Knafeh for Two

Five days before we went into total lock down, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mohammed Sayem of Raleigh's Habibi Grill and Bakery. What a different world. Mohammed and I chatted over small paper cups of cardamon-spiced Turkish coffee, joked about the pandemic we still couldn't fully see coming, and shared a knafeh without a second thought. I left laden with bags of chicken and pita and baba ganoush, having already discussed what I'd try next time, sure I'd be back soon for another interview. That was two months ago yesterday.

The accompanying podcast is my final project for an audio production course I took this past semester called "Feeding the Diaspora." A reader of this blog knows of my interests in Israeli cuisine, but I visited Habibi searching for another story. Habibi is quietly serving Palestinian cuisine, the only nod to national origin a small newspaper article framed on the wall. I won't say much more on content because I want to let the audio speak for itself, but my visit to Habibi was one of those wonderful experiences where you go in looking for one story and come out re-thinking all your preconceptions.

I avoided injecting Coronavirus into this project. After all, Mohammed and I spoke in a world where you could still break bread with a stranger. But as I transcribed and edited, clipped and scripted, I did think of how different this conversation would have been at the end of that week instead of the beginning. Habibi is still open for takeout, but it is hard to know when restaurants will be able to return as normal. North Carolina is in a phased re-opening and phase two (beginning May 22nd) allows them to open at limited capacity. But will restaurants, which run on such tight margins, be able to persist on limited capacity? Will people feel comfortable eating out, or just as soon stick to our new normal of eating at home? Much of this podcast is about the power of commensality; the practice of eating together. Even if there is nothing inherently revolutionary about sitting around a table, there's certainly much potential in producing and consuming food together. In the midst of the coronavirus we see meaningful organizing around food; communities rallying to support local farmers and restaurants, to keep each other afloat. In my household at least, we've enjoyed reconnecting around a table that too often hosts solitary meals in the face of hectic and over scheduled lives. What is the future of commensality in a post-pandemic age?

I couldn't return to Habibi, but I could try to bring the taste of that day to me; to conjure that feeling of new people, places and ideas, to remember the smell of "chicken mandy" filling my car on the ride home, returning home from somewhere else, scooping up yellow rice and grilled onions in pockets of pita, straight out of the Styrofoam box. So I made knafeh, but knafeh for two because, well, pandemic. I ordered kadaif and bright orange food coloring off amazon. I substituted almonds for pistachios because Harris Teeter was out and we don't go to two grocery stores anymore. I ate it hot, right out of the oven, enjoying the bubbling cheese, the crunchy pastry and sweet floral of the rosewater-splashed syrup. Food can take you back through the passages of your own memory, for me, to Habibi on a sunny spring day, then to Nazareth, on a cobble-stoned street the first time I tried knafeh. But food can also take you somewhere new; a new taste or a new place, maybe even to Habibi Grill and Bakery, (which by the way seems to have weathered the storm!), and where you can still purchase your own delicious knafeh/kunafa to go.

Knafeh for Two

Adapted from Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen by Yasmin Khan

Ingredients

Syrup

1/3 C water

1/3 C sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon rosewater

Knafeh

95g kataifi pastry

40g salted butter, melted

65g grated mozzarella and 90g ricotta, combined

Kanafa coloring

roughly chopped almonds, to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.

2. To make the syrup, combine water, sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan, simmering over medium heat. Stir and simmer for about five minutes. Turn off the heat, add rosewater and let cool completely.

3. Pulse kataifi pastry in food processor.

4. Brush two small baking dishes with butter (I used 5" foil pans). Add remaining butter to kataifi pastry and pulse to combine.

5. Divide 1/3 of the total pastry between two pans. Top with even amounts of cheese mixture. Divide remaining pastry between two pans. You're basically sandwiching the cheese between the pastry mixture. Sprinkle kanafa coloring over the top.

6. Bake for 35 minutes. Pour syrup over the top when it is hot out of the oven. I used about half the syrup at first and served them with the remaining syrup on the side. Top with crushed almonds.

Further Reading:

Books:

Falafel Nation: Cuisine and the Making of National Identity in Israel by Yael Raviv

Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen by Yasmin Khan

Articles:

"Gastrodiplomacy in Palestine-Israel" by Jennifer Shutek

"Review: Habibi Grill and Bakery sets itself apart with owner's native Palestinian specials" by Greg Cox (The News and Observer)

And please, visit Habibi at 1007 Method Road, Raleigh, NC 27606 and at their website: www.habibigrill.com