Why do people call Middle Eastern food Greek food??

love greek food. can go for a gyro plate right about now

for someone that doesn't know the difference. what is something that is middle eastern that I would have thought is greek based on the restaurants I have been to?

Germans

I call it Levantine cuisine.

Don't care, delicious food.

I call it Mediterranean, although that's probably not accurate either.

Turks

I love me some Greek Tabouli and Humus.

Seriously, though, there is some overlap. Probably goes back to the Ottoman Empire and food being shared across the region.

My experience is they all have

- Similar base ingredients
- Similar cooking methods
- Similar history and traditions
- Similar tastes profiles across entire region
- All of them claim they did it first and best and had been doing it their way for six generations when "Hermes son stole Great Uncle Aalon's goat and the recipe and took them both back across the mountains to their village. And that is why we hate them and all of their people to this very day."

Never had a meal over there that wasn't good. Most Greek, Turkish, Armenian, Persian, Iranian, dishes have a differently named nearly identical version in the next door country. All are good and according to every native, the very best version of the dish was "Made by my Grandmother"

It's ok. We make lamb.