Baklava’s Layered Past: Empire, Trade Routes, and the Politics of a Dessert
Baklava looks deceptively simple: fragile sheets, aromatic nuts, glossy syrup, and a clean slice that reveals a small architectural marvel. Yet behind that tidy geometry sits a long history of migration, courtly taste, and competitive storytelling. Few foods travel so widely while remaining so intensely “claimed,” and the very act of claiming it is part of what makes baklava politically