What's the difference between the French and the Danish?
Or for that matter, between the United States and Iran?
Not much, as far as using food as targets of protest is concerned. In what is certain to be pounced on in the blogosphere, Iran has followed in the footsteps of the "Great Satan" -the US- in banning the name of a food item following controversy.
According to the Doha-based cable network Al-Jazeera, bakeries all over Tehran covered up labels for Danish pastries after the Iranian Commerce Ministry called for the name change in retaliation for inflammatory cartoons of Islam's revered prophet first published in a Danish newspaper.
From now on they are called the Rose of the Prophet Mohammad. Or "gul-e-muhammadi" in Farsi for linguistic purists among you. The report also says one popular bakery, Danish Pastries, concealed the shop name with a black banner that read "Oh Hussein", a reference to a martyred saint of Shia Islam. Iranians use black banners for mourning.
Iranians adore sweets of all kinds, often bringing candies and pastries with them when visiting friends as guests in dinners or parties. Despite the name, the flaky pastries with fruits or nuts tucked in its layers are all domestically produced. It would be too expensive to buy imports, even if they were available. (Denmark, to add to its woes, is smarting from a consumer boycott of its products from Havarti cheese to Lego in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Muslim countries.)
This pettiness recalls a similar protest by a prominent member of Iran's diametric ideological opposite, the United States. Walter Jones, the republican congressman from North Carolina, forced Capitol Hill cafeterias to scuttle the French from fries, preferring them to be called freedom fries in protest of France's opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq. Calling them chips would've simplified matters.
(As a footnote, the Guardian reports that Jones both regrets having made the suggestion as well as supporting the invasion.)
What is ironic is that Danes don't even call the pastries in the same way. In most Scandanavian countries doughy treat is called wienerbrød/wienerbröd. Despite the Viennese claim, it wasn't really invented in the Austrian capital. (The English ought to know what it means to be victims of a misnamed food item. It won't stop me from eating muffins, though.)
The Danish was first created in the 17th century by a French apprentice baker who, forgetting to add butter to the flour, tried to hide his mistake by folding lumps of it into the dough. Thus was created the mille feuilles (thousand leaves) - which Russians call napoleon, presumably after la Grande Armée brought it with them in the sweep from Austerlitz to Moscow.
From France, the pastry made a jump to Italy - where it is known as "folded pastry" - before being copied in Austria. Austrian bakers started exporting the pastry to Denmark, when a labour strike by Danish bakers prompted replacements from Vienna. From there, according to the Danish bakers' union, it was was only a matter of time before Danish immigrants took the pastry with them and introduced it to the rest of the world.
Some customers at least had the sense of humour to ask for the pastries with a laugh or even with irony. (The same approach was taken by Woody Allen in an appearance in a 2003 promotional video to lure American tourists back to France. "I don't want to have to refer to my French-fried potatoes as freedom fries and I don't want to have to freedom-kiss my wife when what I really want to do is French-kiss her," Allen said in the short film produced by the French government.)
What was decidedly not funny was the offer by a Pakistani Muslim cleric of a US$1 million reward for anyone who killed Danish cartoonists who drew the offending cartoons.
The cartoons, first published in Denmark in September last year then reprinted by other European papers over the past month as a support for freedom of expression, have sparked sometimes violent protests in Iran as well as demonstrations across the Islamic world, where they were seen as an insult to the prophet.
Or for that matter, between the United States and Iran?
Not much, as far as using food as targets of protest is concerned. In what is certain to be pounced on in the blogosphere, Iran has followed in the footsteps of the "Great Satan" -the US- in banning the name of a food item following controversy.
According to the Doha-based cable network Al-Jazeera, bakeries all over Tehran covered up labels for Danish pastries after the Iranian Commerce Ministry called for the name change in retaliation for inflammatory cartoons of Islam's revered prophet first published in a Danish newspaper.
From now on they are called the Rose of the Prophet Mohammad. Or "gul-e-muhammadi" in Farsi for linguistic purists among you. The report also says one popular bakery, Danish Pastries, concealed the shop name with a black banner that read "Oh Hussein", a reference to a martyred saint of Shia Islam. Iranians use black banners for mourning.
Iranians adore sweets of all kinds, often bringing candies and pastries with them when visiting friends as guests in dinners or parties. Despite the name, the flaky pastries with fruits or nuts tucked in its layers are all domestically produced. It would be too expensive to buy imports, even if they were available. (Denmark, to add to its woes, is smarting from a consumer boycott of its products from Havarti cheese to Lego in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Muslim countries.)
This pettiness recalls a similar protest by a prominent member of Iran's diametric ideological opposite, the United States. Walter Jones, the republican congressman from North Carolina, forced Capitol Hill cafeterias to scuttle the French from fries, preferring them to be called freedom fries in protest of France's opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq. Calling them chips would've simplified matters.
(As a footnote, the Guardian reports that Jones both regrets having made the suggestion as well as supporting the invasion.)
What is ironic is that Danes don't even call the pastries in the same way. In most Scandanavian countries doughy treat is called wienerbrød/wienerbröd. Despite the Viennese claim, it wasn't really invented in the Austrian capital. (The English ought to know what it means to be victims of a misnamed food item. It won't stop me from eating muffins, though.)
The Danish was first created in the 17th century by a French apprentice baker who, forgetting to add butter to the flour, tried to hide his mistake by folding lumps of it into the dough. Thus was created the mille feuilles (thousand leaves) - which Russians call napoleon, presumably after la Grande Armée brought it with them in the sweep from Austerlitz to Moscow.
From France, the pastry made a jump to Italy - where it is known as "folded pastry" - before being copied in Austria. Austrian bakers started exporting the pastry to Denmark, when a labour strike by Danish bakers prompted replacements from Vienna. From there, according to the Danish bakers' union, it was was only a matter of time before Danish immigrants took the pastry with them and introduced it to the rest of the world.
Some customers at least had the sense of humour to ask for the pastries with a laugh or even with irony. (The same approach was taken by Woody Allen in an appearance in a 2003 promotional video to lure American tourists back to France. "I don't want to have to refer to my French-fried potatoes as freedom fries and I don't want to have to freedom-kiss my wife when what I really want to do is French-kiss her," Allen said in the short film produced by the French government.)
What was decidedly not funny was the offer by a Pakistani Muslim cleric of a US$1 million reward for anyone who killed Danish cartoonists who drew the offending cartoons.
The cartoons, first published in Denmark in September last year then reprinted by other European papers over the past month as a support for freedom of expression, have sparked sometimes violent protests in Iran as well as demonstrations across the Islamic world, where they were seen as an insult to the prophet.
