the.com/mezze

The appetizer course that staged a coup and became the whole meal.

means A spread of small savory dishes — dips, salads, pastries, grilled bits — served together, often as a meal in itself rather than a prelude to one.

from Comes through Turkish 'meze' from Persian 'maza,' meaning taste or relish. The word traveled with Ottoman cuisine across the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant, picking up regional dishes like a snowball picking up gravel, until nearly every country in the region claimed some version of the spread as its own.

origin
from Persian word meaning taste or snack
philosophy
turns eating into grazing, not a hierarchy
power move
hummus alone can anchor an entire table
unwritten rule
more small plates always beats one big one
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