名厨Bobby Chinn带领观众畅游中东名城,探索各地的美味佳餚,更亲自提供烹饪秘方,把中东的多元饮食融入自家菜单!到访地点包括伊斯坦堡、大马士革、阿勒颇、约旦、开罗及亚历山大。各个城市都充满活力、繁华缤纷,兼具丰富迷人的传统文化,融汇于美食当中,别具特色与风情。
Istanbul
For more than 400 years, Istanbul was the glittering capital city of the Ottoman Empire that spread over most of the Middle East including the Balkans, parts of North Africa, Southern Russia and the Caucasus. Bobby cruises through the capital, tasting specialties such as kebabs and pilafs, filo pies, yoghurt and cucumber salads, milk puddings and nutty-syrupy pastries, which originated from the Ottoman Empire.
Damascus and Aleppo
The oldest city in the world, Damascus's cooking is a living witness and memorial to its multi-faceted history. Touted the 'Pearl of the Arab Kitchen,' the culinary art of Syria's second largest city, Aleppo, did not develop by accident but took shape after centuries due to early civilisation. Today, one only has to enter the old city, replete with the aroma of exotic spices, to see a medieval world filled with action and colour.
Jordan and the West Bank
Bobby gets his first taste of Jordanian food and visits the occupied territories of the West Bank. Jordan is home to many Palestinian influences and they are a major influence on the cuisine. In the occupied territories of the West Bank, despite many years of strife, there is a thriving Palestinian food tradition. Bobby visits the cities of Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jericho and Jerusalem, and takes day trips to the West Bank date farms and olive groves.
Cairo and Alexandria
The two World Wars had brought an edge to Egypt, with cuisine influenced by the French, Italians, Turks and Greeks. Bobby finds out that while the food of Egypt has much in common with that of her Arabic countries, there are a few distinctive national dishes as well. One such dish is ful medames, made from cooked, brown-skinned fava beans crushed with garlic; another great specialty is melokhia, a soup made with Corete, a green vegetable native to Egypt; and ta'amia also known as "falafel" in other countries.
Tehran and Isfahan
Bobby checks out the cuisine of Iran which is directly descended from the great Persian dynasties and considered to be the richest of all Middle Eastern cuisines. The Iranians have long seeked to balance the 'hot' and 'cold' aspects of their cuisine. Butter and oil are used abundantly, often drizzled over rice and for cooking, but sour ingredients such as dried limes, lemon juice and pomegranate and sour grape syrups are also found in a number of dishes as well.