logo
#

Latest news with #BritishSoldiers

The Afghan fiasco shows how badly the last Tory government let you down
The Afghan fiasco shows how badly the last Tory government let you down

Telegraph

time17-07-2025

  • Politics
  • Telegraph

The Afghan fiasco shows how badly the last Tory government let you down

The lifting of the superinjunction this week has exposed gross failings committed by those trusted to keep us safe. The truth about how and why this happened must come out. It must never happen again. There are some basic facts which the public needs to know and should have known from the start. Firstly, if a court issues an injunction relating to government business, Ministers are prohibited from speaking publicly about it for fear of being held in contempt of court. Anyone who is claiming that those who have left Government, could or should have 'blown the whistle' before the injunction was lifted does not understand our legal or political system. Like the media, many of us have been unable to speak on this for a long time. Secondly, and for context, the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) was launched in April 2024 for those Afghan nationals affected by the leak. This was after I had left the Government and I was not involved in its set up or functioning. The ARR should not be confused with the Afghanistan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) which was set up in 2021 to rescue soldiers and translators who had served alongside our brave British soldiers that fought and died in Afghanistan. Thirdly, the mistaken data leak came from inside the Ministry of Defence. There is much more that needs to be said about the conduct of and competence within the Ministry of Defence and the House of Commons is the right place to do so. I hope we have the opportunity soon. Lastly, any plans to bring in 24,000 Afghan nationals are wholly wrong for our country. Many of these people will not be genuine in their claims to have helped British troops, many of them will pose a public safety and national security risk to the British people and we simply do not have the resources to accommodate them. What's worse is that all who have now arrived here will be able to bring their families under Article 2 of the ECHR. As Home Secretary, I tried my best to fix the crisis but ultimately failed. 40,000 migrants had crossed the Channel by the end of 2023, over 100,000 asylum seekers were being processed through our slow-moving system and tens of thousands were being housed in hotels all over the country – all this costing the taxpayer £6 million per day. It was out of control and still is. Whilst I managed to reduce the number of hotels used by asylum seekers, much more was required. What we needed to do – as I argued at the time – was to leave the ECHR so we had greater powers to detain and deport. If we had taken those steps in 2023 when we were in power, the Rwanda scheme would have been up and running and the small boats problem would have eased, if not been fixed entirely. We would have had much less pressure on the system and the costs would have fallen. We would have been able to refuse admission to 24,000 Afghans affected by the leak as they would not have been able to rely on Article 2 (right to life) rights or we could have worked with other nations like Pakistan or Rwanda to take them. In all this disgraceful betrayal of the people by their own government, I feel only shame. I, and a handful of others, fought this: but we failed to stop it. This is why on election night last year I apologised for what we had got wrong. This is why I warned about the direction we were heading in back in 2023. The last Conservative government let you down. The cover-up was wrong, the super injunction was wrong, and the failure to stop unwanted mass immigration has been unforgivable. So I am sorry: the Conservative government failed you and its leaders let you down. It wasn't good enough then. It's not good enough now. This episode exposes everything wrong with the Westminster establishment. The State apparatus thinks it can hide its failures behind legal technicalities while ordinary people pay the price. I understand your anger, and I share it. The people who have run this country so badly need to take a long, hard look at themselves. Those responsible must be held accountable, and the system that enabled this cover-up has to be dismantled.

EXCLUSIVE Horror of the Korean War revealed by 'forgotten' British veterans 75 years on: Bridges made from corpses, troops fighting without guns and Chinese soldiers blowing themselves up
EXCLUSIVE Horror of the Korean War revealed by 'forgotten' British veterans 75 years on: Bridges made from corpses, troops fighting without guns and Chinese soldiers blowing themselves up

Daily Mail​

time25-06-2025

  • Politics
  • Daily Mail​

EXCLUSIVE Horror of the Korean War revealed by 'forgotten' British veterans 75 years on: Bridges made from corpses, troops fighting without guns and Chinese soldiers blowing themselves up

