50 free Middle Eastern Food trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Middle Eastern food starts where farming started: wheat was first cultivated in the Fertile Crescent, fermentation was discovered there, and the oldest written recipes come from Mesopotamia. What followed is a table of meze and flatbread, lamb and yogurt, sesame and sumac, stretching from Egypt's ful and koshary to Jordan's mansaf, Syria's kibbeh, Turkey's doner and the Gulf's kabsa. These 50 questions cover the dishes and the details: what hummus and tahini are made of, where falafel came from, what shawarma's name means, which grain goes into kibbeh and tabbouleh, why Knafeh Nabulseyeh is named for Nablus, what mulukhiyah is actually made from, and how Turkish coffee, arak, ayran and jallab are served. There are questions on the rules of the table too: the right hand, taarof, Afiyet olsun and the four days of Eid al-Adha. Easy questions cover the famous dips, breads and sweets; the expert tier asks about smen, qatir, Gaziantep's pistachios, the Janissaries' baklava and the brewery that was once the region's only one. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation. Play it solo or print it for a food night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Levantine dip is mashed chickpeas blended with tahini, lemon juice and garlic?
Hummus
Its earliest mention is in a 13th-century cookbook attributed to Ibn al-Adim of Aleppo.
Q 02Falafel, though now a Levantine staple, originated in which country?
Egypt
In Egypt it is still usually made from fava beans; the Levant switched to chickpeas.
Q 03Which Levantine street food takes its name from the Turkish çevirme, meaning 'turning'?
Shawarma
Thin slices of meat are stacked in an inverted cone and roasted on a slow-turning vertical spit.
Q 04Baklava is a layered nut-filled dessert made from which pastry?
Filo
The Ottomans spread paper-thin phyllo sweets across the region along with thick coffee.
Q 05Tabbouleh is a salad of soaked cracked wheat and which finely chopped herb?
Parsley
Tomatoes, mint and onion go in too, dressed with olive oil and lemon.
Q 06What is tahini made from?
Ground sesame seeds
Hulled seeds are the norm; unhulled tahini is more bitter but more nutritious.
Q 07Baba ghanoush is a dip made from which roasted vegetable?
Eggplant
Roasting it over an open flame before peeling gives the pulp its smoky taste.
Q 08Za'atar is a blend of dried herbs, sesame seeds, salt and which tart red spice?
Sumac
Lebanese versions lean into its tartness; Palestinian ones may add caraway.
Q 09Which Jordanian national dish is meat cooked in fermented dried yogurt and served on rice?
Mansaf
Its name comes from the 'large tray' it is served on; UNESCO listed it in 2022.
Q 10Kibbeh is made by pounding spiced ground meat together with which grain?
Bulgur
Aleppo claims at least 17 types; it can be fried, baked in a tray, grilled or eaten raw.
Q 11Knafeh Nabulseyeh, the usual variant in Jordan and Palestine, is named for which city?
Nablus
Nablus set a Guinness record in 2009 with a 74-metre knafeh weighing 1,765 kg.
Q 12Mulukhiyah, the Egyptian soup-stew, is made from the leaves of which plant?
Jute
Boiled, the leaves give a thick, mucilaginous broth often compared to cooked okra.
Q 13Dolma, the family of filled vegetable and leaf dishes, is Turkish for what?
Stuffed
The leaf-wrapped kind is specifically sarma, though most people say dolma for both.
Q 14Which Cypriot cheese has a high melting point and a famously 'squeaky' texture?
Q 21Muhammara, a red dip of walnuts and peppers, comes from which Syrian city?
Aleppo
In western Turkey the same dip is called acuka and served on the meze platter.
Q 22Manakish flatbreads were traditionally baked first thing in the morning in what?
A communal oven
Women baked the family's daily bread and set aside smaller pieces of dough for topped breakfast breads.
Q 23Maqluba, a Levantine rice dish, is named for how it is served; what does the name mean?
Upside-down
Meat, rice and fried vegetables are cooked in a pot that is flipped over onto the platter.
Halloumi
To carry the name in the EU or US it must be made in Cyprus; the UK is the biggest importer.
Q 15Which cold, salted yogurt drink is a Turkish national drink?
Ayran
In Iran the same drink is called doogh; some versions are carbonated.
Q 16What is Egypt's national street dish of pasta, rice, lentils and chickpeas in red sauce?
Koshary
It is topped with crispy fried onions and a splash of garlic vinegar.
Q 17Ful medames, an Egyptian staple, is a stew of which legume?
Fava beans
It is traditionally cooked in and served from a large metal jug, dressed with oil and cumin.
Q 18Fattoush is a Levantine salad distinguished by pieces of what?
Toasted pita
The name comes from the Arabic fatt, 'crush', with a Turkic suffix.
Q 19Shakshouka is eggs poached in a sauce based mainly on what?
Tomatoes
The word means 'mixture' in Algerian Arabic; the dish is Maghrebi by origin.
Q 20The doner kebab sandwich was popularised in the 1970s in which city?
West Berlin
Kadir Nurman's stand at Zoo Station in 1972 is the version the Turkish döner association credits.
Q 24Lahmacun is nicknamed 'Turkish pizza' though it traditionally has no cheese and no what?
Tomato sauce
Its Arabic name, lahm bi ajin, means 'meat with dough'.
Q 25Freekeh is made from durum wheat harvested at what stage?
While still green
The piled grain is sun-dried and set alight so only the chaff burns, then rubbed clean.
Q 26Qamar al-Din, drunk during Ramadan, is a thick sweet drink made from which fruit?
Apricots
The fruit is boiled down, sun-dried on wooden planks, then mixed again with water and sugar.
Q 27Jallab is a syrup of dates, rose water and the molasses of which fruit, served over crushed ice?
Grape
It is sometimes topped with raisins or pine nuts.
Q 28Arak, the Levantine spirit served with meze, is flavoured with what?
Aniseed
It is usually diluted with water and ice, which turns it cloudy white.
Q 29What is the small long-handled pot used to brew unfiltered Turkish-style coffee called?
Cezve
The grounds are left in the cup; in the Gulf the Arabic coffee pot is the dallah.
Q 30Arabic coffee is typically spiced with what and served without sugar?
Cardamom
In Iraq, serving coffee traditionally opens marriage proposals and peace-making between families.