Breakfast in Iraq
In recent years, breakfast has become a luxury for the Iraqi people. Economic sanctions imposed by the UN in 1991 devastated the country’s daily food supply. The much-maligned oil-for-food program established in 1995 seemed to create more controversy than relief. The program ended in 2003, the same year Iraq was invaded by a US-led coalition. In 2006, traditional Iraqi breakfasts are still a rarely mentioned casualty of the war.
Under Saddam Hussein, breakfast was already in jeopardy. During the last five years of his kidney, 400,000 Iraqi children under the age of five were reported to have died of malnutrition and disease. Beyond killing breakfast eaters, the regime was literally killing breakfast. Well-founded stories tell us that Saddam Hussein ordered millions of date palms cleared in an effort to eradicate snipers during the Iran-Iraq war. As you will see, dates are a very important part of the Iraqi breakfast experience.
In this report, we focus on the Iraqi breakfast as it was before the foreign military intervention, how it is still when the ingredients are available, and how we hope it will resurface in the very near future.
Until 1918, Iraq was known as Mesopotamia, which translates to “land between rivers.” The Tigris and Euphrates rivers divide the country and the Iraqi population is closely concentrated around an agricultural belt along these rivers. While Iraq receives relatively little rain, the soil around the rivers is suitable for growing many important breakfast crops, including wheat, figs, dates, citrus, melons, beans, onions, and various herbs. The arid regions of Iraq are better suited to growing sparsely, an important grain, especially during times of drought.
About 10% of Iraq is suitable for cattle grazing. Sheep and goats outnumber cattle, making sheep and goat milk (and cheeses) more common breakfast options than their cow counterpart. Buffalo milk and cheeses are also popular even though the number of buffaloes in Iraq is dwarfed by the cattle mentioned above.
About 95% of the Iraqi population is Muslim. Of them, 54 percent are Shiites and 41 percent are Sunni. The main difference between the Shiite and Sunni sects is a conflicting belief regarding the rightful heirs of Muslim authority, a conflict that dates back to the early history of the Muslim religion. Despite the known hostility between the groups, they share similar Muslim beliefs, observe the same religious holidays, and eat the same breakfasts.
Until recently, a good number of Jews considered Iraq their home. In fact, almost a quarter of Baghdad’s population was Jewish during the 19th century. In 1948, the Iraqi Jewish community was estimated at 150,000. But that number has now dropped to hundreds. While the average Muslim in Iraq may not be a fan of Jews, they are prone to leisurely indulging in Jewish-inspired cuisine and this is occasionally reflected at the breakfast table.
Iraqi cuisine is heavily influenced by neighboring countries, Turkey and Iran. One meal writes the widespread Iraqi meals as “a mixture of standard Arab cuisine with Persian influences and Turkish influence in the north.”
Breakfast in Iraq is typically a light meal. Egg dishes are quite common. Breakfast cereals are not.
As in many countries, Iraq’s breakfast staple is bread. A flatbread known as a khubz and an oval-shaped loaf called a samoon are found individually or in tandem at most meals. For breakfast, the bread is enjoyed with butter, jam, honey, cheese, Libna (yogurt with olive oil), date molasses, sesame paste, and just about everything else available that can be put on bread or dipped in bread. Bread also acts as a key component in most breakfast recipes that are considered exclusively Iraqi.
Gaymer (sometimes found as “Geimer”)
Gaymer is the word for a very creamy and thick white cream made from buffalo milk. A familiar counterpart would be the better known clotted cream. The most common use of this cream in Iraq is in a recipe called Gaymer Wa Dibis. In this dish, the pieces of bread are dipped in both gaymer and dibis (the Arabic word for date syrup). Like many Iraqi breakfast favorites, Gaymer Wa Dibis is often enjoyed on ordinary platters, with the fingers acting as the only utensils. Some Iraqis prefer honey to date syrup. Others may add candied apricot to their Gaymer Wa Dibis. There are even variations with yogurt, olives, and cheeses that replace the traditional ingredients.
Kahi
A breakfast dish of Babylonian Jewish descent called Kahi is another favorite in Iraq. A relative of baklava, kahi consists of very thin, folded layers of phyllo-style dough that is baked and then bathed in honey or a flavored sugar syrup called sheera (not to be confused with the Indian breakfast porridge of the same Name). Kahi is sometimes eaten with the gaymer cream mentioned above.
In Iraq, it is customary for the mother of a new bride to bring breakfast (usually Kahi) to her new son-in-law’s house the morning after the wedding.
Bigilla
In northern and central Iraq, beans play an important role in breakfast. A traditional bean dish of Maltese descent called bigilla is popular as a breakfast dish and as a snack.
The main ingredient in bigilla is a special type of beans called “ful ta girba”. The beans are soaked overnight and mixed with olive oil and other ingredients to form a paste or sauce. Bigilla is almost always served with bread. A common variation of breakfast is to serve the bigilla on broken breadcrumbs with a fried egg on top.
Ramadan breakfast
Muslim Iraqis celebrate Ramadan throughout the ninth month of the Muslim year. During Ramadan, you cannot consume food or water from sunrise to sunset. Muslims believe that fasting strengthens their faith and helps them identify with the poor and hungry.
Breakfast during Ramadan is called suhoor and should be eaten before sunrise. Suhoor generally consists of grains, seeds, dates, bananas, and other foods that are considered slow to digest as your next meal can take up to 16 hours to arrive.
Other Iraqi favorites for breakfast
Some other items you can find for breakfast in Iraq include date-filled cakes, omelettes and other egg dishes, candied oranges, egg rice, chicken, assorted soups, bananas, and melons.
Bacon, sausages, and ham are rarely seen in Iraq, as God forbids Muslims to eat pork.
The most popular breakfast drinks in Iraq are coffee and tea. Most Iraqis make their coffee thick and bitter and drink it black. The tea is usually sweetened and served in small glasses. Fruit juices are also popular.
The following Iraqi breakfast recipes are available on Mr Breakfast.com:
– Makhlama bil Sbenagh (Iraqi spinach omelette)
– Sheera (date syrup)
– Gaymer Wa Dibis (buffalo cream and date syrup)
– Kahi (breakfast pastry)
– Bigilla (Bean paste for breakfast)
If you ever want to prepare these Iraqi dishes for a friend, you can tell that friend about a great Iraqi custom: it is not appropriate to return the neighbor’s plate empty. From sharing breakfast from common trays to making sure no good breakfast deeds go unrewarded, Iraqi breakfast tradition should show us that most Iraqis are decent people.
Mr Breakfast Editorial
The Iraqi people may not like us too much at times. They can see American men as gluttons and American women as whores. But you know what? When I’m in a bad mood, sometimes I see the world that way too. Many Westerners generalize the Iraqi people as an enemy. That’s what you do when they drag you off to war. But we have to remember that in the end, we are all just people … we all go to sleep at night and we all get up in the morning. And despite everything, when we wake up, the first thing our body craves is not democracy, religious solidarity or blood … it is breakfast … a meal … an important way in which we can find that it is better to learn about cultures and possibly even respecting them, before we blindly consider them strange or immoral and denounce them. May breakfast bring our nations and our families closer together. Amen (The same closing for both Christian and Muslim prayer, although in Iraq it is often spelled “Aameen” and pronounced with a gargling sound after the first syllable).