It is said that a bowl of soup made of cow bellies and legs can cure ulcers, hangovers and an assortment of other ailments \u2013 if you are courageous enough to try it.<\/p>\n
And Dimitris Tsarouhas, the owner of a restaurant in the Greek city of Thessaloniki that specialises in patsa,<\/em> is striving to register the soup with Unesco as a unique and traditional dish of Greece that harks back to the time of Homer\u2019s epic poem The Odyssey<\/em>.<\/p>\n That has conjured up a new dispute with age-old rival Turkey, which also claims the soup as its own.<\/p>\n Greeks and Turks have been feuding over everything culinary from coffee to stuffed grape leaves and even baklava \u2013 the legacy of life under centuries of Ottoman rule. Now, the Turks are up in arms that Greeks are taking sole credit for a soup they call iskembe<\/em>, which, according to them, has been a cultural staple for centuries.<\/p>\n Tsarouhas has compiled a large and detailed file with the help of a local cultural organisation and Lena Oflidis, the author of the only book that chronicles the soup\u2019s history, to incorporate it as part of Greece\u2019s cultural heritage.<\/p>\n Dozens of patrons show up at Tsarouhas\u2019 restaurant at all hours \u2013 particularly at the crack of dawn \u2013 to enjoy patsa<\/em>, as many say the soup eases the stomach after a night of heavy drinking. It is usually garnished with a sprinkle of seeds and a dash of hot peppers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Traditional](\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/04\/16\/d3c4b568-2334-44eb-b38c-4e362688c531_4d8432c9.jpg\" "\\"Traditional")
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