Qaliyya: The Connections, Exclusions, and Silences of an Indian Ocean Stew

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article traces an understudied stew known as qaliyya through the Indian Ocean littoral to show how foodways influenced each other over the centuries. It proposes an innovative focus on dishes, food names (“gastronyms”), and recipes as tools to reconstruct forgotten culinary connections. From the tenth century onwards, qaliyya recipes show up in Middle Eastern cookbooks. We encounter two basic preparations: meat or vegetables boiled and fried in its fat after the liquid has evaporated or fried and then simmered until tender. From early modern times, the dish circulated throughout the Indian Subcontinent, parts of Southeast Asia, coastal Africa, and along the reaches of the Volga and the Danube. In many regions, culinary politics have confined the once prestigious dish to a modest existence on the margins. Such exclusions and silences have broader implications to our understanding of food history and dishes that “didn’t make it.”