Getting stuffed

I will be home in Damascus in 72 hours and I cannot wait. Like many Syrians in foreign lands, going home every year is a tradition when many interesting things happen; we meet the family, hang out with friends, do needed paperwork, and most importantly, get stuffed with mothers’ food.

My mother starts listing meals she will cook for me weeks before my arrival. She calls, suggests recipes, argue about how to cook them, listen to my requests, and then ignore them and do whatever she pleases. If one thing is certain, it is that I will have to go back to my pre-diet trousers and relax my belt a notch.

For us, Levantine food lovers blessed with mothers and mothers-in-law who make heavenly dishes, this will fulfil the urge for the week we spend with them, maybe for a few weeks later when we can still taste the spices in our mouths. But what about the other 50 weeks of the year?

Do not despair, there are solutions!

Cooking might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and cooking some Syrian recipes is particularly complicated, just think of attempting to make Kibbeh balls in perfect identical shape and stuff it and you will know what I mean. However, it is not that hard to make some of the most delicious and famous Syrian recipes. A beautiful dish of Hummus will only take basic ingredients, a food blender, and 20 minutes, and Voila!

Many other dishes can be made easily, those will cure craving and make great snacks and meals for your non-Middle Eastern friends. This is particularly easy with Middle Eastern ingredients available around the world in specialised grocery stores and big supermarkets.

One of the best places to find Syrian recipes, and I acknowledge being biased here, is a wonderful blog written by my oldest friend. On his blog, he calls himself Kano which is good for anonymity and a nice reminder of our childhood when we used to play Mortal Combat on his Nintendo. Kano was the name of the character he always played.

Kano wakes up every morning in London and goes to a hospital where he performs surgeries. Unlike me, he continued his clinical career, wears a tie, and looks as doctors should. But in the evenings, in his kitchen/lair, he sheds the doctors skin and unleashes the chef. He cooks, experiments, creates, takes pictures, and writes recipes hundreds of people wait to read about and try.

Everyone has a talent, Kano’s talent is food. He can know taste of recipes that are still an idea in his head, and he can make food that reminds me of my childhood and help me show people that the Middle East is not about wars, bombs, and protests; but about culture, food, art, and history.

Among the millions of blogs flying in the ether, a few are worth reading, some are even worth going back to, and even less blogs keep you on your toes waiting for the next posting. This is what the Syrian Foodie does.

For the other 50 weeks of the year, thank you Kano!


And here are your 500 words for today.