Ken Keld is sitting in the lounge of his immaculate one-bed bungalow outside Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Aged 91, he is a gentle and softly spoken Yorkshireman who still walks a mile a day. Given his warmth, it is hard to place him into the events he is describing. 'The shelling seemed to stop dead, you could have heard a pin drop. Within seconds they're there on top of us, we're outnumbered five to one,' he says. 'They were fanatics, they'd jump in the trenches and blow themselves up. It was hand-to-hand combat, it was practically every man for himself'. The great grandfather-of-two is a veteran of the Korean War, a conflict which, over the course of three years, claimed the lives of 1,100 British soldiers - more than in the Falklands, Afghanistan and Iraq wars combined. As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the start of the war, MailOnline has tracked down Ken and two other British veterans of the war. All in their 90s, their stories shed light on a horrific conflict seldom taught in schools and one which, despite the enormous sacrifice of ordinary British conscripts, is nicknamed the 'Forgotten War'. Many young men who had been sent to fight were only there because of compulsory National Service; some were still teenagers. Ken Keld, 91, is a veteran of the Korean War. He spoke to MailOnline from his home in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. He remembers how Chinese soldiers would jump in trenches and 'blow themselves up' By the end of the war, up to three million civilians had been killed. But historians generally view the conflict as one of the major success stories for the West in the post-War era; defending democracy and ensuring the safety of the South Korean people. Sir Michael Caine's memories of fighting in the Korean War Sir Michael Caine was called up to fight in the Korean War after enlisting for compulsory National Service. He recalled his experiences in an interview with the Daily Mail in 1987. Commenting on the tactics employed by the enemy, he told of 'attack after attack, you would find their bodies in groups of four'. 'We heard them talking and we knew they had sussed us…Our officer shouted run and by chance we ran towards the Chinese. Which is what saved us; in the dark we lost each other,' he added. The actor, now 92, went on: 'I remember the boredom and the bull. 'I also remember the sheer naked terror of finding that I, a kid from the Elephant and Castle, actually had to go out into a paddy field, at night, while Chinese soldiers were trying to kill me.' At the end of the Second World War, Korea – previously occupied by the Japanese – was divided along the 38th parallel, an internal border between North and South based on a circle of latitude. Determined to bring the entire Korean peninsula under communist rule, Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea and grandfather of tyrant Kim Jon Un, invaded the South on the 25th June 1950. With the support of the Soviet Union and later, China, whose maniac dictator Chairman Mao saw the conflict as a threat to his own security, soldiers poured over the border as a United Nations coalition of 21 countries rallied behind the South's Republic of Korea Army (ROKA). The invaders quickly took the capital Seoul before a back-and-forth that would see both sides gain and lose territory in chaotic seesaw fashion. By August, British naval personnel and troops were on the ground supporting the US army. 'I'd never been abroad... there was a Cockney on my ship who had never seen the sea before', says fellow 91-year-old Mike Mogridge from his home in Henley, Oxfordshire, as he recalls his eight-week journey by ship to Korea. Peckham-born and bred, Mike had been called up for National Service by the Tower of London-based Royal Fusiliers in early 1952. Among his fellow recruits were East End gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray, who Mike knew from the boxing world. After storming out one day, the twins would go on to be dishonourably discharged from National Service. A certain Michael Caine found himself in the same regiment as Mike, too. In early 1953, following six weeks' training in Hong Kong and a stint at Pusan (modern day Busan) in South Korea, Mike - now aged 19 - found himself on The Hook, a strategic area near Panmunjom so named for its shape. There, British, American, Canadian, Turkish, Thai and Republic of Korea Army (Roka) forces had been facing down the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA). Conditions were horrific. While winters plunged to -40°C, summers could hit 40C. As the bodies of dead Chinese and allied soldiers lay on the battlefield, the rats moved in. 