Saj
For thin bread.
Middle Eastern cuisine · The table
The Middle Eastern table
A Middle Eastern meal can be mezze — falafel, hummus, and fattoush belong together — or a shawarma plate of its own.
Falafel, hummus, and fattoush share a mezze cloth with pita, pickles, and oil. Lamb shawarma is a sandwich or a plate with tahini and pickles — street food that can follow mezze in a restaurant, but at home it is cleaner as its own night.
The inherited table is many small plates. The newer table is a wrap in the hand.
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How it looks
The mezze table
Falafel, hummus, fattoush, pita, pickles.
The inherited table is shared dips and a fried falafel, a bread salad of toasted pita, oil, lemon. Hands in the same bowls.
How it looks
The shawarma counter
A wrap or a plate, tahini, pickles. The mezze bowls are washed.
The newer night is shawarma. Pita. Pickles. Tahini. Tomato. That is the plate.
How it is served
The order of the room
Small plates together, or shawarma in pita. Not a tasting of both mains.
Mezze is allowed to be many. Shawarma as a second main on the same home table turns it into a pile. Pick the spread or the wrap.
Bring it home
What this table needs
Objects you can read about here, then find on Amazon — search links, not a single SKU that goes stale.
Rakweh
Coffee after.
Zaatar
On oil and bread.
Sumac
On the fattoush.
Shawarma spice
On the meat.
Baharat
A warmer blend for another pot.
Keep cooking
The Middle Eastern pantry, pots, and table
The spices, mixes, and hearths that belong to Middle Eastern cooking — then the people around them, and the kitchens still joining the table.
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