Food. Glorious food

 

I love food. I believe that it is an extremely underrated blessing. Sometimes, even the most seemingly simple dish will overwhelm you with its delicious simplicity. For example, my mother had once made dal and mutton keema and let me tell you: I almost had tears in my eyes. It was peak deliciousness and I had never been so satisfied. My parents (most importantly, my esteemed father) used to always emphasize the importance of food and how blessed we are to get three, wholesome meals every day. If ever any of us kids were faced with a dish we weren’t impressed with…we still ate it anyway. I am not especially fond of organ meats yet every year it is cooked with the most appetizing way on every Eid. And if you think I snoop around the kitchen for a second option whenever it is cooked, you are absolutely wrong.

 Under my father’s gaze, I eat it without a complaint. Funnily enough, all three of us (that is, me and my two sisters) do not agree with eating coconuts. It is different if it has been used in a savory dish and cannot be tasted but raw coconut...I know it’s healthy but spare us. It is literally the only thing we do not eat. Our dad has forced us a lot of times ( even recently ) to like this healthy fruit, but it ended up rather un -rewarding. My younger sister spat it out before she could vomit (the audacity of this young imp) while we mature elders swallowed it quietly. Of course, it ended up with our father profusely trying to convince us that it is very nutritious but I don’t blame him. It sounds off-putting to hear that a person dislikes a very common thing but to be fair, I can handle a few bites. More than that is…questionable. I do not like to say that I dislike a particular food item because it feels awfully disrespectful to say that when a blessing in the form of nutritious food has come your way. I can’t be a hypocrite either, right?  

While I am a big fan of Indian food, I love Mediterranean food too. Since I have spent half of my childhood lounging in the beautiful port city called Jeddah, my equally –foodie father exposed us to the varieties of Arabic cuisine. Merely remembering those flavorful things makes my heart twist in mournful longing. 

In this article, you shall probably find me repeating the same, melo-dramatic sentence over and over again but please bear with me. Food leaves a very huge impression on me and my heart. My salivary glands worked overtime every time we were waiting for our food in an Arabic restaurant.

School was fun but the food always has a place in my heart.  Mediterranean dishes have this really flavorful, spiced and authentic taste to them. If you were to take a bite out of one of their dishes, you would feel the authenticity of peak Arabia in it. My soul is being strangled with tears as I remember just how delicious that food was.

 During some weekends, my father used to bring Ful wa Tameez for breakfast. It is a popular breakfast option made from fava beans, spices and olive oil. It is eaten with a flatbread and it tastes amazing. It is so effortlessly spicy and mild at the same time that I used to eat the sauce all by itself. Eating it made me feel like life was complete! 

One of my most fond memories with food was when we were visiting Makkah in 2016. Before we entered the holy mosque, a lady was distributing shawarma and orange juice packs with it. She was just distributing it out of the pure thought of giving and we could feel it. She passed by and gave me and my sisters too. Behind her veil, her eyes crinkled with a smile that straight up penetrated my heart. During Ramadan, random people keep distributing dates to the worshippers and during Iftar (the time to break the fast), the management of the Masjid Al-Haram distributes Iftar meals to everyone. The mere sight of people giving away food, purely at the thought of making others feel good makes you feel that maybe humanity has some hope.

 Shawarma is the most easily available and fulfilling snack for most of the people.  Some may try to replicate it and end up adding mayonnaise, but listen dear readers: That shawarma gets robbed off of its authentic Middle Eastern vibes if you put mayo in it. In all of my time there, I have never eaten a shawarma with mayonnaise in it. Shawarmas are packed with spices, grilled chicken and tahini sauce. Tahini sauce is the game changer so imagine my disappointment when I tasted the shawarma made in my city. I don’t blame anyone for liking it with mayo, I just want people to get a whiff of its original counterpart. It will not taste bad with mayonnaise, it just feels regular! The Arabic vibes did not even come.  

Another popular savory dish is Hummus. Words fail me to describe it. It has such an earthy, lemony, garlicky flavor to it that I just want to inhale it. Dolmas, the rolls made from grapefruit leaves and stuffed with rice and meat also were the deal-breakers.

Since I have been gushing non-stop about the savory dishes, let’s shift to the desserts. I do not have a crazed liking for sweets. Rather, I enjoy them to a certain extent. Here, I shall now gush to my heart’s content about Kunafah. As I write about this toothsome, luscious and scrumptious dish, my heart squeezes with longing and my stomach growls at its mere thought. It is crunchy and sweet and melts in the mouth. The crunchy kataifi (it tastes like vermicelli and looks like it too) topping the thick, creamy layer of cheese at the bottom, the entire load drowning in the sugar syrup: my life felt complete every time I ate it. I would recommend giving it a try. 

Baklava is a layered pastry dish made of filo pastries, nuts and sugar. My mother used to get loads of Baklava from her students, which ultimately used to get attacked by us kids. Alongside traditional food, we also enjoyed the convenience store food. There is a date-filled biscuit called Mamoul which by far is the most unbeatable biscuit I had ever eaten. It makes you feel comforted and...words fail me to describe it. Just think about the soft, sweet dates enfolded by a crumbly cover of biscuits which melted in your mouth the second you bit into it. Also, since we are on the topic of dates, Saudi Arabia is a treasure trove of delicious dates. I am sure there are other countries who produce it , so please do not get mad at me for my lack of information. In any case, I preferred dates over any other dessert since it is delicious and nutritious at the same time.  

This entire article has turned into the most confusing mess I had ever written. My brain glitches at the many memories I have of my time there. There was so much more to it than this! The food was so good that my memories are immediately overlapped by it. Although I hope you liked reading it !