Lahmacun facts for kids
Lahmacun with salad
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| Alternative names | Lahm b'ajin, lahmajo, lahamagine, lahmajun, lahmajoun |
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| Course | main |
| Region or state | Middle East, Turkey, Armenia, Levant |
| Serving temperature | warm |
| Main ingredients | Minced meat, vegetables and herbs |
Lahmacun is a delicious flatbread dish from the Middle East. It's sometimes called "Armenian pizza" or "Turkish pizza" because it looks a bit like pizza. However, lahmacun is usually thinner and doesn't have cheese.
This tasty flatbread is topped with a mix of minced meat (like beef or lamb), chopped vegetables, and herbs. Common ingredients include onions, garlic, tomatoes, red peppers, and parsley. Spices like chili pepper and paprika add extra flavor.
People often enjoy lahmacun by rolling it up. They might add fresh vegetables inside, such as pickles, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, or roasted eggplant. It's a very popular food in countries like Armenia, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and other places around the world.
What's in a Name?
The name Lahmacun comes from an Arabic phrase, laḥm bi-ʿajīn. This means "meat with dough." In Turkey, you say it like "lah-ma-june." In Armenia, it's often called lahmajo. Another name for it in Arabic is sfiha Armanniye, which means "Armenian Flatbread." This name hints at its long history, as Armenian traders helped bring this dish to the Middle East as early as the 1600s.
The History of Lahmacun
Flatbreads have been a part of Middle Eastern cooking for thousands of years. People used to cook them in special ovens called tandoors or on metal pans like the tava. These flatbreads were great for wrapping up meat and other foods, making them easy to carry and eat.
Over time, people started baking the bread and its toppings together in large stone ovens. This led to many popular dishes, including lahmacun. Dishes like sfiha and manakish also became well-known in countries that were once part of the Ottoman Empire, such as Turkey, Armenia, Syria, and Lebanon.
Lahmacun, a thin flatbread with spiced ground meat, became known as lahm b'ajin. It later got shorter names like lahmajin and lahmacun. Interestingly, lahmacun wasn't very common in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, until the mid-1900s. Before that, it was mostly found in Arab countries and the southern parts of Turkey, like around Urfa and Gaziantep.
Fun Facts and Food Debates
Sometimes, different countries or cultures have friendly debates about who created a certain food. Lahmacun is one of those dishes!
For example, in March 2020, Kim Kardashian, a famous American celebrity with Armenian family roots, shared a video online. She called lahmacun "our Armenian pizza." She also mentioned that her dad used to put string cheese on it and bake it until it was crispy. This caused a lot of discussion among people from Turkey on social media, who felt that lahmacun should be called "Turkish pizza." These kinds of discussions show how much people love their traditional foods and how proud they are of them!
See also
In Spanish: Lahmacun para niños
