[hnhg]

Plus lots of salad and olive oil. I believe the use of "Mediterranean" is to avoid strange expectations about Middle Eastern food, which many people seem to erroneously expect to be more like Indian.

[gs17]

I always assumed it was due to a lot of Americans thinking "middle eastern" has a negative connotation.

[microtherion]

Yeah, back in Europe, I used to associate "Mediterranean Cuisine" with Greek, Italian, Spanish, and possibly Portuguese (geographical reality aside).