goat grab

n. at gatherings or celebrations in the Middle East, a communal self-served meal of meat and vegetables eaten with the hands. Subjects: English, Iraq, Food & Drink

Editorial Note: This term is used informally by Anglophones not native to the culture. The food eaten in a goat grab is often a form of mansef, which includes rice with almonds and pine nuts, shrak (a thin, round wheat bread), goat (sometimes with lamb and beef and usually cooked with yogurt), and jammid (a dry, hard cheese made of sheep’s or goat’s milk).

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Citations: 1981 Economist (Feb. 28) “Kuwait: Bedouin Eatanswill” (in Kuwait) p. 45: The electors munched their way to and from the polling booths, helping themselves to platters of mansef (impolitely described as “the goat grab”) and heaving hillocks of that favourite Kuwaiti sweet, jello. 1990 Margaret Gillerman St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Aug. 19) “Desert Sprint Missourian Tells Of Race Through Sand, Darkness, Tanks, Soldiers To Freedom” p. 1A: The Saudi soldiers feted the Americans, offering them juice, tea and platters of lamb and rice. Diemler explained it was “goat-grab,” where “you tear off a piece of meat with your hands, mix it with rice and get it into a ball and pop it in.” 2004 David J. Morris Storm on the Horizon (Feb. 3) p. 189: The enlisted men were subjected to a daily routine of whole boiled goat or chicken served up on a large metal platter. Mixed in the gruel were all the entrails, including beaks, hoofs, feet, and eyeballs.…Chowtime soon became known as “The Goat Grab.” 2004 Robin Moore Hunting Down Saddam (Mar. 18) p. 82: A goat grab is basically a local tradition of having a big long table where they put out platters of rice, vegetables, and literally hunks of sheep that have been on a spit, roasting and so forth. You just dig in, you grab sheep or lamb, or fish, or what have you. 2005 Matt Misterek @ Mosul, Iraq News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.) (June 18) “Deuce Four’s many hats”: They call it a “goat grab,” a night of traditional feasting to celebrate the bonds between American and Iraqi soldiers.

Posted 20 Jul 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

C.f. a form of regionalized gluttony we engage in down in North Carolina, a “pig pickin’.”

<ul>
<li>A brief history of pig pickins.
<li>Instructions for throwing your own pig pickin’.
</ul>

by enrevanche 21 Jul 05, 1129 GMT