ANALYSIS:Differing food tastes often offer revealing insights into political realities and what nation states consider important, writes Clifford Coonan
PRESIDENT BUSH'S labelling of Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an "Axis of Evil" in 2002 was one of the defining moments of international relations so far this century, a decision from which the world is still reeling as gunfire and explosions rattle Iraq, tensions seethe in Iran and Pyongyang hesitates about giving up its nuclear ambitions as it feels stigmatised by its status as a rogue state.
The apparently random grouping of these three states - two bitter enemies living side-by-side in a potentially explosive region, and one isolated and impoverished Stalinist enclave - as a philosophical basis for expanding the president's war on terror puzzled many commentators.
Chris Fair, an analyst of South Asian geopolitics who has written political risk assessments for the United Nations and private sector think tanks, found the formulation particularly unsavoury. Literally.
Her new book, Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations,is political commentary wrapped up in a cookbook, or vice-versa, and it reveals much about the population of the three original Axis states plus seven others, including India, Israel - and the US - through what people eat.
The topic is flighty and funny, and Fair's rants are liberally sprinkled with elements of PJ O'Rourke's irony and Elizabeth David's sense of flavour. But it is not a frivolous book, and makes a valuable point about how important an insight food can give us into what nation states consider important.
The relationship between geopolitics and food is spicy and potent. This can take the form of food security issues, or competition between states over who has the cultural imperative on certain dishes. Food ends up as a metaphor for international relations, and it is impossible to really know anything about your political allies or enemies unless you understand something about how they eat.
Food and politics have long been connected. To break bread together is a powerful symbol of peaceful reconciliation, and the best way to poison a political opponent too was always over a banquet. By reading about Pashtun cardamom tea and Israeli carrot salad we can learn a surprising amount about the real political situation on the ground.
The idea for the book began to germinate with this self-described "wonkette" after the United States invaded Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 suicide attacks on American targets. However, once her two brothers, both Indiana National Guardsmen, were called up in the autumn of 2002, things took on a decidedly more serious tone.
After years travelling, working and, of course, eating in the Middle East and south and southeast Asia, Fair has been to all the countries in her book except for Cuba and North Korea as US citizens are not allowed to go there. She began to hold "Axis of Evil" dinner parties.
"It was all about getting liquored up and lacquered down. But when George W Bush gave his 'Axis of Evil' speech, I though it was absurd, but also quite frankly twisted. South Asia was my area of specialist research," she says in the broadly enunciated midwestern accent that she uses to play down the seriousness of her point. She is obviously still very angry at what the Bush administration was doing to her family.
Food security is a crucial political issue. In the 1990s the people of North Korea were starving in the wake of bad weather, but the country's leader Kim Jong-il's only adjustment was to switch from brandy to Bordeaux wine for health reasons. Meanwhile, a rich country like Cuba continues to have problems with food supply because of a combination of the way the country is run and an international trade embargo. "In North Korea and Cuba what is most apparent is rampant food insecurity. Kim Jong-il imports pizza chefs while his people are foraging for bark and food donated by South Korea and China when the mood takes it," said Fair. "Cuba is a country where the Castro revolution also has food security issues even though it's surrounded by a sea full of fish," she said.
What a country declares to be its national food tells us how they want to be perceived, she says. Food often divides us, rather than unites us and there is a link between political realities and cuisine.
"Take falafel. Israel has falafel as its national food. The Jewish appropriation of falafel as a national dish is viewed by many in the Arab world as similar to Israel's appropriation of the Palestinian territories. It implies the Jews have been eating falafel for thousands of years, which is true but only in a narrow sense. The Arabs say: of all things you have to take, you take falafel."
In China, food becomes a safety issue.
"The Chinese don't care who they poison. The incidence of food-borne poisoning is unacceptable. They export so much and we only test a fraction. China doesn't care that it exports poison," she said.
Her favourite place among the countries in her book is Pakistan, but she fears it may be in terminal decline, and much of the disaster there has been of American doing.
"Pakistan is our Frankenstein in so many ways. Since I went there first in 1991, I've seen the place evolve from a dysfunctional basket case into a dangerously dysfunctional basket case," she said.
Including American food in the book - notably in the form of "Beer Can Chicken" - fits with her attempt to understand the long-term effect of the Bush administration on the US in the world. "The country Bush inherited is not the one we have today. Journalists throw shoes at the president now. I am unable to comprehend the damage he has wrought," said Fair.
President-elect Obama may be in a position to do something to revitalise American foreign policy, but she insists there is a "hell of a lot to fix" and finds the Democrat anointed one's early messages on Pakistan and Afghanistan less-than-encouraging.
The overall message of Fair's book is that we are indeed what we eat. At home she cooks a lot of Cuban pork and her husbands favourite is Kabob Qabergha (Mildly Spiced Lamb Ribs). Her personal favourite to cook is the Iranian fesanjan chicken, which is cooked in a pomegranate stew with walnut.
"Pomegranate is kind of new to the people in the Mid-Worst. Usually it looks like a cat with a stomach ailment, and Id say one in two friends and family share my enthusiasm. It's a finicky dish," she said. Was it Bertolt Brecht, or perhaps the Weightwatchers manual, which said: "Food comes first, morals follow on."? Pass the salt, neighbour.
Clifford Coonan is China Correspondent of The Irish Times