Food culture in conflict, Golden Forks and lemony recipes

Using food and media to understand better the Israel/ Gaza conflict

Hello Lemonistas,

Welcome to your latest edition of The Lemon Grove newsletter. In this issue, we offer some food and cultural suggestions to help understand the ongoing Israel/ Gaza conflict. I suggest a film, several regional cookbooks, and two very different television programmes by Anthony Bourdain and the original Top Gear team and a restaurant in Berlin that show a humanity that news bulletins can sometimes struggle with.

Lemons growing under and blue sky in the Levant

This week also saw the culmination of the Great Taste Awards, with the supreme champion being named alongside the best in country and a couple of special mentions.

And finally, there are a couple of recipes for you to try at home - Creamy Lemon and Basil Pappadelle, and Pear & Walnut Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing.

Using food culture as a primer to the Israel - Gaza conflict

Tragic images and stories of the ongoing Israeli/ Palestinian conflict flood our screens, newspapers and magazines minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, painful day-by-day. My news consumption over the past 50 years has rarely seen a day or week in which this part has been out of our consciousness. Other countries have been swept up in the ongoing conflict, including Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

There are dozens of conflicts raging around the world, some get media coverage others are forgotten, too remote or simply too dangerous for journalists to visit. Accurate numbers are hard to come by. The UNESCO Observatory of Killed Journalists states that 47 journalists have been killed around the world this year to date, while Wikipedia names 142 journalists and media workers (as of September 7, 2024) killed in Gaza, Israel and south Lebanon.

Here are four films, TV series, and a restaurant that have helped me (albeit limited and from a western European perspective) understand what the hell is going on.

Lemon Tree (2008)

Directed by Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis, Lemon Tree is a tense, modern-day story that mirrors the Old Testament story of the King of Israel coveting his neighbour’s vineyard. At the heart of Lemon Tree is a human story that exposes the many divisions between Israelis and Palestinians. Click here to watch the film on YouTube. It can also be found on AppleTV.