Meze

Meze (also spelled *mezze*; from Turkish *meze*, itself from Persian *maza*, meaning 'taste' or 'relish') denotes both a category of small dishes and a mode of eating in which those dishes are shared communally, accompanied by drink, and spread across time rather than consumed course by course. It is practiced across Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, the Levant, parts of Iran, and the North African littoral, with local inflection at every point. The practice is fundamentally social. Meze begins when guests are seated and continues through multiple rounds, functioning as the scaffold for conversation and hospitality. In Lebanese tradition, a proper meze can comprise 30–40 dishes arriving in overlapping waves; in a Turkish *meyhane* (tavern), a smaller selection — 8–12 cold dishes followed by hot plates — accompanies *rakı*. The Greek equivalent (*mezedes*) accompanies *ouzo* or wine with similarly varied scope. **Cold meze** (always served first) typically include: hummus, baba ghannouj, tzatziki or cacık, tabbouleh, fattoush, olives, pickles, labneh, white cheese, stuffed vine leaves (dolmades/warak enab), köy ezmesi (village salsa), muhammara (red pepper and walnut paste), and seasonal raw or roasted vegetables. **Hot meze** arrive in later rounds and include fried or grilled preparations: grilled halloumi, fried calamari, börek (filled pastries), kibbeh, falafel, sujuk (spiced sausage), arayes (meat-stuffed flatbread), fried liver with onions, and similar items that require immediate consumption. The structural logic of meze is **contrast and balance**: each dish on the table should offer something different in temperature (cold/warm), texture (creamy/crunchy), fat level (rich/sharp), and flavor profile (smoky/acidic/herbal), so that the table as a whole is varied even when any individual dish is simple. This is an implicit principle rather than a codified rule, but experienced hosts construct meze around it intuitively. Meze differs from tapas (Spanish) or antipasto (Italian) in its explicit hospitality function: refusing meze is considered inhospitable; not finishing a dish is a compliment (indicating the host provided more than enough); requesting a specific dish is common and expected. Meze also has no fixed endpoint — the table can be extended indefinitely by ordering more dishes, and in traditional meze culture the length of the meal is determined by the conversation, not by a set number of courses.

“The waiter arrived with the first wave of meze — labneh drizzled in oil, a bowl of olives, tabbouleh still cold from the kitchen, and a small plate of grilled halloumi — and the meal, and the evening, properly began.”

• ConceptBanchan
• CuisineLebanese Cuisine
• CuisineTurkish Cuisine

1. 1.Feast: Food of the Islamic World — Anissa Helou
2. 2.Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen — Yasmin Khan
3. 3.Turquoise: A Chef's Travels in Turkey — Greg Malouf & Lucy Malouf
4. 4.The Complete Lebanese Cookbook — Anissa Helou
5. 5.Claudia Roden's The Book of Jewish Food

Confidence: high