IMEU : Cuisine

Hilda's Malban (Vivien Sansour, This Week in Palestine)

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 10:53:40 PST

White sheets covered with a brown spread of cooked grape juice hang every August off my Aunt Hilda's balcony. It takes her more than three days to create a delicacy that ignites the palate with the intense flavours of qraish (pine nuts), sesame, and the refreshing zest of Palestine's Dabuki grapes straight from her garden - all of which create the perfect fruit leather: malban.

A Dugout Dream (IMEU)

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:08:51 PST

Thirteen years ago, Ramzi Quiseyeh had a dream- when he was picnicking with his family on his land in Al Makhrour valley in Beit Jala he decided to turn his farm into a restaurant. But Ramzi's dream was interrupted last May when Israeli army jeeps and three bulldozers came at six in the morning and demolished the restaurant under the premise that its construction was illegal.

The culinary treasures of the Gaza Strip: New cookbook aims to bridge political divide with tasty food (Ehab Zahriyeh, NY Daily News)

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:03:03 PST

A book on the Gaza Strip could brim with stories of war, a failed peace process and broken ceasefires, of naval blockades and homemade rockets. But not this one. "The Gaza Kitchen Cookbook: A Palestinian Culinary Journey" is unlike any other book on Gaza or, for that matter, any cookbook you have ever come across, taking readers inside the traditions and cultures of an ancient land while refusing to shy away from the region's painful past.

New book celebrates besieged Gaza's vibrant (and spicy) cuisine (Hadeel Assali, The Electronic Intifada)

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 08:39:03 PST

The Gaza Kitchen, a new book by Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt, challenges the pervasive image of Gaza as destitute, war-torn and bereft of any possibility of a vibrant culture.

Canaan Fair Trade founder to receive Leadership Award for Citizenship from NASFT (IMEU)

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 06:08:38 PST

On January 22, Nasser Abufarha, the founder and director of Canaan Fair Trade, will be receiving the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade's first annual Leadership Award for Citizenship. The award will be presented in San Francisco at the Fancy Food Show.

Rooftop farms provide rich pickings in refugee camp (Catriona Davies, CNN)

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 08:09:53 PST

Hajar Hamdan lives with her mother, sister and her sister's two children in the concrete jungle of Deheishe refugee camp near Bethlehem in the West Bank. Yet Hamdan is growing enough vegetables on her roof to feed her family and pass the surplus on to her neighbors. Hamdan's family is one of 15 in Deheishe to have a greenhouse on their roof as part of a project which is now being extended to other Palestinian refugee camps.

Kibbeh Time: Tanoreen Scores a Cookbook Deal (Hugh Merwin, NYMag.com)

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 07:41:42 PST

Fans of Tanoreen's Middle Eastern food — admirable eggplant, sumac-tinted sujuk, beet pickles, pillowy hummus, lamb kibbeh, and tabbouleh laden with mint and parsley so green and evenly chopped it seemingly emerged from a lawnmower retrofitted with razor sharp ginsu knives — will be happy to know chef/owner Rawia Bishara is writing a cookbook.

Signs of success in Gaza trainee kitchen (Al Jazeera)

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 07:15:45 PST

A small group of trainee chefs in the Gaza Strip are preparing to open a restaurant staffed entirely by the hearing impaired. The new cooks learned their skills in an environment where lessons were taught with hands rather than words.

Gaza's Food Heritage (Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt, Saudi Aramco World)

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 07:16:27 PST

As home to the largest concentration of refugees within historic Palestine, Gaza is an extraordinary place to encounter culinary traditions, not only from hundreds of towns and villages that now exist only in memory-depopulated and destroyed during the Palestinian exodus of 1948-but also from the rest of Gaza's long history.

Recipe: Sumagiyya (Laila El Haddad and Maggie Schmitt, The Gaza Kitchen)

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 06:55:13 PST

Ah, Sumagiyya-that quintessential Gazan dish that is either much loved, or much hated! Sumagiyya (in classical Arabic: Sumaqiyya) is a classic Gaza City dish, one in the category of single-bowl dishes popular in Gaza. Sumagiyya's greyish appearance-a result of the sumac, its namesake, and tahina-can be off-putting to some,but don’t judge a dish by its cover! While the dish is usually made with an infusion of whole sumac berries, ground sumac will do in a pinch.