Mediterranean Snack Food: An Art Form, a Meal

In the Mediterranean, snacking is a serious business. From the afternoon snack in the Italian trattoria to the elegant antipasti that precede the fanciest restaurant meals, from street fare of vendors working carts or bicycles or spreading their wares on a blanket on the street to the Spanish tapas bar where food and drink and fellowship can be found in equal parts, from the mid afternoon meze of Greece or Turkey to a quick bite of skewed, spiced meat in Morocco, snacking in the Mediterranean serves many purposes:

• It fortifies the body and soul during that long stretch between the midday meal and the evening supper. It may accompany wine or ouzo or other alcoholic beverages, or it may be the perfect foil for a hot cup of tea.
• Perhaps most importantly, snacking brings people together, furthering a sense of community. But snacking takes on a more insidious form in contemporary America. We eat our meals at our desks or in front of the TV or the newspaper, barely noticing the food as it passes from lips to stomach.
• Because we barely remember those meals, we find ourselves still seeking satisfaction, so we snack between meals, all the while sitting at our computers or in front of our televisions. And then one day, we find that the number on the scale is a lot higher than it used to be!
• It's no wonder. We eat distractedly, so we neither taste nor recognize how much we've consumed. Combined with a sedentary lifestyle, such a method of eating spells disaster, for health and for spirit, as we become further and further removed from a sense of appreciation for the food that nourishes us.
• The first step may indeed be to cut down on the amount of food we consume while upping the amount of attention we pay to the eating process. Less food of higher quality can help to nurture our palates and our appreciation for really good food.

 

• For this reason, the Mediterranean snack can be, for Americans, a quite adequate and delicious meal. A hardboiled egg sprinkled with cumin and a pinch of sea salt, a wedge of rosemary foccacia, and a fresh piece of fruit make a delicious breakfast.
• Who wouldn't be satisfied with a lunch of capered fish cakes with olive-anchovy relish and a salad of fresh greens dressed in olive oil and a splash of vinegar? Or how about a plate of almond couscous and a serving of white beans with basil and cumin for dinner?
• Grilled stuffed portabella mushrooms perhaps? A lovely plate of sautéed shrimp with chilies and broiled tomatoes on crispy rounds of French bread toast?
• Here some ideas for Mediterranean-inspired "snacks" in just a sampling of their many wonderful incarnations. These meals are light, satisfying, portion-controlled, and best of all, fantastically memorable.

TAPAS (APPETIZERS)

• In Spain, tapas are the snacks, usually served in bars, designed to accompany sherry. However, anyone can enjoy tapas, as a midday snack or as a light lunch-alcohol not required!
• Tapas can include any kind of Spanish-inspired hors d'oeuvres, so use your imagination. Add a dish of almonds lightly tossed with sea salt. Wrap slices of melon in paperthin strips of proscuitto. Enjoy a few slices of Spanish goat cheese. Or serve a heaping plate of fresh, bite-sized vegetables with a shallow bowl of olive oil sprinkled with pepper and a pinch of salt, for dipping.
• And of course, don't forget the plate of olives. Try green, black, speckled . . . experiment to see what you like, but please avoid the "California-style" black ones, which are green olives treated with lye to turn them black. These can't begin to approach the naturally brine-cured olives from Greece, Spain, Morocco, or elsewhere in the Mediterranean.
• The superiority of taste in these olives far outweighs the slightly higher cost. (Serving suggestion: Invite friends! It would be a shame to deprive others of such a delightful eating experience!)

 

ANTIPASTI

• In Italy, the fanciest of meals begin with antipasti, or a collection of Italian hors d'oeuvres made just for the purpose of announcing a grand feast and warming up the palate in preparation for the wonders to come. But antipasto can be a meal or midday snack in itself.
• You don't need a recipe to concoct a pile of crudités and a bowl of fresh green olive oil topped with pepper for dipping, which can satisfy the urge to crunch in a way no potato chip ever could.
• A few marinated mushrooms, artichokes, and olives on a bed of greens make a luscious lunch, and you can buy these, imported from Italy, in any gourmet food store, and in many grocery stores, too. In the mood to cook? Try a few of these Italian-inspired recipes.