FOOD Tayybeh is a celebration of Syrian fare

It’s difficult to comprehend the pain and grief Syrian refugee Kawthar Barho is experiencing after losing all seven of her children in a house fire in their adopted community, Spryfield, a Halifax suburb, on February 19. Her husband, Ebraheim, remains in hospital with extensive burns, the family having fled the embattled nation just 18 months ago.

The Barho children ranged in age from four months to 15 years. The devastating story hit the families of Tayybeh: A Celebration of Syrian Cuisine especially hard. The Vancouver social enterprise employs women who similarly escaped war and violence to build new lives in the safe haven of Canada. These women are now supporting their families by cooking their deeply flavourful traditional foods for Tayybeh’s pop-up dinners, catered events, seasonal food truck, and stands at local markets.

One of the chefs, Inaas, is a mom who lost one of her five children in Syria. Her beloved 14-year-old son was murdered by ISIS for having the same first name as President Bashar al-assad.

“The news [of the fire] left me completely speechless,” Inaas tells the Georgia Straight. “Having lost my dear son Bashar, I know how heartbreaking it is to live with the pain. These tragic stories are so painful because they are so close to home for us.”

Although the group’s pop-up dinners have been extraordinarily successful, selling out in minutes, Tayybeh launched its catering service a year and a half after starting up due to so much demand and to help establish a more secure source of income for the women.

Tayybeh’s catering division now has multiple menus, such as à la carte, office lunches, receptions (cocktails and finger foods), seasonal, and, soon, weddings. Many options are vegan.

In addition to local favourites— like mutabbal, a creamy smoked-eggplant dip; a red-pepper spread called mhammara; and makloubeh, aromatic rice with aubergine, seasoned ground beef, almonds, and parsley— new menu items include lentil soup, olive-and-red-pepper pie, yogurt-cucumber dip, pea-and-meatball stew, vegan okra stew, fasolia bil zeit (vegan slow-cooked green beans), and a dessert called madlouka, a light angelhair pastry topped with ashta—a type of Arabic cream—and pistachios.

So far, Tayybeh has 99 reviews on Facebook, with a score of 4.9 out of 5.

“Every time our chefs prepare food, they do so as if they are feeding their families,” says Tayybeh founder Nihal Elwan. “The main ingredient is lots of love.” g