Lexical Life

Merguez, orecchiette, tikka masala, veggie. What do those words have in common? They were all added to the Oxford English Dictionary in the same year, 1975.

Ryan Haley, an editor at Ugly Duckling Presse and librarian in the Art Division of New York Public Library (and born in 1975), recently published a limited edition artist’s book. In Autobiography, Volume One (1975-1993), he documents the first eighteen years of his life by chronologically listing the words added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in that time period.

On its website, the OED is described as "an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both past and present," and is the considered to be "the definitive record of the English language." Every year the OED adds new words to the dictionary, thereby cementing that word or phrase to the annals of history. When compiled together, as in this project, the list of words reads like a time capsule capturing the social history of a given year. And while most (if not all) of the added words had been in use before their entry date, their addition to the OED represents when they became more commonly used in the English language.

I was fascinated with the food words in this project, and how certain themes clearly emerge, specifically coffee drinks, ethnic foods, and name brands. For example: Espresso-macchiato and latte macchiato (1976), Shake 'n Bake (1976), kir royale (1977), pad thai (1978), pasta fagioli (1980), amuse-bouche (1982), microbrew (1985).

In the Name of the Fava

While it may seem rather small to acknowledge the historically momentous events in Cairo last week with a plate of food, I can think of few better ways to to mark the occasion and celebration of the Egyptians than with a dish of ful, or dried fava beans.

In her book A Book of Middle Eastern Food, Cairo-born chef and cookbook author Claudia Roden calls ful medames "'the' national dish of Egypt" and is a meal that is "pre-Ottoman and pre-Islamic, claimed by the Copts [Egyptian Christians], and probably as old as the Pharaohs." Roden's recipe calls for dried ful, soaked and then cooked with crushed garlic, served with lemon, olive oil, and hard-boiled eggs.

In her later edition, the New Book of Middle Eastern Food, she acknowledges canned ful as something accepted by expatriates who improve on its shortcomings with spices and flavorings. While neither Egyptian, nor an expat, I've used the canned ful to great success in this recipe recited to me by a friend and following much of the same  guidelines as Roden's.  And while perhaps not traditional, I enjoy my ful medames with plain yogurt or labne.

Ful Medames (Egyptian Brown Beans)
1/4 cup olive oil or more.
1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
1 can of ful, drained (I add some of the liquid from the can to the dish. You may want to add all the liquid, but then watch the salt).
Some cumin, coriander, cayenne
Salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil over medium heat until warm and then add the onion until softened, about 5-6 minutes. Add the garlic until fragrant, 30 seconds or so, and then the ful with spices and salt and pepper. Cook until warmed through. Add more liquid or olive oil if the dish looks to be dry.

Serve with lemon wedges, hard-boiled egg, and parsley and a drizzle of olive oil on top.