Palestinian cuisine a variety of leaf vegetables, primarily grape leaves, cabbage leaves and less often chard. "Mahshi" requires delicacy and time—the main reason it is prepared before the day it is cooked and served. Many female family members participate in the rolling and stuffing of the vegetables, relaxing the amount of individual effort required, with great attention to detail. "Waraq Dawali" (stuffed grape leaves), is a "mahshi" meal reserved for large gatherings. The grape leaves are normally wrapped around minced meat, white rice and diced tomatoes, however meat is not always used. Dawali is an excellent representation of the attention to detail
Cabbage that cabbage planted too near the vine would impart its unwelcome odor to the grapes; this Mediterranean sense of antipathy survives today. "Brassica" was considered by some Romans a table luxury, although Lucullus considered it unfit for the senatorial table. The more traditionalist Cato the Elder, espousing a simple, Republican life, ate his cabbage cooked or raw and dressed with vinegar; he said it surpassed all other vegetables, and approvingly distinguished three varieties; he also gave directions for its medicinal use, which extended to the cabbage-eater's urine, in which infants might be rinsed. Pliny the Elder listed seven varieties, including