'When you go to sleep, it was overrun with rats', Mike, who still goes to the gym three times a week, recalls. 'At first you'd brush them off, eventually you didn't bother, they were very big rats because they were feeding off the dead bodies.' Korea was a war fought largely at night, with fairly uneventful patrols into no-man's-land where the enemy would occasionally open up on their positions. Days were spent dodging mortar and sniper fire, which the allies returned with devastating effect. Artillery was the game of Brian Parritt. A 2nd Lieutenant of the 20th Field Regiment in the Royal Artillery, he had joined the Army in 1949 and passed out of Sandhurst in February 1952. Having arrived in Korea that December, Brian was tasked with shelling enemy positions across The Hook. Located on a back line, his artillery pummeled the Chinese with VT shells that would explode above ground and devastate units of Chinese soldiers. Brian, now 94, was Mentioned in Despatches for his exploits on The Hook, a map of which hangs in his house. It is stained with his own blood following a mine incident that killed three men and blew him into the air. But Brian is keen to downplay his role in Korea. He instead highlights his superiors, three of whom had served in the Second World War and, as luck would have it, were sent to Korea just five years after the end of the war. 'They'd tell the men, "you think this is tough, son? You should've seen Normandy"', Brian recalls. He adds: 'There was great respect for them, there is no bull******** when you know your Sergeant Major had fought his way from El-Alamein, up through Italy and on to Monte Cassino.' Conditions were tough, Brian admits. 'It was bloody cold. By the time you made a cup of tea and raised it to your lips, it would get stuck to them,' he said. When a Chinese defector called Hua Hong, who had once fought against Chairman Mao's Chinese forces as a sergeant in Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalist army, was captured by allied soldiers, he revealed how a major offensive to take The Hook was being planned by the PVA. 'He knew everything, all the details of the attack, apart from the date', Brian says from an office filled with ephemera from a 37-year career in the Army. The Chinese, who had already been practicing the attack, had tried twice in the autumn of 1952 to seize The Hook but failed after being held back first by the US Marines, then by the legendary Scots of The Black Watch. It was during those battles where the allies witnessed the true horror of Chinese 'human waves', sent forward in their thousands to be mowed down before more elite units would follow through. Some of those in the first waves were unarmed and, when killed, were used as corpse bridges over barbed wire by the units which followed behind. 'When the Chinese attack, they come in three waves, one to destroy, one to take and one to hold, with tremendous numerical strength, and our artillery start to shell them... They lost hundreds before they even got to us', Mike grimly remembers. Following Hong's revelation of a third planned offensive, the allies were prepared for what was to come. It is estimated that around 9,000 PVA shells hammered allied positions on The Hook between May 19th and 28th. The allies returned as many in a volley of artillery which devastated the land. Ken Keld and his comrades from the Duke of Wellington's Regiment had been sent up to the frontline to relieve the Black Watch earlier that month. In position, he was the forward most platoon at The Hook. 'We were the ones going in first', he says. At around 8pm on May 28, 1953, following days of shelling by the PVA and the allies, the battlefield fell silent. In the distance, the sound of Chinese bugles rang out. That only meant one thing. As Ken, then 19, looked up from his position, he could see wave upon wave of Chinese soldiers coming towards him. Moments later, 'all hell broke loose'. 'There were just waves of them coming... The tanks would put on their spotlights and you could see Chinese running down hillside, so they started on them with the machine gun', he says. 'The Chinese didn't all have weapons, they picked weapons up from someone who had been killed.' At the back of the battle, Brian was pounding the Chinese positions with artillery fire. 'It was a most intense battle', says Brian, 'the barrels of the guns were red hot. 'Someone put a damp towel over a gun and it caught fire, it was an exhilarating experience'. As the Chinese edged closer, the fighting became more and more vicious. Ken, while holding them off, was running out of ammunition. Within moments, the Chinese had stormed his trench. 