#West asian

[haykhighland]

By Najwan Darwish, Palestinian Poet

[incognitopolls]

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[folkaesthetics]

Traditional Bahraini attire

[najia-cooks]

[ID: A small jar filled with a light beige dip. End ID]

طحينة / Tahina: Toasted sesame dip

"طَحِينَة" ("ṭaḥīna") is an Arabic word formed from the root ط ح ن (ṭ ḥ n), which produces words relating to grinding; compare "طَحَنَ"‎ ("ṭaḥana"), “to grind,” and "طَحِين"‎ ("ṭaḥīn"), "flour." In English, the word is often spelled and pronounced "tahini" due to the influence of a colloquial Levantine pronunciation. Tahina may also be called "رهش" ("rahash"), "راشي") ("rashi"), or "هردة" ("harada").

This paste is produced by steaming, hulling, and then stone milling sesame seeds until they release their oil, resulting in a smooth, pourable texture. It may be called "طَحِينَة بَيْضَاء" ("ṭaḥīna bayḍā'"), "white tahina," to differentiate it from darker-colored tahinas that are produced by toasting sesame seeds before they are ground, or from grinding unhulled sesame seeds; but "tahina" without further specification is taken to mean "white tahina."

Tahina may be eaten on its own as a dip or sauce; it also forms the primary ingredient in طراطور (tarator), a tahina sauce with lemon juice and garlic. Tahina adds deep, nutty flavor to hummus, baba ghannouj, and halwa.

Recipes for homemade tahina call for some amount of oil to be added to ground sesame seeds, since most homes are not set up to do hours of stone milling. This means that homemade tahina is, in my opinion, likely an inferior product to something you can buy at the store. However, sometimes you have emergency tahina needs.

This recipe provides instructions for taking sesame seeds as far towards a pourable texture as possible without additional oil, using a mortar and pestle to imitate the traditional stone grinding; it also gives instructions for using an electric mill or blender.

Recipe under the cut!

Patreon | Tip jar

Equipment:

A spice mill or coffee grinder

OR a high-speed blender

OR a high-quality, well-seasoned, solid stone or metal mortar and pestle

Ingredients:

1/4 cup hulled sesame seeds

2 Tbsp - 1/4 cup sesame oil (untoasted), as necessary

Instructions:

1. Toast sesame seeds, agitating frequently, in a single layer in a dry skillet over medium-low heat. Remove when lightly golden brown.

Some home cooks toast half of the sesame seeds and leave the other half untoasted.

2. With a mortar and pestle: Thoroughly scrub and oil a large mortar and pestle. Add seeds in small batches and process, alternating between pounding and grinding, until a fluffy, powdered texture results.

Continue, alternating between pounding the powder all together in the middle of the mortar, and spreading it into a thin layer along the sides of the mortar and scraping, until it begins to resemble a paste. You will start to see oil shimmer at the surface.

Keep pounding and scraping, in batches of about 1 Tbsp at a time, until the tahina looks smooth and shiny, and you no longer see noticeable lumps in it. Repeat until all the seeds have been ground.

Combine all the paste into one bowl. Slowly, and while stirring, add just enough sesame oil as required to obtain a pourable texture.

This batch took me about four hours of hand-grinding and yielded about 3 Tbsp of tahina (I didn't say this was a good idea).

2. With a spice or coffee grinder: Allow toasted seeds to cool and then grind them, occasionally shaking the grinder, until very fine. Remove into a bowl and mix in oil.

2. With a blender: grind sesame seeds and oil together for several minutes until very smooth. You will likely need to make a larger batch, depending on the size of your blender.

