The Arab diaspora experience comes down to one word: Ghorbeh. Its literal translation is “being in the West”, but it embodies the reality of being without your family and your community, and adjusting to what is around you.
It also means you have to make do with finding the comforts of home in an unfamiliar setting, looking to people, communities, ingredients, and even restaurants to get that feeling.
Having lived in Montreal for over fifteen years as a picky Palestinian/Lebanese immigrant, a big part of ghorbeh I’ve witnessed is fellow Levantine Arabs—Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian—opening food concepts that boast our cultural background.
Comparing and contrasting Beirut's Uncle Deek (left) with Lulu Epicerie in Montreal (right). | Photograph: Courtesy Lulu Epicerie
But what once started as a sprinkling of traditional places designed to give the rustic and simplified experience we have at home like Daou and La Sirène de La Mer has evolved into finer dining experiences like Hayat, Shay, and HENI, as well as modern cafes serving homey staples like saj and manakish.
These places are more urban, and a little flashier than what we would get in our home countries. On Hayat’s menu, Manti dumplings (also known as shish barak to those of us who don’t have Armenian roots) are made with Impossible meat. You can get burrata alongside kibbeh nayyeh at Shay.
As delicious as these places are, they also bring a nagging question: Are we reimagining our cuisine and culture to suit a Western palate?
Photograph: Courtesy Lulu Epicerie
In a time where our culture is so endangered due to appropriation, aren’t we afraid of shining a light on what we eat and how we drink at home by bringing it out to the public?
New twists on tradition
The founders of the upscale Little Burgundy restaurant HENI offered some insight. The ghorbeh experience is parlayed with an extensive selection of Lebanese wines and a menu of rustic dishes inspired by the SWANA kitchen.
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