'We were in the trenches and they were just dropping in, they're blowing themselves up and whoever's with them... our number two Bren gunner Mick Connor was just mowing 'em down until he was killed himself.' 'It was practically every man for himself, it was more or less back-to-back, covering up for your other man, it was chaos.' Ken was pushed back into the tunnels which had been dug by the Black Watch before the Chinese ordered their surrender, promising good treatment. Recounting what the Britons replied to the surrender demand, Ken laughs and says: 'The second word was "off".' 'We were in there when they blew the ends in, all you could hear was thumping of things, Chinese voices, all you are thinking about is how long we're going to be here, are we going to be eating rice three times a day as prisoners!' With Ken and his comrades buried alive in the tunnel with just a Sten gun and one grenade, the Duke's outside launched a heroic counter offensive on the Chinese trenches. By 3.30am, they had taken control of The Hook. It was a resounding victory but one which had come at a devastating cost. By the end of the Battle of The Hook, just 17 out of 45 men in Ken's Duke of Wellington's platoon had survived. Among the dead was his friend from back home in Yorkshire, Dennis Smith, aged just 19, whom he points out in his 'In Memoriam' book. Around 2,000 PVA soldiers had been killed or wounded in just seven hours of human wave attacks and suicide missions. The Hook was a 'mess', Ken says, adding: 'We were offered a meal but there were so many bodies we didn't want it. 'The worst of all was the stench, buried, decayed, limbs and bodies. There had been so much fighting, it was like being sent to death row.' Ken was sent to a rear position following the battle of The Hook and Mike's Royal Fusiliers - who had been at the battle but in a rear position - took over. A month later on July 27, the truce, now known as The Korean War Armistice, was signed at Panmunjom, where the modern-day Demilitarized Zone now stands separating North and South Korea. When news of the truce got out, Brian heard the Fusiliers in their trenches singing Vera Lynn's 'There Will Always Be an England'. The rest of the battlefield soon joined in. As well as the 1,100 British dead, there were 3,000 wounded, and more than 1,000 missing or taken prisoner. For all of the horrors of Korea, the three men hold no hatred towards their former enemy. For Ken - who in 2023 received an MBE for his work with Korean War veterans - he respects the bravery of the Chinese on the battlefield, noting that on balance they were 'good soldiers'. For Brian, humanity shone through when, towards the end of the war, he met two Chinese soldiers in no-man's-land. They shook hands and took photos. He says: 'Having seen the consequences of war, I believe in jaw jaw before war war".' For a former Brigadier who spent nearly four decades in the Army, and whose service in Cyprus and Northern Ireland with the Intelligence Corps earned him an MBE and CBE respectively, it is a seismic comment. Korea, for Brian, was a resounding success and a victory which is still appreciated by South Koreans to this day. But it was the reception that met British soldiers on their return to Britain in 1956 that all three men struggled with. Mike, whose TV presenter daughter Fiona McLean starred in Grange Hill and whose son later joined the Army, explained: 'When I got back my father took me for a pint at our local, I remember one of his mates asking me "where have you been?" 'I told him I'd been in Korea, and he said, "oh, did you have a nice time?" And that was that.' Ken feels much the same about the 'forgotten' nature of Korea and the sacrifice made by ordinary Brits, many of whom were teenagers on National Service. He says: 'We had to pay for our own memorial, £40,000. You can't understand it. We've had to fight for everything to get recognition. I was getting shot at for a quid a week.' It is accepted among the three men that Korea became a forgotten war in part due it's sheer distance from Britain - 5,600 miles - but also thanks to a fatigue present amongst Britons so soon after the fight against Hitler. 'The appetite for more war was just not there', Mike admits. Brian, who is the only British soldier to be awarded the Order of Civil Merit (Moran) medal by South Korea, concludes: 'You'll go round the world looking at gravestones, a lot of them young National Service boys and there's a feeling, what the hell were we doing there? 'In historical terms it is not recognised what the army did in the post-War period. 'I do feel that in this period that the British Army tried to move from Colonialism to independence. I don't feel that is recognised.

