Order Now
Order Now

Tag: man’oushe

Categories
Lebanese Food Blog Pizza

A Look At Some Delicious Traditional Lebanese Pizza Toppings

There is something that is incredibly special about modern cuisine in its fusion of food cultures. The cross-pollination of ideas, traditions, techniques and ingredients opens up endless possibilities for new and exciting dishes. Traditional Lebanese pizza differs greatly from traditional Italian, due in part to the availability of certain ingredients that in turn influenced how we made our pizzas and what they were topped with. Over centuries of trading – be it ingredients or ideas – we are now left with a plethora of options for pizza toppings. Here are some of our favourite traditional Lebanese cuisine staples.

lebanese pizza

Traditional Lebanese toppings are what make Manoosh stand out from the rest. We do Lebanese pizza like no other and this is because we have woven what we know about the past into what we want to be the future of pizza.

Sujuk

Sujuk has many different names – soudjouk, sucuk, sudzhuk and even soutzouki. No matter what the spelling, they all mean the same thing: delicious sausage dating back to ancient times. The Turks are said to have been its inventors, however, the dish quickly spread through the Balkans, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Mediterranean, each region with its own variations, depending on local produce and ingredients.

Many people liken it to salami due its high fat content, and in many ways they are similar: dry and salty. Sujuk is traditionally made from ground beef, but other meats are known to be used (including pork, mutton, and even horse meat). The meat is then combined with a selection of spices like garlic, cumin, sumac and red pepper before being prepared inside a sausage casing. Traditionally the intestinal walls of sheep and goats were used, but nowadays we use both natural and artificial products. Like salami, the sujuk is then hung and dried for a period, usually longer than three weeks.

The dryness of the sujuk means that it is best eaten thinly sliced and cooked. The fats and oils burn quickly to give the sujuk a crispy texture with a soft centre. It’s often served with fresh tomatoes and some garlic sauce on pita bread. Delicious.

lebanese pizza

Za’atar

Za’atar is at the very crux of Lebanese food culture. It is made from a blend of herbs and spices, although what actually constitutes its makeup is still very much up for contention. One the herb front, za’atar is commonly accepted to be made from Origanum syriacum (Lebanese oregano) – but is also often made from herbs like wild thyme. Depending on the region the blend will differ due to different ingredients that are readily available, but a common combination would be dried thyme, oregano, marjoram, sumac, toasted sesame seeds and salt. What you get is a earth-coloured mixture that is fragrant and tasty. It is usually mixed with olive oil and spread on Lebanese bread. You will commonly find it on vegetarian Lebanese food as a substitute for tomato sauce as a base.

lebanese pizza

Minced Lamb

Minced lamb is a stable in any Lebanese diet. However, on its own can be relatively bland. In Lebanese cooking minced lamb (or beef) is usually embellished with a mixture of finely chopped vegetables and herbs such as capsicum, onions, tomatoes, mint, coriander and parsley. Spices are also added – usually a combination of sweet and spicy such as paprika and pepper, cinnamon and cumin. This mixture is commonly spread on flatbread and cooked in a woodfire oven. The resulting dish we call Lahembajin and it’s a Lebanese classic.

lebanese pizza

Labneh

An obscure pizza topping, but a delicious one if applied properly, labneh is an ancient Lebanese dish similar to a soft cheese made from the milk of  goats, sheep, cows, water buffalo and even camels. Lebneh is commonly used in traditional man’oushe style pizzas, and is absolutely delicious when coupled with za’atar.

lebanese pizza

Haloumi

Not specifically a Lebanese invention, haloumi is a staple of many Middle Eastern and Mediterranean diets. A delicious, salty cheese variation, haloumi is a magnificent addition to any dish – especially gourmet pizza. Haloumi is a hard, white cheese traditionally made from a mixture of sheep and goat milk, though nowadays cow’s milk is sometimes added too. It is often fried or grilled, giving it a crispy texture. Lebanese haloumi, however, is woven and stretched into bundles and stored in olive oil, giving it a stringy texture more akin to mozzarella. You can often find Lebanese haloumi at Arabic grocery stores.

lebanese pizza

Traditional Lebanese ingredients are a wonderful addition to any pizza. To get a taste Lebanon, drop by Manoosh or order from us online, because nobody does Lebanese pizza like we do.

Or if you’re after top quality mobile pizza catering, get in touch today!

Categories
Blog

Is pizza Chinese? | The shady origins of pizza

The origins of pizza are cloudy. There are claims that it dates back to the Ancient Greeks who used to put oil, herbs and cheese on flat bread in a crude version of the modern dish. Other purists say Italians invented the ‘classic’ pizza, and though the universal term for the dish stems from the their interpretation, the truth is, it is almost impossible to trace the exact origins of pizza, and even harder to resolve who actually ‘invented’ the pizza.

is pizza chinese
Image source Dave Rozek via Flickr

The Greeks, the Italians, the Lebanese – so many different nations claim to have invented the pizza. But there is one who is quite unexpected, a dark horse in the pack. Is pizza Chinese?

The Scallion Pancake

Traditional Chinese food is often associated with a combination of sweet and salty flavours, with rice, vegetables and soybeans at the heart of many dishes. These staples don’t indicate any correlation with the modern pizza with its cheese and tomato sauce base. However, when you think of the different origins from which pizza has stemmed – such as Lebanon with its man’oushe – then it might seem possible that the Chinese may have developed a form of pizza long before anybody else. Let’s break pizza to its most simple definition – a baked dough crust with toppings. And consider for a moment what a scallion pancake looks like. Despite its name, a scallion pancake is made with dough, not batter, and is garnished with oil and green onion. Baked goods of this kind can be dated back almost 5,000 years.

