Your Next Ethnic Food Craze

Via Abu Muqawama (Be less derivative! - Ed I'm trying!), a great piece by Anthony Shadid on a Baghdadi shawarma stand. 

To anyone who's ever had the pleasure of eating in Iraqi restaurants (of which there are many in countries neighboring Iraq), this story makes the stomach rumble with longing for the warm spices and bold flavors of good Iraqi cuisine. Not just the shawarma, but rich za'atar-drenched kabobs and tishreb - stacks of bread drenched in soup with meat so soft it falls off the bone. 

And there's not a single Iraqi restaurant anywhere in America, so far as I can tell.

If there was, it would outshine the on-the-go muchability of Lebanese and the rich spiciness of Indian food, and have a narrative that would (sad-to-say) make it more than trendy. 

Though I love Adams Morgan, its shawarma options are palest in comparison. Shawarma King's chicken shawarma lacks any of the fat or dark meat that makes Jordanian shawarma so addictive.  Old City Cafe's beef shawarma is quite good but the pita it comes in isn't so great. Shawarma Spot is supposed to be decent, but I haven't gotten there yet. And though Busboys and Poets is owned by an Iraqi-American, there are only a few Iraqi and Moroccan dishes on its menu. 

One can only hope that Iraqi food eventually makes it to the United States, though given our current visa policy, the prospects are not only slim, but demonstrate the failings of our policy. It could possibly arrive via the (as yet saddeningly far too small) resettlement programs for Iraqis who aided MNF-Iraq, but since we let relatively few refugees in, and almost no Iraqis via the normal immigration process, this seems less than likely. (And anyone who claimed this as a silver lining of the Iraq War should seriously take a long look in the mirror) 

Yet maybe one day the peace foreshadowed by one neighborhood shawarma cart will be in all of Iraq, and maybe one day we can all break bread together. Until then, I'll just have to dream.