The Feud over Falafel
The Feud over Falafel

Arab News

time11-06-2025

  • General
  • Arab News

The Feud over Falafel

A crispy clash of cultures and identity The humble falafel, a simple mixture of ground beans, herbs and spices shaped into a ball or patty and deep-fried, is inextricably linked with the Middle East but now finds itself on menus in virtually every country in the world. But this very ubiquity of a food, equally at home on a street vendor's cart in Cairo or a plate in an upmarket Parisian restaurant, has obscured its origins. On World Falafel Day, Arab News takes a closer look at this seemingly simple snack that has a surprisingly complex backstory rooted in some of the darker moments of history, empire-building and colonialism. Although it might seem like it has been around forever, falafel — claimed as a national dish by almost all peoples in the Middle East — may in fact date back only as far as the late-19th century, and quite possibly owes its creation to hungry British soldiers. A postcard titled 'Egyptian Types and Scenes' showing a foul and falafel 'Ta'meya' street vendors in Egypt in 1923. Publ. Levy L.L. A postcard titled 'Egyptian Types and Scenes' showing a foul and falafel 'Ta'meya' street vendors in Egypt in 1923. Publ. Levy L.L. According to French journalist Paul Balta and Syrian historian Farouk Mardam-Bey, the first known appearance of falafel was in Egypt after the British occupied the country in 1882. ⁠In their works, they both suggest that British officers, having developed a taste for fried vegetable croquettes in India, might have asked Egyptian cooks to come up with a local version. In the 2012 edition of 'The Mediterranean Diet for Sustainable Regional Development,' for example, Balta wrote that falafels are 'hardly mentioned in literature before the 20th century and only appear after the occupation of Egypt by the English in 1882.' He continues: 'The Egyptians were inspired, to enhance them, by other types of fried croquettes (fish, meat, vegetable) originating from India and introduced by the British troops who, coming from India, liked them.' Historian Shaul Stampfer, professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , supports this theory. In 'Bagel and Falafel: Two Iconic Jewish Foods and One Modern Jewish Identity,' a paper published in 2016, he wrote that many fried foods in India that were similar in shape and consistency to falafel predated it. Moreover, he added, Jews in Kerala and Calcutta, along with their neighbors, commonly ate a food known as 'parippu vada' or 'filowri' — fried balls made from ground split green peas — that are 'strikingly similar to falafel.' Top: A woman selling Aish (bread) and Taameya (falafel) in the market of Kerdasa, Giza in 1950 circa. Digitized Collections of the Greek Literary and Historical Archive (ELIA). Above: A Palestinian man makes falafel at a market during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in Jerusalem. NurPhoto via Getty Images Top: A woman selling Aish (bread) and Taameya (falafel) in the market of Kerdasa, Giza in 1950 circa. Digitized Collections of the Greek Literary and Historical Archive (ELIA). Above: A Palestinian man makes falafel at a market during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in Jerusalem. NurPhoto via Getty Images Nawal Nasrallah, a food writer, historian and translator of medieval cookbooks, told Arab News: 'While we do not have concrete evidence, in the form of recipes or mention of it in ancient written records, of where falafel specifically originated, a credible claim for Egypt can still be made.' Certainly, for a dish made from such simple ingredients, falafel's complex history remains a contentious topic in the region. Nasrallah suggests that Coptic Christians in Egypt played a 'credible role' in the development of falafel. 'With legumes like chickpeas and fava beans they already knew at the time, they must have developed countless meatless dishes for their Lent fasting days, and it is not far-fetched to believe that the now ubiquitous falafel has been developed by them,' she said. Many believe that falafel did indeed originate in the 19th century in the Egyptian port of Alexandria, at the time a base for British and other European troops, before spreading to other parts of the country under the now-common local name 'ta'miyya,' which translates literally as 'small piece of food.' Although it is not known exactly when the name ta'miyya was coined, it is a transliteration based on the Arabic root word طعم, Nasrallah said. 