting skewered meats angled inside, and heating pans of stews, vegetables, etc set on its bottom
-Kukusan, Indonesia- a woven, split bamboo conical mold for shaping cooked rice, to make Nisa Tumpeng, a main dish of the Selametan (many variant spellings, from the Arabic root salama) - a communal meal of thanksgiving that according to Indonesian Islam expert Clifford Geertz is central to the Javanese religious system, “a simple, formal, undramatic, almost furtive little ritual”
-LOCKING HANDLE, DOUBLE SIDED MASGOUF GRILL, IRAQ- Like the exoskeleton of a monstruous Euphrates River Masgouf (a shabout variety of carp, weighing up to 50kg and reaching 2m- as Pinocchio would have seen trapped inside Monstro himself), this squeeze grill wrought by Iraqi ironsmiths makes possible the all day banquets at Baghdad’s fish restaurants, at least until the fatwa is read that forbade the human consumption of shabout flesh, because the shabout had been consuming the flesh of humans dumped into the river.
-STREAM-SIDE, PADDLE WHEEL-POWERED ROTISSERIE, Bosnia- fire from logs cut in the Dinaric Alps and rushing water from the Neretva River upstream from the Mostar Bridge combine to roast lamb quarters
