Portraiture of Sahara Mediterranean cuisine
It was one afternoon that I decided to do and have lunch with my friend when I visited him where he lives. The sun was high up and the temperatures were crazily hot, with sweat dripping of our faces, it was a sure sign that summer was still there and yet the heat was to torment us reminding me of a reading that said burning like hell. Well in a way I said maybe this is hell on earth.
As we entered the restaurant we were met by a mass of people come in and out like they were taking shifts. Some had dreamy faces with toothpicks hanging from their mouths suggesting that they had enjoyed the delicacies offered at the restaurant. One man said to his friend,” Waah! Kassim this is why I miss my country, the food is just so beautifully made and the smell is good which gives me nostalgic moments from when I was a kid.” Clearly he expressed his utter satisfaction of what he had eaten, moreover I noticed he was Arabian. Little kids were holding onto their parents joyfully talking of how one of them belched so loud that the half the restaurant froze for a moment and then laughed.
While we were inside I noticed a number of things. Most of the clients were of Arabian origin since we were the only non-Arabic customers. Most men and women were dressed up in Arabic regalia, with the men rocking the thawb plus their small hats that have got a hair-like string coming from the hats center. The women otherwise wore hijabs that were more of light weighed to ease of the sun’s heat. However apparently the inside of the cuisine was as cool as the Alps despite the hot temperatures outside. This first relieved us as the restaurant gave us refuge from the deadly sun. The cuisines environment of relaxation then crept in, I started to feel at ease and I guess the Arabian effect also came in. I felt like I was in a hotel in the Middle East!
Beauty is what I can use to describe the cuisines unique design. The walls were painted orange with a little touch of light brown with paintings symbolizing the Arabic culture hanging on the walls. The ample light that spread throughout the cuisine illuminated the walls giving the walls life! In fact another guy we met there told us that at night the walls glow giving one an experience of watching an Arabian night. There was this one painting that caught my eye. It was of a beautiful Arabian girl, who had half her eyes covered and her waist was bare as she kind of like danced. They called her the ‘Asha’. Her eyes were mesmerizing in way that made someone not want to set them off her. There was some hidden beauty behind her as a I thought. Later the owner came and told us that she was a beauty pearl that once lived a long time ago. The tables were exotic made of some hardwood that smell of vine but I am sure the wood itself was not of the same. On the tables were mini-mats that had Arabic calligraphy and on them were shisha pots or shisha hookahs that were multi-colored whose color mixture perfectly resembles that of a peacock. This reminded me what one Arabic neighbor of mine once told me that in Arabia it was all about beauty through colors.
Spicy sweet aroma hit us, then we thought, we should immediately get the menu. As we checked out the menu, the owner apparently came to us to personally serve us. He was kind and advised us on what to eat since he noticed that we were not familiar with the food. Therefore, he took us through the Arabian food experience explaining in detail what each thing was. I gave the management a plus on this. I swear I was already salivating just from what he told us about the food description. Well plus the smell of shisha kind of mixed up with the foods aroma and the air smelt uniquely fine.
I started with hummus plus other dips and wow! It was deliciously amazing. It was served with olive oil and pine nuts. Well to me it looked like some form of mosaic art. Yeah even the food is art! Then the owner told us that in Arabic culture food has to have a meaning, it should be beautiful, and has to smell nice and apparently I got the whole package. However, I wish I had ordered the lamb that my friend had ordered for it was exceptionally tasty.
I give credit to a lot of things in the restaurant. Good service, quietness, no television hence no contact with whatever is going on out there, no alcohol, it is good for groups, no Wi-Fi which means no eating while on the internet, and it is also good for kids. The aim of all this was to make one experience eating in peace and without disturbance. On the negative side they do not do delivery and apparently most people talk Arabic so if you understand you are left out in conversations but that just made me want to learn the language because I think it also has a part to play in experiencing eating at the cuisine.
All I can is when we left the cuisine there was this tune from Aladdin called Arabian nights that was ringing in my head. Guess the Arabian in me had been found and it felt awesome.
Works Cited
Taylor, Post. "Meals at Sahara like visiting the Mediterranean" Post-Tribune [New York] 9 May 2008: 20. Print.
