Dekwaneh, Lebanon
In a bustling neighbourhood outside of Lebanon’s capital Beirut, a group of Syrian refugee women is learning to translate knowledge of their regional dishes into a marketable skill.
They hail from different provinces across the war-torn country, united by their exile in Lebanon, and are hoping their famed cuisine can provide both an income and empowerment.
For about two months they have been participating in a food skills workshop dreamed up by a Lebanese restaurant and financed by the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR with help from the Lebanese branch of the Caritas charity.
In a modest basement belonging to Caritas in the Dekwaneh suburb of Beirut, Ibtissam Masto proudly shows off her “monk kibbeh” — balls of bulghur wheat seasoned with pomegranate molasses that is a speciality of Jisr Al Shughur in northwestern Idlib province. The petite young woman, wearing a black headscarf, fled several months ago from her home town, which is now better known for violence between rebels and regime troops than its culinary specialities.
Unemployed
“I had a great life in Jisr Al Shughur before the war. I used to sing anasheed [religious songs] during marriages and funerals,” says Masto.
“I gave lessons at a religious school and I worked in a pharmacy,” she adds, in a voice full of energy.
“Here, not only am I unemployed, but my husband, who is a plumber, is diabetic and can’t work every day,” she says as she prepares the pomegranate molasses, a key ingredient in Syrian cuisine.
“The idea of this workshop excited me. I hope I’ll be able to make some money.”
Though their primary motivation is financial, the workshop has also given the refugees a way to feel useful, to forget their exile and the war, and also to get to know Syrians from across their country.
Participants come from diverse regions including Idlib, northwestern Hasakeh and northern Aleppo provinces.
For Marlene Yukhanna, an Assyrian Christian from Hasakeh, the experience has been a chance to learn Syrian specialities that were new to her.
The 40-year-old mother-of-three can now whip up the Idlib dish of mahshi bulghur - eggplants stuffed with bulghur and chickpeas - and kibbeh semmayeh, which uses the spice sumac and hails from Aleppo.
In exchange, she and her friend Nahrain have been teaching their colleagues their specialities.
Among them is Assyrian kofta, pounded meat mixed with rice, parsley and tomato sauce, and kotal Mosul, a dish of cracked wheat with meat that comes from Iraq, which the Assyrian community was forced to flee in the early 20th century.
Because many dishes are common to cuisines throughout the Levant, the participants have been encouraged to produce only unique regional specialities little seen elsewhere.
“We did the same project previously with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and it worked very well,” said Jihan Shahla of Tawlet Souq Al Tayeb, the Lebanese restaurant behind the project.
— AFP
