An American version of a mediterranean Lunch platter-INAUTHENTIC AT BEST!

I have been vegan for roughly two years now
Before I went vegan, I was Ovo-lacto-Vegetarian(used to eat eggs, dairy products and vegetarian food-no meat)
This Mediterranean Lunch platter dates back from back then.i DIDN'T MAKE IT.i ate this at a deli in the US.
Greek and Mediterranean food per say does use a lot of cheeses/yogurt in its recipes.But yes, there are lot of really vegan recipes too.
This platter cost 9$.Not bad..But I could make 2 such vegan platters with 9$ now!! LOL.
I took time to print the names of the ingredients on the picture .Click on picture to see a larger view and you can read the names of what all was there on the platter

Mashed potatoes can hardly qualify as Mediterranean.But Most American restaurants will tend to Americanize every ethnic platter to suit the needs of the Average American ..Honestly, I think there is NO NEED TO AMERICANIZE anything.Anyways!!

OCT 2013 UPDATE

This is ONE OF THE MOST VISITED BLOG ENTRIES on my blog..
 I AM EMBARASSED BY THAT FACT.
why?
I didn't set out to type out a blog entry about a mediterranean platter at all.
I INTENDED TO CRITICIZE how IN-AUTHENTIC this particular mediterranean platter at a US deli was...plus,given that i paid nine dollars way back in 2005 or 2006,IT WAS FAR TOO PRICEY for the food i got too.
bUT,SINCE,this blog entry keeps receiving such high number of visits each month,I AM OBLIGATED TO ADD AN UPDATE AND add in some useful information to it too.

First off all,
WHAT DOES THE WORD "mediterranean" mean!
let us go check wikipedia...the easily accesible FREE encyclopedia on the net...constantly getting updated and edited by the readers themselves...
Like I always say,if you have some free change on hand,PLEASE DONATE IT TO WIKIPEDIA.

When i say, i am going and checking on a wikipedia page before writing a blog entry,IT IS NOT so that i can plagiarize from there.It is just to see,what is already out there and then PROVIDE MY EXPERT twist to that already existing information.

so,let us analyze
COUNTRIES INCLUDED IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION
are

a/italy
b/spain
c/france

d/morocco
e/turkey
f/egypt

g/monaco
h/montenegro
i/malta

j/tunisia
k/libya

l/turkey
m/greece
n/cyprus

o/croatia
p/albania
q/algeria
r/bosnia-herzegovina
s/slovenia

t/lebanon
u/israel
v/syria
w/palestine

x/gibraltar
y/akrotiri
z/northern cyprus

As you can see,mediterranean countries are those that sorround the MEDITERRANEAN SEA.
tons of HISTORY THERE.

So,as you can see,I have also color coded the countries into blue and red and arranged them in CUISINE GROUPS, and also using LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET.

As you can now understand,THERE ARE ENOUGH countries in the mediterranean to FILL OUT THE ENGLISH ALPHABET...

So,it is really unfair to GROUP UP 26 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES into one single CUISINE GROUP...

Each single group has a different style altogether...
so,seriously,,A MEDITERREAN PLATTER IS faulty UNLESS it attempts to include atleast ONE DISH from each of these cuisine groups...

seriously,,,as far as I KNOW..greek food is SO  DIFFERENT FROM say, egyptian food or italian food...

Something that strikes me is that MOST OF THESE COUNTRIES do use the TOMATO...surely!

So many of these cultures are SHEPERD OR COWHERD based cultures in the past 500years( all of use were vegan before the concept of rearing animals of other species came into existence but ,well,that is a whole other blog entry about FOOD HISTORY)

so,when you attempt to make a platter,PLEASE INCLUDE TOMATO BASED RECIPES IN YOUR PLATTER.

Great idea to include a dip ...rice and pasta...AND flatbreads...are big on the mediterranean menu-so please include atleast ONE TYPE OF FLATBREAD .

When I think of mediterranean,I THINK OF OLIVES..So,please include OLIVES in your mediterranean platter!
olives for sure...k?

MAYBE , I will make my own platter with ONE RECIPE from each of these countries and then make a new blog entry...yeah?

till then,please go explore cuisine from each of these countries ,which are quite DIFFERNT from one another...and don't use BLANKET STATEMENTS LIKE  "mediterranean cuisine"..
IT IS A FAULTY STATEMENT.