3. Use immediately, or store in an airtight container in the fridge.

[blacksapphicguide]

Billie x Christine Jagged Mind (movie)

[thenerdsofcolor]

'The Acolyte' is Exactly What 'Star Wars' Needed

Before The Rise of Skywalker at the tail end 2019, I was a big Star Wars fan. The release of the singularly subpar final chapter of the Sequel Trilogy had me distraught about the franchise, severely dampening my fandom. The recidivism of Episode IX had me believe that there was no true moving forward. We would be destined to remain in the strict boundaries of Jedi vs. Sith without a critical…

[aurangg]

I’ve always been ashamed of where I’m from and sharing my culture with others. People automatically assume things about me that just aren’t true and no matter how much I say it isn’t true and it has nothing to do with me and my culture they’ll still attach stereotypical concepts to me. They’ll always see me as a barbarian, and my culture uncivilised. They’ll always see my culture as lesser than theirs. I can’t point out criticisms I have of the society of where I’m from around people because I’ll immediately validate all their ideas about how barbaric and uncivilised we are. I just can’t be myself, the moment I’m even slightly connected to my culture they discard me.

[eye-of-enigmatic-thought]

Some people get a freak out of me Some people can't see what I can see Some people want to see what I see Some people put an evil eye on me!

WOO MORE MENTAL ILLNESS ART

Another experiment in collage! I'm having way too much fun experimenting with it. This time however I've done some digital painting to go with it, for the 'evil eyes' and a self portrait of me. All the images of eyes from the collage come from wikimedia commons. The self portrait was based on a photo of myself.

I deal with a lot of paranoia, I often have fears that I'm being watched and percieved when I don't want to be, and that what's watching me has a unclear intent thats even more nerve wracking than something outright malicious. I don't know what someone may think when they look at me, a queer neurodivergent person of colour, or worse, what they can immediately tell by looking at me. If someone looks or talks at me in a way that's not so 'friendly', I can feel panicked, I am left anxious over what they could've meant or why they acted that way to me from the Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria, in a way, from that, someone has given me the 'evil eye' and I mentally grow sicker.

The superstition of the Evil Eye has always been fascinating to me, especially since its a superstition that comes from my culture (and many others) as a Iranian and how much I associate it with my paranoia. It's not something I 'believe' in logically, but many of the ideas and concepts for it is something I heavily associate with. For this, nazar charms are often a source of comfort and I enjoy keeping them.

This artwork is based on all of those feelings and fears, and how overwhelming it very much is, and also the slight comforts that nazars give me in spite of it all, as overwhelming it still is.

[flagsinthemaking]

heyy i really love your asian4asian flags and i was wondering if you would do a west asian 4 west asian one ^_^ no shade if not, thanks for your time

WestAsian4WestAsian

- Not for RCTA people,

- Requests open!!

- WestAsian4WestAsian : West Asian ppl who prioritize/prefer/only date other West Asian ppl.

- FLAG ID : 7 striped flag, with Dusty Red Tuplips in the middle.

- COLORS : Redish Brown, Dark Ashy Green, Dark Ashy Lime, Light Red, Dark Ashy Lime, Dark Ashy Green.

- EXTRA : Tulips were chosen due to their significance to West Asia, along side colors based off how many West Asian flags contain green, red, and black.

[lilliaace]

This was in a hair group. I am BEGGING people to stop gatekeeping bipoc, nbpoc, and poc communities. Jesus fucking Christ.

[haykhighland]

I want to write this for all the queer West Asians and North Africans out there as a little hope, something I wish I saw when I was younger.

I came out to my dad when I was 21. To be fair I hadn’t even come out to myself truly until I was 20. I knew I wanted my dad to meet any partner I would have one day, so coming out to him before I was in a relationship was my first step.

He didn’t believe me at first, I told him when he was in the middle of one of his homophobic rants. He just said I would change. One day you’ll change, you’ll want a family. When that didn’t work, and I got into my first relationship with a woman, he would just ignore the fact that I was gay.

I’m 24 now, and my partner and I went to visit him this summer. He met her for the first time, and I was so worried he would say something offensive. But I know my dad, he wouldn’t risk disappointing me in that way.

He spoke with her, he engaged in conversations with her, and at the end of our trip he gave her a hug and a pat on the head.

Ever since we came home, whenever I FaceTime him, he asks about her. And yesterday, he told me he was glad I met someone with a good heart. He said it’s not easy to find people like that.

