Taboon bread is a flatbread eaten in the Middle East. It is traditionally baked in a taboon oven (Arabic: خبز طابون: bread of the taboon, Hebrew: לאפה: la-fah).
Taboon bread is spread with various toppings or used as a wrapper.[1]It is sold as street food, stuffed with hummus, falafel or shawarma.[2] Variations of taboon bread include:
- Laffa or Lafa is an Iraqi pita that is of medium thickness, slightly chewy, doesn't tear easily, and is mostly used to wrap shawarma in food stands.
- Druze pita is paper thin and traditionally spread with Labneh, olive oil, and/or zaatar. [3]
- Bukharan pita, an oval, thin and crispy flatbread, spiked with cumin seeds. Usually eaten as a snack by Bukharan Jews, along with savory food.
Taboon bread is a staple of Arab Middle Eastern cuisine worldwide, and found in Arabic restaurants. It is used in the popular Palestinian dish musakhan.
Iraqi and Druze pita are made without yeast. They are "soured" or fermented using the normal chemistry of flour and starch. Iraqi pita is similar in thickness to flour tortillas. Druze pita (also called sagg pita) is very thin and large. Both Iraqi and Druze pita are baked on a convex pan called a taboon, resembling an overturned wok.[4]