More ful them
In the Middle East beanz don’t meanz Heinz
Moroccans are well known for being welcoming. Yet when I lifted my camera to snap a group of old market traders gathered around a wooden table – each tucking into a bowl of piping hot beyssara (a thick breakfast soup made with fava beans) – they all waved their hands energetically to stop me from photographing them. I would have understood the reaction if they had been women. But men? It turns out they just didn’t want to be photographed while eating.
In the end, I had to settle for a shot of the gorgeous earthenware jar in which the beyssara was simmering: fat and round, with a straight, wide neck, and placed in a tilted position over the charcoal brazier, loaves of barley bread stacked on top to keep them warm. Once I’d snapped the jar, I asked the vendor to serve me a bowl. Again, the men waved me away; this time because they didn’t want me at their table – women eating in the street are not looked upon well in
Morocco. I ignored them: no one, least of all grumpy old men, was going to keep me from my delicious soup, flavoured, in this instance, with onion, cumin and garlic, and served drizzled with olive oil and an extra sprinkling of cumin.
You wouldn’t encounter this problem in Egypt, where the variation of beyssara is ful medames, which is made with different, smaller beans that are cooked with the skins kept on. They are also simmered in a jar over a low heat, but the jar is much larger and is made of copper. Ful is more like a thick, textured dip, flavoured with chopped hard-boiled eggs, diced tomatoes and parsley. What’s even better – and here’s the big advantage over the Moroccan version – to serve, it is ladled into an open pita bread to be eaten as a sandwich. So even if the old men of Egypt turn out to be as ill-tempered as their Moroccan counterparts, there’s little they can do as I saunter by, munching on my takeaway meal. |
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