Food news
HeritageThe National Museum of the Philippines Iloilo capped off its 2026 ‘Magbasá Kita: A Reading Program for Young Learners’ with an immersive storytelling session at the museum’s Book Nook on September 23, 2026. The activity introduced the localHeritage21st Sunchang Jangryu Festival to Welcome the World With K-Food and Cultural ExperiencesHeritage21st Sunchang Jangryu Festival to Welcome the World With K-Food and Cultural ExperiencesStreet foodMan dead, 3 in custody after shooting outside Piada Italian Street Food in Mayfield HeightsStreet foodBrick-and-Mortar Restaurants Need to Stop Blaming Street VendorsFarm and marketYour guide to Harvest Fair 2026 at Wisconsin State Fair ParkFarm and marketOct. 3 Harvest of Harmony Parade available to view in livestream broadcast during paradeFarm and marketSouthington Apple Harvest Festival kicks off tonightWorldBon Appétit editor-in-chief explores food’s role in culture, media at MSUFarm and marketDetroit Harvest Fest adds movies, more food trucks in year 6HeritageThe National Museum of the Philippines Iloilo capped off its 2026 ‘Magbasá Kita: A Reading Program for Young Learners’ with an immersive storytelling session at the museum’s Book Nook on September 23, 2026. The activity introduced the localHeritage21st Sunchang Jangryu Festival to Welcome the World With K-Food and Cultural ExperiencesHeritage21st Sunchang Jangryu Festival to Welcome the World With K-Food and Cultural ExperiencesStreet foodMan dead, 3 in custody after shooting outside Piada Italian Street Food in Mayfield HeightsStreet foodBrick-and-Mortar Restaurants Need to Stop Blaming Street VendorsFarm and marketYour guide to Harvest Fair 2026 at Wisconsin State Fair ParkFarm and marketOct. 3 Harvest of Harmony Parade available to view in livestream broadcast during paradeFarm and marketSouthington Apple Harvest Festival kicks off tonightWorldBon Appétit editor-in-chief explores food’s role in culture, media at MSUFarm and marketDetroit Harvest Fest adds movies, more food trucks in year 6
Thali

Shared tables and spreads

Meze

A table of many small shared dishes, cold then hot, eaten slowly with bread and drink across Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and the Levant.

Meze is a way of filling a table. Small plates of dips, salads, pickles, cheese, seafood and grilled things arrive a few at a time and stay in the middle for everyone. It can be a starter before a main dish, or it can be the whole evening. The word comes from Persian and means taste or snack.

In Syria and Lebanon meze is often a meal in its own right, typically olives, tahini, salad, yogurt, vegetables. Al-Husn, Homs, Syria.
Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What it is

The plates are small and the range is wide. Cold dishes come first: yoghurt with herbs, puréed aubergine, hummus, stuffed vine leaves, beans in olive oil, white cheese, olives. Hot dishes follow: fried cheese, grilled octopus, small meatballs, pastries, liver. Bread is the tool for most of it. In Turkey and Greece meze is tied to drinking, with rakı, ouzo or wine. In Lebanon and Syria a full mezze can run to dozens of plates and is a meal in its own right.

Where it comes from

The custom is shared across the lands of the former Ottoman Empire and beyond, which is why similar dishes appear under related names from the Balkans to the Levant. Each country has made its own house style. The Turkish tavern, the meyhane, serves meze with rakı and fish. The Greek mezedopoleio and ouzeri do the same with ouzo and tsipouro. In Cyprus, ordering meze brings a long fixed sequence of dishes for the whole table, with no further choice needed.

How it works

In a Turkish meyhane a waiter may bring a large tray of cold meze to the table and you point at the ones you want. Elsewhere you order from a list. Start with a few and add more as the evening goes on. The pace is slow on purpose. Dishes are not cleared quickly, and nobody is expected to finish any single plate. A main course of grilled fish or meat is optional and often skipped.

How to do it

  1. Order three or four cold plates for the table to begin.
  2. Add hot plates one or two at a time.
  3. Tear bread and scoop. Use a fork for salads and seafood.
  4. Sip slowly. Rakı and ouzo are mixed with water and taken with food.
  5. Ask for fruit or something sweet to close.

Good manners

  • Everything is shared. Take a little from each plate onto your own.
  • Do not rush. A meze table is meant to last the evening.
  • Wait for a toast before the first sip when drinking with hosts.

What is eaten

HummusMashed chickpeas blended with tahini, lemon, and garlic, served as a dip or spreadTzatzikiStrained yogurt mixed with cucumber, garlic and herbs, served cold as a dip or sauceBaba ghanoushRoasted eggplant mashed with tahini, olive oil, and lemon juice, served as a dipTaramasalataFish roe blended with oil, lemon and bread or potato, served as a meze spreadMuhammaraSyrian red pepper and walnut dip with pomegranate molassesSaganakiGreek fried cheese starter served hot from a small pan

Also part of it, and being written: Dolma, Tabbouleh, Falafel.

Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text by the Thali desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs vary from place to place. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

The weekly plate

Every Monday: seven dishes you may not know, what the world is cooking this week, and one way of eating.