Our second Foreign Correspondent has returned from her travels! Stacy, her husband, and her two children traveled to Istanbul and Jerusalem this summer. We outfitted them with a suitcase full of Tea before they left, asking them to share their adventures with us upon their return. Below is part 4 of their adventure.
To say that we ate well while vacationing this summer would be a gross understatement. What can I say? The food was amazing. My husband waits all year in great anticipation to return home and eat his mother’s cooking.
My husband’s top three Palestinian meals are:
- Maklouba – “upside down” rice with veggies (cauliflower, carrots or, my personal favorite, EGGPLANT) and chicken or meat. After a number of steps (!), the ingredients are cooked in one pot, allowed to cool, then flipped over onto a serving platter and garnished with toasted pine nuts. Served with plain yogurt on top.
- 2. Waraq Dawali – stuffed grape leaves. This meal is a true labor of love. It’s not that it’s particularly complicated, but it is incredibly time consuming to make. Small bits of lamb meat and rice are placed on a grape leaf, rolled up tightly and then cooked in tomato juice stovetop. We prefer to eat this only in Jerusalem with either my husband’s mom or one of his aunts preparing it because, for some reason, the grape leaves just never seem to taste quite as delicious at a restaurant here.
- Mujaderra – rice, lentils, caramelized onions, cumin, and cinnamon. This is a very, very popular vegetarian dish. It’s more often made in the chilly winter months, but my husband and the kids can eat this for breakfast, lunch or dinner twelve months a year. They absolutely love it.
We had a number of incredible meals throughout our trip – In Istanbul, lamb and tomatoes served over taboon-baked bread and yogurt and a sandwich/wrap called doner (usually lamb or chicken cooked on a vertical spit and sliced off to order). In Jerusalem, we enjoyed going out for meshawwi, or barbeque. Favorites are ground meat mixed with onions and parsley skewered , cubed chicken marinated in lemon, olive oil and garlic and then skewered, lamb chops, and fresh tomatoes, onions, and peppers. One night, we sat under a Bedouin tent in a lovely garden, sipping tea, eating a wonderful barbeque meal with my husband’s parents, two of his brothers and their families, and our kids. The kids ran around and we just ate and ate. It was such a perfect night.