Fatta
Encyclopedia
Fatteh is a Damascene
Levantine cuisine
Levantine cuisine is the traditional cuisine of the Levant, known in Arabic as the Bilad ash-Sham. This region shared many culinary traditions under the Ottoman Empire which continue to be influential today...

 dish that uses pieces of stale, toasted or fresh flatbread
Flatbread
A flatbread is a simple bread made with flour, water, and salt and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened: made without yeast or sourdough culture: although some flatbread is made with yeast, such as pita bread....

 as a foundation upon which various ingredients are added on top for the bread to be mixed and crushed with. As flatbreads quickly tend to get stiff when exposed to air, it is indeed a way of using stale bread. Two words "شاميات" ("Shâmiyât" / "The Damascenes") and "فتّات" ("Fettât", the plural of "Fetté") refer to the entire class of Levantine
Levantine cuisine
Levantine cuisine is the traditional cuisine of the Levant, known in Arabic as the Bilad ash-Sham. This region shared many culinary traditions under the Ottoman Empire which continue to be influential today...

 dishes that use crumbled flatbreads in their preparation.

Geographical distribution

The fetté is known to be a very peculiar and ancient dish of the Egyptian
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 and Southern Levant
Greater Syria
Greater Syria , also known simply as Syria, is a term that denotes a region in the Near East bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea or the Levant....

 area, an area that comprises Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

, Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

 and the Palestinian Territories
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...

 while being mostly unknown and unheard in the Northern Levant.

Regional variations

Fetté dishes include a wide variety of regional and local variations, some of which also have their own distinct names.
  • Greater Syria: The Levantine "Fetté", eaten in breakfasts as well as in the evenings, always starts with a stack of khubz bread
    Khubz
    Khubz, khoubz or khobz , an Arabic word for bread, but usually used by non-Arabic speakers to refer to a flatbread that forms a staple of the local diet in Arabic-speaking countries from the Arabian Peninsula to Morocco....

    , topped by strained yogurt, steamed chickpeas and olive oil
    Olive oil
    Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...

     that are crushed and mixed together. In the next step, a teaspoon of cumin
    Cumin
    Cumin is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native from the east Mediterranean to India. Its seeds are used in the cuisines of many different cultures, in both whole and ground form.-Etymology:...

     is almost always poured into the mixture. After that, virtually anything can be added to the bowl. Some fettés are made of eggplants and julienned carrot
    Carrot
    The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh...

    s topped with grilled chicken
    Chicken
    The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...

     and pine kernels while some contain lamb shanks
    Shank (meat)
    A meat shank or shin is the portion of meat around the tibia of the animal, the leg bone beneath the knee.Lamb shanks are often braised whole; veal shanks are typically cross-cut.Some dishes made using shank include:...

    , different spices and yogurt. The fattoush
    Fattoush
    Fattoush is a Levantine bread salad made from toasted or fried pieces of pita bread combined with mixed greens and other vegetables. Fattoush belongs to the family of dishes known as fattat or fatta, which are made in the Levant by Arab cooks using stale flatbread as a base...

    is a salad
    Salad
    Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes, including vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, eggs, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They may include a mixture of cold and hot, often including raw vegetables or fruits.Green salads include leaf...

     made with toasted pieces of pita bread that technically also falls into the family of the "Shâmiyât".

  • The Palestinian Territories: "Fetté Gazzewié" from Gaza
    Gaza
    Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...

    , is served as plain rice cooked in meat or chicken broth and then flavored with mild spices, particularly cinnamon. The rice is then laid over a thin markook
    Markook
    Saj,Podpłomyk or Markook is a type of flatbread common in the countries of the Levant. It is baked on a domed or convex metal griddle, known as "saj". It is usually large, about 2 feet in diameter, and thin, almost translucent...

     bread which is in turn smothered in clarified butter
    Clarified butter
    Clarified butter is milk fat rendered from butter to separate the milk solids and water from the butterfat. Typically, it is produced by melting butter and allowing the different components to separate by density...

     and topped with various meats. The musakhan
    Musakhan
    Musakhan is a Palestinian dish. It is composed of roasted chicken baked with onions, sumac, allspice, saffron, and fried pine nuts atop one or more taboon breads.-Culture:...

    , considered to be the Palestinian
    Palestinian people
    The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...

     national dish by many, is also a fetté dish indeed.

  • Egypt: Egypt
    Egypt
    Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

    ians also prepare and consume a dish called "fatta" as a feast meal. Considered a traditional Nubian dish, it is prepared on special occasions, such as to celebrate a woman's first pregnancy or for an Iftar
    Iftar
    Iftar , refers to the evening meal when Muslims break their fast during the Islamic month of Ramadan. Iftar is one of the religious observances of Ramadan and is often done as a community, with people gathering to break their fast together. Iftar is done right after Maghrib time...

     during Ramadan
    Ramadan
    Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...

    . It is made with a garlic and vinegar flavored meat soup and crispy flatbread served in a bowl with rice and a sauce consisting of molokhia.
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