'The name falafel, on the other hand, apparently has a more ancient origin that may be traced all the way back to the to the ancient Akkadian language of the Assyrians and Babylonians of ancient Iraq,' she added. Nasrallah cites an Akkadian dictionary that includes the word 'pillu,' meaning 'fruit/seed,' which she says is related 'no doubt, to the pulse seeds' referenced by 'the later-adapted Arabic form of the word, 'ful' (meaning fava beans).' She continues: 'It is quite likely that the Akkadian name 'pillu' was adopted and adapted in subsequent languages, like Aramaic, Coptic and Arabic, into 'ful,' and the plural 'falafel,' to designate a dish with many pulses.' A group of donkeys stands near a falafel vendor in East Jerusalem, Palestine, in 1935. Photo by Zoltan Kluger via the National Photo Collection of Israel A group of donkeys stands near a falafel vendor in East Jerusalem, Palestine, in 1935. Photo by Zoltan Kluger via the National Photo Collection of Israel Writing in 2019 in the magazine History Today, British historian Alexander Lee traced the spread of falafel, first throughout Egypt and then, shortly after the First World War, to Lebanon, Yemen, Turkiye and Libya. 'All those who adopted it made it their own,' Lee wrote. 'Though they generally left the basic recipe unchanged, they altered the ingredients slightly to suit their own tastes or to reflect the balance of local agriculture. 'In the Egyptian town of Mersa Matruh, for example, fava beans were replaced with hyacinth beans and a bit of beef. In the Levant, chickpeas were used instead.' Soon enough, falafel reached early Jewish communities in Palestine. 'Together with the indigenous population, the earliest settlers (halutzim) adopted it readily,' Lee wrote. 'Having long grown used to cultural exchange with their Muslim neighbors, they gave no thought to whether it was an 'Arab' food or not. They simply integrated it into their own cuisine, as they had countless other foods.' That all changed with the wave of Jewish migration to Palestine from Eastern Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, Lee added: 'Suspicious of anything they regarded as 'Arabic', they stuck doggedly to their own cuisine, shunning falafel as an 'alien' dish. Israel's declaration of independence in 1948, and the wave of Jewish immigration from Europe that followed, changed Jewish attitudes toward falafel once again. Short of cash and food, and facing a flood of new citizens, the embryonic Israeli government introduced rationing and this, wrote Lee, 'boosted falafel's popularity. Not only was it a good source of protein, but its ingredients were also readily available even to the poorest families.' Another factor that restored the reputation of falafel in Israel was the arrival of tens of thousands of Jewish Arabs from countries such as Yemen and Turkiye, who brought with them their love of the food. 'Not only did it help to convince their still-skeptical co-religionists that falafel genuinely was a suitable food for Jews, but it also allowed falafel to shed its associations with the Arab peoples,' Lee wrote. 'This was something the Israeli government was glad to encourage. In the wake of the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-49, there was a concerted effort to foster a distinctive sense of Israeli national identity and … the Israeli government avidly promoted the idea that falafel had been imported not from Egypt but from Yemen. 'It was a patent falsehood, but it served its purpose. ' Israelis eating at a Tel Aviv falafel stall, 1958. Jewish immigrants from Arab countries played a key role in popularizing this food, which the Israeli government then leveraged to foster a national identity and combat food scarcity. Photo by Fritz Cohen via the National Photo Collection of Israel Israelis eating at a Tel Aviv falafel stall, 1958. Jewish immigrants from Arab countries played a key role in popularizing this food, which the Israeli government then leveraged to foster a national identity and combat food scarcity. Photo by Fritz Cohen via the National Photo Collection of Israel Regarding such politicization of the food, Nasrallah said: 'I do not believe that a dish like falafel can be claimed to have its home in an individual country. Rather, the entire region may credibly be claimed to be its home.' The unassuming falafel has not only sparked rivalries between nations that claim its origins, it has even divided families. In 1933, Mustafa Sahyoun began selling falafel from a street cart on Beshara Khoury Street in downtown Beirut, and eventually established a storefront