Lavash Café & The Mediterranean Experience
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Date
2018-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Lavash café & the Mediterranean experience seeks to understand what kind of concept the Mediterranean denotes in the United States by analyzing a local Mediterranean restaurant in Columbus, OH, Lavash café. It also theorizes, what the Mediterranean is, its image and placement in the American psyche, and comes to terms with its complexities, and politics. This will take into consideration the region's interwoven histories, cultures, and cuisines as well as gain more insight on the various ways that the region is unified as one yet divided geographically. The research will consider how these ideas are interpreted into the ways the Mediterranean is discussed, why several countries along the Sea are coined 'Mediterranean' but others aren't, and what kinds of stereotypes arise that restaurants may either play into or avoid depending on the cultural experience they may want to sell. To explore these larger questions in my research on Palestinian owned Lavash café, an in-depth interview based case study was conducted with three of its clientele. The division of the thesis is based upon the following concepts. The thesis consists of an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion. The introduction chapter provides thoughts on the research processes and how this project crystalized. The first chapter is a theoretical essay based on literature analysis and review of mostly historical, political science, and cookbooks to grasp the idea of the Mediterranean from the American perspective. The three later chapters present the interviews and results of the research, and the conclusion discusses findings and interrelated themes.
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Keywords
Mediterranean, Middle East, American, Arab, Food Culture, North Africa