How did food shift from being a means of survival to being an essential leisure activity in our society? Why did we make this decision? How are there so many restaurants everywhere? What impact does food leave on our bodies and our lives? Why are there no other means of entertainment, meaning restaurants must compete against each other, luring and incentivising customers to come inside?

The year is 2010. Baghdad is in its most turbulent days. Booby-traps are ceaselessly exploding in the streets. My friend and I are sat in a restaurant in Karrada talking for so long that boredom seeps into my joints.  

I asked my friend, who owns a car, if we could go somewhere else and he replied, “Where do we go?” I didn’t have an answer. Where would two young men in their twenties, who have spent many hours sat in a restaurant, go this late in the evening? Most probably home.

Young people like us, or like most Iraqis, are not tempted by activities such as camping, hunting, mountaineering, or any sports. Nor will we choose recreational activities of an intellectual nature, such as exploration or museums, for example. None of this is entertaining to us. However, food and, more precisely, restaurants are most definitely entertaining.

How did food shift from being a means of survival to being an essential leisure activity in our society? Why did we make this decision? How are there so many restaurants everywhere? What impact does food leave on our bodies and our lives? Why are there no other means of entertainment, meaning restaurants must compete against each other, luring and incentivising customers to come inside?

The beginning of the restaurant trend

Restaurants, in their modern form, are relatively new to Iraq and the Arab region. Arab customs and traditions provided guests with accommodation, food, and drink in houses, which eliminated the need to sell sustenance outside of the home. However, the flourishing trade between Arab cities, and the travel of merchants and their workers across the country, made this form of hospitality less practical. As such, it was necessary to create a space for travellers and passers-by to rest and replenish during their journey. This is how the khan came into existence.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, foreigners began to arrive in Iraq in the form of curious travellers- a prelude to the subsequent occupation of Iraq- and merchants, and of course new customs were brought with them, including the idea of a restaurant.

The aristocracy jumped at the idea of restaurants and, with the rise of bureaucrats and the middle class, the idea of eating outside the home developed. Society underwent a social and economic transformation because of changing work conditions and shifting working locations. People’s workplaces were further away from home, working hours were longer, which enforced the need for sustenance outside of the house.

Over time, the population increased, and residential areas expanded, thus increasing the number of restaurants. While Baghdadis – workers in particular – previously looked for any available cheap food, their descendants in the sixties and seventies craved new varieties of foods. Indian, Italian, and other types of cuisine in restaurants appeared across many cities. Most of these restaurants served alcohol. Shortly after, restaurants began to appear in recreational clubs and luxury hotels. Popular and traditional restaurants also became widely available.

During the nineties, this period is best described through the two “awareness” campaigns broadcast by the official media channel of the time. The first campaign showed two flies, one named ‘Cholera’ and the other ‘Typho’, a reference to cholera and typhoid. The second showed a young man asking his mother about lunch, to which the mother answers “Tachrib” (a type of Iraqi stew made with soaked bread). The young man asks “Meat Tachrib?”, and the mother replies “No, my dear, Bean Tachrib.” These two campaigns ushered in decades of hunger and disease linked to poverty and the prevalence of open and unhealthy eating. At the time when the international economic embargo had intensified against Iraq, malnutrition increased by over 23%, reaching 33% in Southern Iraq.

Nevertheless, advertisements for lavish restaurants filled screens and newspapers. Those who frequented them were often specific classes that miraculously escaped from the claws of the financial siege, or they were those who were close to the Baath regime, providing them with money gained through devious means.   

Catering Establishments

After the invasion of Iraq in April 2003, restaurants began returned, expanded and flourished.

In 2014, the Iraqi Ministry of Planning published statistics on the number of restaurants in the country which constituted more than 65% of commercial establishments in Iraq. The report also recorded approximately 24,000 establishments serving food and drink across Iraq. This year, those numbers have increased by approximately 0.6%.

This growth is down to two main factors: supply and demand. Significant demand has resulted in increased supply.