that still operates today. ⁠His legacy was passed to two of his sons, Zoheir and Fouad. The Lebanese Civil War strained the brothers' relationship as they found themselves living on opposite sides of the divided city. Yet, their bond endured and they braved Beirut's dangerous no-man's land — the so-called Green Line that at the time separated the capital's Christian east from the Muslim west, where the store was located — to support each other when they could. By 2006, however, the brothers had fallen out completely. Zoheir continued to run the original Sahyoun falafel shop, while Fouad opened a competing vendor next door, boldly displaying red signs declaring his store to be 'Falafel M. Sahyoun.' A tale of two shops: The Sahyoun brothers, Fouad and Zoheir, operated their rival falafel stalls right next to each other on Beshara Khoury Street in downtown Beirut. However, economic challenges led to the closure of Fouad's shop in 2021. Supplied A tale of two shops: The Sahyoun brothers, Fouad and Zoheir, operated their rival falafel stalls right next to each other on Beshara Khoury Street in downtown Beirut. However, economic challenges led to the closure of Fouad's shop in 2021. Supplied The latter shut up shop in 2021, citing the effects of the long-running economic crisis in the country, but Sahyoun falafel remains an iconic business in Lebanon, attracting both locals and tourists. Even world-renowned celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain visited both shops in 2010 for his hit TV show 'No Reservations.' By the 1960s, geopolitics had once again sent falafel on its travels. Arab immigrants heading west to escape conflict and turmoil introduced falafel to Europe and North America as a common street food that could easily be made and sold from a cart. In Germany, after initially gaining significant traction among the country's large Turkish community, falafel quickly found its way onto the wider German food scene as well. By the 1970s, Turkish food stalls and restaurants were thriving, serving up falafel to an ever-expanding clientele and inspiring new variations on the recipe. Across the Atlantic, falafel had also arrived in the US, where it established a foothold among migrant communities during the 1960s and 1970s, soon winning over a wider audience and spreading farther afield. 'Fusion' versions of the food began to pop up on menus, including falafel au gratin, falafel sliders and falafel cake, and renowned chefs better known for their eccentric and expensive culinary creations began to develop a taste for the once-humble street food. In 2014, for example, American celebrity chef Bobby Flay prepared a 'smashed falafel' dish on his TV show 'Beat Bobby Flay.' It featured a deconstructed falafel sandwich paired with pomegranate tahini and a pan-roasted jalapeno pesto yogurt. A few years earlier, in 2011, Israeli American chef Michael Solomonov appeared on reality show 'Iron Chef America' and showcased a variation on falafel that incorporated passion fruit and amba (a tangy mango pickle), served alongside tuna carpaccio stuffed with tabbouleh. Now, thousands of restaurants all around the world proudly serve up falafel in every imaginable style, including bold — to some, perhaps, sacrilegious — creations such as falafel pizza, sushi or even tacos. Created, it seems, in Egypt in the 19th century, the descendant of a relative from India, its conception a by-product of the ambitions of a once-mighty empire, falafel has traveled far and wide and found itself at the heart of some of the great geopolitical upheavals of the modern age. In a sense representative of history on a plate, there is no longer anything humble about the all-conquering falafel. COMMON INGREDIENTS Base The base is made of fava beans, chickpeas or a mix of both. Herbs Typically include parsley, cilantro, and sometimes dill. Spices Include cumin, coriander seeds, black pepper, and occasionally cayenne pepper or chili. Binders While some recipes use flour or breadcrumbs to hold the mixture together, traditional falafel often binds solely with chickpea starch. TOOLS AND COOKING METHODS Kitchen tools Food processor, mixing bowl, strainer, frying pan or deep fryer, tongs, and paper towels for draining. Writing: Zaira Lakhpatwala, Jonathan Gornall Editor: Tarek Ali Ahmad Research: Gabriele Malvisi, Sherouk Maher Creative director: Omar Nashashibi Design & Graphics: Douglas Okasaki Picture researcher: Sheila Mayo Copy editor: Liam Cairney Editor-in-Chief: Faisal J. Abbas

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store