
Zarb: The Bedouin answer to barbecue - MiriamWeiner
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180903-zarb-the-bedouin-answer-to-barbecue
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alimbada
I've been to Wadi Rum and eaten food cooked in a zarb. The food itself wasn't
anything special; it was standard fare. The process of cooking using the zarb,
however, was fascinating.

Also, RE: Wadi Rum - it's an eerily quiet and beautiful place to go to.
Definitely recommend it.

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agumonkey
some video taken at Wadi Rum (Jordan)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5fo6C2Xw-o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5fo6C2Xw-o)

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TotempaaltJ
For people looking for what Zarb actually is:

> From killing the goat to cooking the yoghurt, mansaf takes several hours to
> make. So if guests are in a hurry, the alternative is zarb: a dish of
> vegetables and meat, like lamb, slow-cooked in an underground pit that is
> the Bedouin answer to barbecue. Although zarb can be left for two or three
> hours, it can also be ready in a third of the time, and it doesn’t need to
> be watched – making it a faster, and more convenient, alternative.

~~~
stephengillie
This sounds like cooking a pig in a pit, from Hawaiian culture. But pig takes
8 hours - what makes the lamb cook quicker here?

[http://moveto-hawaii.com/cook-pig-hawaiian-luau-style/](http://moveto-
hawaii.com/cook-pig-hawaiian-luau-style/)

~~~
dalore
Other cultures have similar things, I'm familiar with the Papua New Guinean
mumu [https://www.tokpisin.info/mumu-papua-new-
guinea/](https://www.tokpisin.info/mumu-papua-new-guinea/)

Note in that guide it says it may take up to 12 hours depending on the size of
the pig. So to answer your question a lamb cooks a lot quicker because it's a
lot smaller (and probably broken up into parts). And I guess PNG pigs are
bigger then Hawaiian pigs too reading that yours take 8 hours.

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sandworm101
Cultural nostalgia. I grew up in the middle east. I watched wealth, and less-
wealthy, Saudis pitch their tents on the edge of the empty quarter and pretend
to be nomads for a weekend. But look at the tents. They are huge. Look at all
the stuff they bring. They are living not like nomads, but bedu kings. Every
culture does this. It's called car camping.

Look at what Bedouin life was actually like, life without the 4x4s hauling the
tents and coolers. Cram ten or twenty people, and more than a few animals,
into each of those tents. Then you understand need for ridged social norms.

Try eating meat when fuel, material to burn, is more precious than water. This
isn't crispy BBQ.

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sarabande
I'm interested in the article's mention of unquestioning hospitality in the
desert.

I wonder if it is a clever survival mechanism to just receive guests as they
come, since guests know you'll be friendly, so that nobody is hostile to one
another and wastes unnecessary resources (by fighting) in a harsh place.

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siraf72
Generosity and hospitality are considered among the highest virtues in Arab
culture. But you are spot on, their origin lies in the harshness of the
environment. You give a stranger in the desert food and shelter, knowing full
well that it might be you in need of those things in a months time.

The culture of hospitality was so developed that even sworn enemies can ask
for shelter (for a limited period of time).

~~~
marai2
As the parent mentions, the origins may have been improving your chances of
getting help in the harsh environment, these qualities then formed into the
highest virtues in the culture.

Hatim Tai ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatim_al-
Tai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatim_al-Tai) \- metioned in the Arabian
Nights) is a person famous for his generosity in Arab folklore. One of the
stories goes that Hatim was very fond of horses and had one particular horse
that was most beloved to him. A certain emperor having heard of his renowned
generosity decided to test Hatim Tai. The emperor sent an envoy from his court
to Hatim and told him to bring Hatim's beloved horse back, as a willingly
given gift or not.

When the envoy reached the land of Tai it was the season when the horses would
be sent out to pasture in the meadows. However as generosity and hospitality
demands Hatim could not receive a guest without offering him a generous
welcome. So a feast was prepared and the guest was received. During the course
of the meal the guest explained the reason for his visit and said that he was
here to take from him his most prized possession, his beloved horse. Upon
hearing this Hatim expressed remorse and said that he wished the guest had
informed him of his request earlier. Having barely any food at the camp and
all the other horses out to pasture, Hatim couldn't offer a measly meal to the
guest so he had already sacrificed his beloved horse and that was the meal
they were having.

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eli_gottlieb
Hmm... that sounds a little like Hatim found a clever way to spite the
emperor. I like it!

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jgrahamc
I've eaten food cooked in this way including bread baked by making a fire,
letting it die down, keeping the embers going nicely and then covering it with
sand, placing the bread in a cloth on top of the hot sand which is then
covered in sand and left.

It was basically an oven.

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quirkot
Counterpoint: American and Bedouin culinary traditions are not in lively
enough exchange for anything to be "the Bedouin answer to" something

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markkanof
I had a similar reaction. It seemed strange to present this as the "answer" to
barbecue, as if barbecue had been developed as a challenge to other cultures
to try to be as good. Why must everything today be so adversarial. Can't we
just appreciate an interesting cooking method from another culture.

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ConceptJunkie
I don't see it as adversarial when X is Y's answer to Z, but just showing that
different cultures solve problems in different ways. The best thing to do is
look at the alternatives and see if they work for you.

I love cooking and have borrowed lots of ideas from Asian and Latino cultures
in what I make. I'd hate think someone would accuse me, a white American in
the suburbs, of cultural appropriation or being adversarial... I'm just
borrowing ideas I like. There is nothing new under the sun... all creative
people just take existing things and modify them or combine them in new ways.

~~~
quirkot
What you are describing is some form of cultural exchange. You have received
some expression of another culture and "answered" it by modifying or combining
them with your existing cooking repertoire.

My point is that I don't think the article established that the profiled
Bedouin people are responding to an external stimulus.

