As-salamu alaykum. ("Peace be upon you" in Arabic)

 I'm Chris Kim and I would like to introduce you to the Middle East through this column "Beautiful Arabian Life." Today I'm about to tell you about the products of culture that originate from the Middle East. First, let me talk about a day in life of a person today. All the words or concepts shown below in bold arguably originate from the Middle East. Some words are directly adopted or modified from Arabic/Persian/Turkish.

  All these words are "made in the Middle East." What do you think? The Middle East seems a little different to you now, doesn't it?

 The two primary types of coffee beans are Arabica and Robusta. Arabica is a higher-level variety than Robusta, and 70–80% of the amount cultivated all over the world is in fact made with the Arabica bean. As we can tell from the word 'Arabi,' it is named because it originates from Arabia. While Arabica is used in premium coffee thanks to its great aroma, Robusta is mostly used in instant coffee with its low prices due to the weaker aroma and bitter taste compared to Arabica. It contains twice as much caffeine as Arabica, too. That's why some of you might not have been able to sleep well at night if you've had a lot of instant coffee during the day.

 There's something called 'Turkish coffee' in Arabic coffee culture, which is prepared by direct heating instead of distillation, which is how we usually enjoy espresso-based coffee. Coffee powders are put into a small kettle and boiled in high heat. Since the powders are neither filtered nor taken out, you can spoon up clumps of hardened coffee powder if you stir the bottom of the cup. If you like coffee, try this if you're traveling in the Middle East. Many Koreans actually enjoy this style. Please note, you don't really have to eat the remaining clumps of powder. Just leave them!

 Since Islam denounces alcohol and some countries ban alcoholic drinks, it seems a little unnatural to talk about alcohol and the Middle East in the same context. Islamic thinkers have long been interested in alchemy, and when the Chinese technology was added to the advanced alchemy of Egypt and Greece, a distiller was created, resulting in the development of technology that transforms the base metal into metal. There are rumors that this was to create more gold or silver, and to invent the elixir of life like China. Anyway, the distiller and distillation technique created in the Middle East became widespread and evolved into a technology for making alcoholic drinks. Hard liquor, which is made by distillation, is high-proof and not easily spoiled unlike brewing, thereby marking a new era in the history of alcohol.

 Sugar is 'suchar ' in Arabic. It even sounds similar, right? Persia, or modern-day Iran, had cultivated sugar canes since AD 500. As the army of the Arab Empire unified the Middle East, they took sugar canes to all the places they conquered, and sugar canes were spread from Egypt in northern Africa to Morocco in the westernmost part. Like the distillation technology introduced before, the crystallization and refinement technology of sugar canes also advanced to a high level, resulting in the production of sugar. Later, sugar was spread across Europe through the Mediterranean.

 If you see the intake of sweeteners by country, you can find that the United States is at the top as the heaven of various processed foods, followed by the major producers of sugar such as Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. The countries in the red boxes highlighted in the graph above are countries in the Middle East that show a considerable intake considering their output or population. This is because people in the Middle East really love sweet food.

 In particular, the Middle East has a culture of enjoying sweet desserts after every meal. Some of you may have heard of Turkish delight, which refers to desserts like cake or cookies that please the eyes with their sweetness, rather than referring to a specific type of food. Arabs call it 'halva ,' which means sweet/sweets. Don't miss it when you're in the Middle East. It's considered a virtue to offer plenty of desserts like this with coffee or tea for guests. That's why people tend to take in an incredible amount of calories if they have meetings with local companies. If you're invited to dinner, that means you're going to gorge on all kinds of high-calorie food. It's considered rude for a guest to reject an invitation to dinner, and many business partnerships are formed and strengthened over a plentiful meal. In many ways, the Middle East is a harsh environment for business.

 And the integration of the great road system of China and the road networks of the Middle East countries in the heyday of Mongolia based on the Silk Road also enabled tremendous interactions of civilization across the Eurasian Continent. In the era of the great empires like the Islamic Empire, the Roman Empire and Mongol Empire that all left behind profound events in history, people emphasized a system capable of controlling conquests that are far away by securing road networks. That's why the kings focused on securing the road infrastructure, or physical networks, to reinforce their ruling power (for the survival of their empires in some ways). The saying "All roads lead to Rome" is evidence of how the Roman Empire was able to flourish with its strong network. Thanks to the close network of the great empires in human history, the four great civilizations were able to cross paths beyond the geographical limitations, which resulted in today's modern civilization.

 I still have a lot more to say, but unfortunately, I would have to wrap up with hope to meet AP members at a different occasion. Next time, I'll be back with a story about Islam, which is a topic inextricably linked to the Middle East. It was great meeting you from Dubai, where the summer weather has already come.