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Döner-kebab became the emblem of Turkish gastronomy. It is nowadays present in all the world. In fact, this culinary preparation is somewhat new in Turkey, and in its worldwide form of sandwich, it appears in Germany with the immigration of Turkish workers, and being offered by the Turks, the Greeks and the Lebanese cooks. However, it is not known by the other Turkic countries, except if imported by Turkish migrants. Turkish Gastronoms and Gourmets are often sad to see that this speciality became the symbol of Turkish cuisine in foreign countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little known in France, allspice is at the heart of the Lebanese cuisine, of the littoral and inland, among home and restaurant cooks. It is imperative for meat preparations, and, by affection and attachment, in vegetable and pulse dishes. Its aromatic scope is such that, with other spices, it is deemed most efficient to invalidate meats and offal from zankha, an abhorred miasma, and to bestow fragrance to them. For younger generations, the "7 spice mixture" shares similar prerogatives. After analysing the correlation between meat, zankha and spice, this study ponders on the pertinence of an aromatic mixture in the elaboration of culinary compositions in Lebanon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Iran, the giving of food for a religious purpose is a widespread act among Shiite believers, which can be observed daily in the city and in the villages, in both affluent and popular milieus. In order to understand the social, material and spiritual virtues of such food in the everyday life and worldview of Shiite devotees, this article proposes to analyse the process of preparation and sacredness of such food, and to study some important occasions of votive food giving in the lives of believers. The information in this article comes from previous research carried out in Iranian popular milieus, in some Shiite shrines and at the Behesht Zahra cemetery in Tehran, as well as from interviews conducted for this specific purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.) is a Mediterranean plant which is largely used in traditional medicine for its biological properties attributed essentially to their phenolic content. In order to evaluate the best extraction technique of artichoke's total polyphenols, flavonoids and condensed tannins, we used two methods of extraction, decoction and maceration, and four solvents (water, methanol, ethanol and acetone). The best extract yields are recorded by the decoction 17.34 % against 15.64 % at mean for the maceration; however water and methanol remain the best solvents of extraction. The maceration seems to be better to extract total polyphenols (19.88 mg gallic acid equivalent/g DW at mean) and flavonoids (8.25 mg quercetin equivalent/g DW at mean).The ethanol and acetone are the best extraction solvents of these bioactive compounds. On the other hand, the aqueous decoction is more powerful to extract condensed tannins (3.05 mg catechol equivalent/g DW at mean). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]