Scallion pancakes
Image source elaynam via Flickr

Marco Polo

This throws a new player into the game. Most believe that early forms of pizza either came from the Mediterranean or the Middle East, which then made their way to Italy – eventually evolving into the classic modern pizza. What if, in fact, it was the scallion pancake that made its way to Italy to be revamped and given to world? Would this make China the official inventor of pizza?

Marco Polo, the famed Italian explorer, spent a lot of time in China in the early-mid 13th Century, and is often (incorrectly) referred to as the first European in China. Although there were Europeans in China before him, Polo was the first to write widely about his experiences and influenced many famous explored after him.

Legend has it that it was in fact Polo that brought the pizza to Italy – or the scallion pancake at least. The story goes that he missed the pancake so much that he convinced a chef at a friend’s dinner party to try to recreate it for him. To no avail, Polo suggested that the fillings be put on top rather than inside the ‘pancake’ dough. The dish, the first ‘pizza’ per se, was a hit and the chef returned to Naples with a mission to improve it – the rest is history.

is pizza chinese
Image source Wikipedia

What’s the verdict?

Like all legends, sources are shaky at best for this version of the pizza story. But like all good myths, it could very well be true. That being said, in all of Polo’s revered recounts of his travels in the East there are none that talk of the scallion pancake, though it is most likely that he ate them.

So then, are we back to square one? Though it is plausible that Polo brought the idea of the pizza back to Italy, the reality is that it is most likely that the groundwork for the modern dish was done either in the Middle East (like man’oushe) or the Mediterranean (the etymology of the word does point to some sort of Latin connection with pita bread).

Luckily the modern Australian pizza takes all of this into account, and has elements from around the world ingrained into its unique personality. We don’t really mind where pizza actually came from, we just care that our pizza is great.

If you’re in Sydney and want to try a great modern Aussie pizza or our Lebanese take on the dish, drop by Manoosh or order online. Or if you’re after top quality mobile pizza catering, get in touch today!

Categories
Blog Lebanese Food Traditional Ingredients

A Brief History of Pizza in Australia

Pizza is the most popular takeaway food in the world, with minor variations of the dish scattered all across the globe. Delicious, comforting and versatile, it has a proud and colourful history, with different cultures boasting their own variations dating back thousands of years. Today in Australia we are blessed with a variety of different pizza options thanks to our multi-national food culture. Let’s have a look at how we got to where we are today.

a brief history of pizza in australia
CC image courtesy of Steven Lilley

Let’s take a look at a brief history of pizza and how it got to Australia: from the classic Pizzas to the modern, multicultural variations of the dish.

A Brief History of Pizza

Pizza is one of the world’s most beloved foods; there’s no doubting it. In its most simple form, pizza can be described as an oven-baked flatbread topped with sauce and cheese, but the modern pizza has become so much more than that. Its origins can be traced back to the Ancient Greeks, who would adorn their breads with ingredients like oil, herbs and cheese, in a crude version of the now illustrious dish.

The etymology of the word ‘pizza’ itself is, of course, Italian, with the first recorded use of the word dating back to a Latin text from Gaeta in southern Italy, around 997 AD. Going even further back, the word can be traced to the Ancient Greek work pikte, the Latin picta, or the Old High German word bizzo or pizzo, meaning mouthful. As is the case with many modern words, nobody is exactly sure where it originated from.

history of pizza sydney
Image courtesy of rob koziura

The modern flatbread pizza was born in Naples, Italy, around the end of the 19th century. Popular legend details that the classic pizza Marghertia was invented in 1889 when Raffaele Esposito, a famous pizza maker, was commissioned to create a dish for Queen Marghertia.

Of the three different types of pizza he made for her, the Queen preferred the one that best represented Italy – with red tomato sauce, white mozzarella and green basil – the colours of the Italian national flag. Thus the modern marghertia pizza was born.

Man’oushe

One of Lebanon’s most famous dishes, man’oushe, or manoosh, is a close relative of the classic Italian pizza. Following a similar method to its Mediterranean cousin, traditional Lebanese man’oushe is a dish made from flatbread, topped with zaatar and ingredients such as fresh herbs and vegetables, meats and cheeses, and cooked in an oven at very high temperatures.

Traditionally consumed for breakfast, man’oushe is a mainstay of traditional Lebanese food culture. Differing from Italian pizza, man’oushe uses a bread that is chewier, with a crusty exterior and zaatar as a base, and harnesses the possibility of endless topping combinations. You can see why we used it as our namesake.

history of lebanese pizza

Pizza culture in Australia is very much ingrained in our multicultural identity. In the mid to late 19th century, troves of European migrants came to Australian shores in search of gold and work. By the 1920’s pizza had begun to become a part of Australia’s food culture, but it wasn’t until the post-WWII mass migrations of Europeans in the 1950’s and 60’s that saw our obsession with pizza really explode. In 1961, Toto’s Pizza House, the country’s first dedicated pizza restaurant, opened its door in Carlton, Melbourne – a classic, modern Italian pizza place.

Since that time, endless cultural crossovers have seen the modern Australian pizza evolve into something marvellous, containing elements from around the world that have come together to create something that is both universal and unique.

If you’re in Sydney and want to try a great modern Aussie pizza or our Lebanese take on pizza, Drop by Manoosh or order online.