NEW START IN NEW LAND
Iraqi treats symbolize family’s safety
Many people are inspired to create food by their family experiences growing up, their trips to various countries, or simply their imaginations.
The inspiration for Sama Saidi’s new booth at the St. Albert Farmers’ Market is somewhat more sober.
“The inspiration is the big ugly war,” says Saidi, 36, who was raised in conflict-torn Iraq. “I didn’t want my kids to see that. I felt secure in Canada. It’s my new home.”
Visit Saidi at her booth, Kenzi Food, and you’ll have no sense of the distance she’s travelled to start this new business, which sells Turkish-inspired pies made from a phyllo-like flatbread called yofka. The pies are stuffed with tasty fillings, such as one that smacks of spring rolls. Saidi is cheerful with customers, and proud of her delicious product, sold as Pie Pops.
But over a coffee on the patio at Cafe Bicyclette, she talked about how long it took to find herself in this safe place, and how hard it’s been to leave her loved ones behind.
Saidi is from Baghdad. She grew up surrounded by war, including the Gulf War in 1990-91. She was 10 or 11 at the time, and remembers the sound of bombs falling on the city, and the way the family huddled under a table at home during the explosions. Her mother would say that if they died, at least they would die together.
Trained as an accountant, Saidi married her husband, engineer Ashraf Turaihi, in 2007. Tired of war, and facing an uncertain future in Iraq, the couple applied to come to Canada as skilled labour. “It is a long line,” she says. Years passed. While they waited, the Saidis moved to Khartoum, in Sudan, to get away from the conflict in Iraq, which by then had turned into another long struggle precipitated by the 2003 American-led invasion. But things weren’t stable in Khartoum either, with food shortages and price volatility for the essentials of life. Still, they decided to have a family, two girls, now eight and five.
Saidi describes herself as a “mom who loves to cook.” She eventually started her own small catering business, delivering sandwiches and savoury pies to office workers at lunch time. She discovered that a Turkish flatbread made a great medium for tasty fillings such as cheese or beef. The Pie Pop was born.
A year ago, the family was accepted to come to Canada, choosing Edmonton because they have family here. Once settled, Saidi began to volunteer at her daughters’ school in Mill Woods, and to get to know other mothers in her neighbourhood.
“The security I was looking for all my life was here,” she says. “It’s a big country, with immigrants all living together.”
Saidi decided to launch a homebased Pie Pop business here. Now, Saidi makes roughly 500 pies a week for her fans at the Kenzi Food booth in St. Albert, and also at the City market downtown and in Sherwood Park. Her pies are made fresh the day before market and are $4, or three for $10.
Someday, Saidi hopes to expand her business to be more than a home-based effort. After all, the word Kenzi means “my treasure” in Arabic. Who knows? Maybe someday, a pot of gold from pies. But in the meantime, Saidi is just happy that her family is safe.
“In Canada, there is a chance for a stable life.”
The security I was looking for all my life was here. It’s a big country, with immigrants all living together.