Following years of siege and hunger, people flooded to restaurants, which provided a semblance of safety. They were secure environments where people and cars were inspected at the door for fear of explosives.

The sectarian conflict which took place between 2006-2008 limited the movement of residents within cities. Many were forced them to remain in their residential areas as a result of the security barriers that were used by warring factions in the streets. Despite its tragic nature, the sectarian conflict broke the centralization that certain regions had seen for decades. Areas such as Karrada, Mansour, New Baghdad, and others were no longer the only entertainment and shopping hubs. Residential neighbourhoods transformed some of their streets into commercial areas providing food, clothing, electronics, and many basic goods.

After the end of the sectarian conflict, cities in Iraq, and Baghdad in particular, witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of restaurants providing additional services to replenish the city’s streets. Restaurants began to offer play areas for children, giving their parents a chance to talk to each other. Many offered musical evenings, featuring cages to display wild animals such as monkeys, tigers, lions and birds of prey. 

In 2008, ABC News published a report about the opening of a Chinese restaurant in Karrada, Baghdad. Reporter Hillary Brown, said that Baghdadis are “now used to hearing how much better their lives have become after 2003,” before adding that ” other signs also show how life in the most dangerous city in the world is getting better – Baghdad has opened its first Chinese restaurant.”

Brown proffered that an important sign of improved life in Baghdad following the war and sectarian conflict was the opening of a Chinese restaurant run by a Chinese couple who did not speak Arabic or English. They instead communicated with their customers using sign language, pictures on the menu, or through an Iraqi waiter.

In some ways, Brown was right in her assessment. One of the signs of a return to life in Baghdad was that foreigners wanted to work and live there. However, what the ABC News reporter did not notice was that other projects had been less successful, particularly those that might be considered to evoke political, social, cultural, and religious sensitivities.

The restaurant wins

The policies of the parties that came to power after the 2003 invasion of Iraq led to the rise of conservative social and religious ideas.  Investment in entertainment projects became a security and economic risk. In contrast, however, restaurants became a safe place to invest, and an alternative to other entertainment projects.

As such, the growing demand for restaurants has led to the emergence of new food patterns and a shift towards franchising, associated with fast food, and thus transforming restaurants into a brand. Dining has become a social class marker, especially through the association with stories and check- ins on social media. People would often go to restaurants for the sole purpose of sharing pictures of themselves having a great time at specific locations. They may not even eat food or enjoy their time, but rather just log the experience of visiting these eateries.

 Restaurants and diseases

Unfortunately, the increase in the number of restaurants has also been associated with significant health problems. According to a 2019 Ministry of Health report, the number of Iraqis suffering from obesity has reached about 29 million, 60% of whom have diabetes, with 9% suffering from high cholesterol. These conditions increase the risk of heart disease which is clearly associated with the increased availability and popularity of junk food.

According to a report issued by the United Nations Environment Program, Iraq ranked second in food waste in the Central Asian region. Iraq wastes approximately 120 kilograms of food annually per person,  which amounts to about 5 million tons per year. Restaurants are certainly not solely responsible for this waste, as social and religious events also play a significant role. They are, however, still a major contributor largely due to their sheer number. 

And even if the impact of the food served in these restaurants is not significant, the harm they can cause to employees certainly is. According to Muayad, a Dhi Qar resident who works in a restaurant in central Baghdad, “work here destroys our souls, but we need it.’Muayad and his colleagues complain about long working hours, low wages and no breaks or holidays. The Ministry of Labour is also negligent in following up on the affairs of these workers and does not enforce the Labour Law No. 37 of 2015, which guarantees their basic rights.

A natural outcome!

The answer to the question “Where do we go” in a city like Baghdad will probably always lead you to a restaurant or a home. Everything in Baghdad directs people towards restaurants. No one wants to spend hours stuck in traffic, and summer strolls in temperatures of 50 degrees or over are not an option. Muddy winters are, naturally, no better than summer. 

Baghdad’s pavements are occupied by shops and street vendors. Public parks are dark at night. As such, the food culture has become a recreational trend, perhaps the most dominant form of entertainment.