When I introduced her to my grandmother, she asked her to come closer, she gave her a kiss on the forehead and held her hand. She told us to be kind to one another. I couldn’t help but laugh when she told us to not fight, and then I understood what she actually meant, she was telling us to not physically fight each other. I assured her we would never do that.

My grandmother born in 1935 in a small village in Iran. Who was forced to marry at the age of 12. Who grew up deeply religious, pulled me close and told me to not care what others thought, to care about my happiness first.

My grandmother who prays for the health of me and my girlfriend at the end of every phone call.

I just want to say, that there is hope. When I had originally came out to my grandmother, she told me to never speak of it again. She is now the first person to always ask how my girlfriend is doing whenever we speak.

I know it’s not always safe to come out to our parents. I think many of us can gage whether it is safe to do so or not. I know I am everything to my father, he has always uplifted me, he always gave me freedom to dress how I wanted and to go out with friends whenever I wanted. I knew my father was the “black sheep” of the family (something he was not ashamed of), which helped me know whether it would be safe to come out.

Despite him being homophobic, I knew that if I came out to him, he would be forced to change. That does not mean we did not have painful conversations. He has offended me, but I accepted that this was something I would have to deal with as he came to terms with the fact that his beloved daughter is gay. Meeting my partner changed his perspective even further now.

[catocomet]

saw someone say caucasian was a racist term for white people as though it’s not an umbrella term for of indigenous peoples in west asia. no ma’am i will not stop using the term caucasian how the fuck am i supposed to explain where my georgian family is from 😭

[seasonalbakery]

Pick 1 Bread

[kemetic-dreams]

New research articles mention that E haplogroup is strongly of Eurasian origins. If this is the case, how is it possible that African populations mostly carry this haplogroup and they are of darker complexion vs. lighter skinned West-Asians?

Eurasian doesn’t mean white. Know this and know peace!

Melanesian kids

[whitepassingpocs]

I’m part Eastern European (I was adopted from there), but I learned that one of my parents is European while the other is West Asian (Armenian/Iranian).

I never really questioned my ethnicity growing up, but looking back other people have. I have olive skin that tans fast and doesn’t burn, along with distinct West Asian facial features. As a kid my aunt would comment about me looking POC. Sometimes people ask me if I’m Middle Eastern, Latina, or assume I speak Spanish. I was raised Jewish through my adoptive family. My Armenian ancestors and Jewish culture share a history of genocide and oppression, which I think is why my whole life I’ve felt connected to my Jewish identity on a biological level. I understand that ethnicity and culture is about how you’re raised, but as an adoptee I never had the chance to connect with my biological roots.

So this makes me wonder, despite not being raised with my original heritage, do I identify as mixed race due to my West Asian roots? I know that I am lucky to be white-passing enough that I don’t experience racism, so do I identify as white? It’s confusing.

the fact is that you are all the things that you are, whether others see/know it or not. Your West Asian parent is your biological parent and you share part of who you are with them. You are descended from them and wouldn't exist without them. Whether you choose to identify or not won't change the fact that who they are is a part of who you are, and the same goes for how you were raised by your adopted family. Your heritage, both white and Armenian and your Jewish identity is all a part of you. All of it is a part of you and you yourself said that your Jewish culture makes you feel connected to your Armenian heritage, and that's a real connection because it's a connection between cultures you're a part of. I know it feels confusing but I think that's because white supremacy wants everyone to be homogeneous and boring so when you're mixed or a third culture kid or an interracial adoptee, you feel "wrong". But you aren't! Just because you can't fit into a neat box that white supremacy likes, it doesn't mean you're confused. It means you're human. Ultimately, how you want to tell people who you are is up to you.

[thenerdsofcolor]

Jaylee Hamidi on the Rich Storytelling of Hulu's 'How to Die Alone'

Natasha Rothwell’s Hulu series How to Die Alone might initially seem like your run-of-the-mill dramedy series, mixing humor and sadness to balance out the stakes. But while watching, you realize that Rothwell and her team have struck a stark relatability that delves deeper than most shows. Namely, How to Die Alone takes its title very seriously, giving its protagonist Mel (Natasha Rothwell) a raw…