Giving thanks to Native Americans from cuisine of Qatar!

Native Americans are people who lived in tribes on the land what we call today as the “United States of America” (The New World) long before Christopher Columbus “discovered” the New World.

According to the article Native American foods: History, culture, and influence on modern diets, about 60 percent of the food we consume around the world are ingredients that originate from the Native Americans.

According to Lois Ellen Frank, chef and author of the book Foods of the Southwest: Indian Nations she said in an AJ+ interview, that the foundation for Native American cuisine is made up of eight ingredients which she refers to as the “Magic Eight”.

The Magic Eight are corn, beans, squash, chili, tomato, potato, vanilla and cacao. These are the ingredients that date back long before Europeans “discovered” the New World. These ingredients did not exist beyond the Americas. Italians today are known for their pizza and pasta which have tomatoes in them, but had tomatoes not been exported to Italy, they would not have had this ingredient in their cuisine.

Tracing back the exportation and the routes of chili and vegetables, it went from the Americas, to India, later to the Middle Eastern countries, including Qatar.

If chili peppers had not been introduced to India, they would not have had it in their cuisine either, meaning Middle Eastern countries, including Qatar, would not have had chili peppers in their cuisines either.

Image source: Doha News

There are many delicious dishes within the Qatari cuisine, but the culture heavily depends on rice and a type of meat which makes up a dish called matchbous. Matchbous is the national cuisine and is essentially rice seasoned with spices, can be added with chili if one prefers and it’s accompanied by a type of meat such as beef, chicken or fish and it can also be made with rice and only vegetables.

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According to Qatar Tribune, “Saloona is a Qatari vegetable and meat broth made from courgettes [zucchini], cauliflower, carrots and potatoes.” Had potatoes and squash not been exported beyond the Americas, Qatar would not have had this dish or at least without potatoes and zucchini.

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As the New World exported ingredients to the Old World, the Old World did the same. They sent many ingredients over to the New World, among other things. This is called The Columbian Exchange. The Old World are countries situated in Europe, Africa and Asia. According to The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food and Ideas, authors Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian said, “In many instances, the New World foods had an important effect on the evolution of local cuisines. Chili peppers gave rise to spicy curries in India, to paprika in Hungary, and to spicy kimchee in Korea. Tomatoes significantly altered the cuisine of Italy and other Mediterranean countries.”

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With the advantage of Christopher Columbus and other Europeans discovering the New World, the Old World which is basically the rest of the world excluding the Americas, would not have been exposed to many ingredients that grew on the New World soil and because of that exportation, it shaped the different cuisines we know and love today such as Chicken Tikka Masala or Spaghetti with tomato sauce. However, with that discovery, Native Americans were displaced and scattered all over the continent until the link to Native American culture and cuisine weakened.

With displacement of Native Americans, they had to adapt to whatever ingredients that were given to them by the U.S government such as flour and lard. Those government-issued ingredients were imposed on Native Americans which resulted in the invention of fry bread. That’s why Native Americans are known for their fry bread, but it was actually only part of their cuisine in order to survive hardships they faced. However, there is hope in making this cuisine spread as there are Native American chefs who cook traditional dishes.

Native Americans knew their land and understood it. They understood the kind of vegetables that would grow on the soil and at what time of the year. Some Native American tribes had fish in their location, while others would never have seen fish around their areas, thus, wouldn’t know how to cook anything with fish. Their knowledge of food really depended on where they were located.

There are more than 660,000 restaurants in the entirety of North America, but because of displacement then, there are barely any restaurants that serve Native American cuisine now. Luckily, though, there are restaurants that serve Native American food and from both pre-and post-eras of the arrival of the Europeans. These restaurants offer the pure Native American cuisine and the dishes that were created after the Europeans introduced ingredients from the Old World. Click here to check out some of those restaurants.

The benefits of the Columbian Exchange lead to discovering that the crops of the Old World and of the New World complimented each other and many ingredients intersected and scattered all over the world. Looking at where Qatari cuisine really originates from, we see it dates back to the 15th century when Qatar wasn’t even born yet, but in order to cook a dish, one must have the ingredients first. We now know that because Native American ingredients were exported from the Americas to the rest of the world, those of that the Qatari cuisine reached this region and locals were able to come up with delicious dishes such as Tharid, Maroog and other wonderful dishes which have spices, chili peppers and vegetables in them.

We would never have enjoyed or even knew what matchbous was if it hadn’t been for this exchange. Qatar National Day is coming up in less than a month now, use the chance to make your tummies happy with delicious and flavorful Qatari dishes. These dishes exist thanks to the foundation generations of Qatar and thanks to Native Americans for the crops their land offered that changed the world cuisine.

What’s your favourite Qatari dish? Let us know in the comments below.

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