Shawarma to hummus: A taste of comfort from one of Abu Dhabi's oldest outlets

If you’re trying to find a home in a new country, you always start with the food. Not just any local food, but dishes from outlets that have existed for decades. You start with the tiny outlets, that have stories hidden in each pickle, chicken dish and meat. The homesickness might not vanish immediately with each bite, but at least you feel a little warm inside.

In the UAE, you start with a shawarma. I will be honest: I thought that I had eaten shawarmas before.

It’s only when I came to the UAE, did I realise how wrong I was. Till then, I had accepted whatever was given to me, in the form of a roll and meat. It was delicious for sure, but it wasn’t a shawarma. And, the best way to learn what a real shawarma felt like, was to eat it from an outlet that had stood for more than 40 years in Abu Dhabi.

Maroosh, where one outlet exists in Tourist club area.

Such food is wrapped in stories, and especially if it had formed a part of my husband’s childhood. As he explained, his parents would buy shawarmas from the same outlet, every couple of weeks, when he and his brother were younger. It was still here; the flavours had persisted like the memories. Memories, that slowly allowed me to see Abu Dhabi through a different lens, rather than just as a ‘new city’.

And, being parked outside Maroosh, ordering takeaway, threaded new memories of UAE. Chicken shawarma, a falafel sandwich, which is my husband’s favourite. When I finally bit into it, I tasted the zing of cucumber pickles, the chicken and the garlic sauce.

There was a plate of French fries, and even though I’m not a fan, I tried a few of those too. 

 Soon, every couple of weeks, it almost became a tradition: To stop by, for a few shawarmas.

Once I began to consider Abu Dhabi my home, I would order home. And with the shawarmas, a love for hummus developed. Once again, I discovered how wrong I had been about my own preferences for hummus, and what I loved: There are a few things as calming as seeing the box of hummus, with trademark oil. And there are even fewer things as good, as breaking a piece of pita, and swiping it in the hummus to eat.

You know you’ve accepted a country as your own, when you order their food home, more than something like momos and dimsums, which used to be my default mechanism.

A shawarma on tiring days it is. On very tiring days, it’s a hummus, with some meat.