World Food Thursdays

Country No. 12: Palestine

 

Date: 24/02/2015

 

Venue: Maramia Cafe, Westbourne Park

 

Attendees: Ben, Lee, Kim, Maor, Ellen, Poppy

 

Cost: £20 per head, no alcohol but copious Arabic tea

 

If you’d have thought that a little adventure to France would be the swansong for WFT you’d be wrong. We are committed gastronauts and after a mere six weeks were ready to resume the challenge of finding obscure cuisines to consume in London.

 

For this edition of WFT we were shorn of two of our members, who have the small matter of a new born baby (hi Sadie) to contend with. 6 almost became 5 as Ben made the questionable decision to cycle to Westbourbne Park from the City, crossing Regents Park in the pitch black and then trying, and repeatedly failing, to navigate Little Venice.

 

Eventually, 45 minutes after the table was booked Ben arrived, sweating profusely (an entire floor to ceiling window immediately fogged up) and was not greeted with the concern he might have anticipated, but instead with cries of “they have the best humus here, you have to try it”. So try it he did. It was, admittedly, very good.

 

Having spent a considerable amount of time waiting for their dinner it was understandable that Ben was banned from the ordering process – not to worry though. In no time at all the table was weighed down with platters of fresh mezze, a fiery dip made from broad beans, a delicious babaganoush, some immaculate Kibbeh and Falafel, juicy lamb sausages and finally more of the prize winning humus. The mezze was clearly all made fresh and inspired a detailed conversation about the joy of pulses and grains…we are a wild bunch at WFT!

 

After a short pause the mains were delivered to no little aplomb. Both chicken and halloumi musakhan were ordered, and devoured by all attendees. Musakhan consists of finely shredded chicken mixed with onion jam and pine nuts seasoned with sumac and then wrapped in a thin bread and baked. It was served on a bed of lettuce on a giant wooden board with generous amounts of sour cream and can best be described as a Palestinian kebab.

 

We also ordered some grilled lamb which was so good that there was a mini war over the meat juice soaked bread that was sitting underneath.

 

After quite a long wait, while most of the restaurant staff went off to spend time with their family (the owners live in the lower ground floor) we finally managed to order a dessert selection. The platter arrived and was met with sceptical looks from certain, weaker members of the gang who may have feared that our appetites would not survive the sheer weight of honey imbued goodness that sat before us. They were wrong, every small piece was devoured, with particular praise given to a chocolate based sponge.

 

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World food is now on a small break as Maor and Poppy are getting married, and Becky and Paul are looking after their beautiful baby girl.

 

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Facts (sponsored by Maor):

 

• Palestine is home to one tiny brewery, Taybeh, which is brewed in a tiny Christian village in the West Bank

• Not strictly a Palestinian fact but the Druze were discussed at length. The Druze are an offshoot of Islam and live in large numbers in villages in the Golan Heights in Northern Israel. There are a disproportionate number of Druze holding prominent roles in Israeli politics.

• The Palestinian football team is known as the Lions of Canaan, in Arabic Lions translate to Aswad, which brings to mind the 90’s classic, Shine.