Rachel Laudan

For those coming late to this discussion, we’ve been kicking around possible origins for the Mallorcan and Menorcan ensaimada here, as well as the puzzles of its spread (why did it get to Argentina, Puerto Rica, and the Philippines but skip Mexico) here. Adam Balic isn’t happy with a Moorish origin for ensaimadas I think [...]

Here’s another comment, this time on ensaimadas, a topic that we have touched on here and here.  Thanks to Michael Raffael. I probably missed earlier postings, but it seems likely that ensaimadas evolved on Mallorca during its Moorish occupation. The argument against this is that the Moors didn’t use lard (saim in Catalan), but the [...]

Some time ago, a commentator (Tim) raised the following question about my thesis that Mexican mole is basically an Islamic dish transported to Mexico (just hit mole in the tags section). Here’s what he said. Your argument is well and good until you look at the bigger picture. You don’t need a liberal attitude toward [...]