Shek Shouka: A dish best served sparingly.
Shek Shouka is one of the first Arabic words I was able to commit to memory; partially because the meaning is so appropriate and mostly because I love the way it sounds. It's one of the few "easy" words to say in Arabic, and it's easy to "master" (I should probably discuss this idea of having mastered anything in Arabic with my teacher before saying that...). There are two meanings for the word in our country: a traditional dish and a mess of good things.
Even before we began our language study, friends had shared this word with us. They explained that sometimes, instead of referring to food, the phrase is used to express that things are kinda a mess or it's a bunch of good things all jumbled together. Since then, we have often used this word with our language teacher to express that we are learning a lot of good things but sometimes all the Arabic and English and Arabic verb tenses and Arabic culture and Arabic blessings just get jumbled up in our head.
We use the word so often in class that when I heard the word used while eating at a traditional restaurant, it felt out of context. But I quickly recovered from that slight shock and moved into a mini-celebration over having correctly heard and understood a word in Arabic! We celebrate the small victories over here.
"The Restaurant of the Lonely Woman," as it is literally translated, is quickly becoming one of my favorites. It is located in the heart of the medina (which is like the city within the city, surrounded by the old city walls that look like a castle. There is little room for cars, although a few motorcycles manage to get through the narrow old stone streets. The medina is definitely something you'll have to see when you come!) and we always attend with a group. Beth once compared it to going to Cpaw's. It's true that everyone comes in and goes behind the counter to see what's cooking on the stove and to hug the old ladies that cook. Some of our friends even bring their own bread because they don't like the bread that's served there. It's quite entertaining. We always eat traditional food there, in the traditional way (with your fingers or bread, and without napkins) and this last visit we finally got to try the shek shouka.
Interesting things to note in this picture: the bread on the table. This is a traditional bread they either call taboona or hobza khayel, I forget (my brain is a shek shouka after all). Either way, it is wonderful and I love it lots more than the more common skinny, hard bread that is easier to find. The shek shouka tasted a little like a marinara sauce you might use over spaghetti, that's about the only resemblance. I really loved mine, Beth wasn't so crazy about hers. The vegetable shek shouka also had a runny egg in it, so I think that might have something to do with her not loving it.
So this is shek shouka and this is what my brain feels like everyday after 4 hours of studying Arabic...a hot mess. =) Thankful that He can make something beautiful and useful out of something like this.
Shek Shouka is one of the first Arabic words I was able to commit to memory; partially because the meaning is so appropriate and mostly because I love the way it sounds. It's one of the few "easy" words to say in Arabic, and it's easy to "master" (I should probably discuss this idea of having mastered anything in Arabic with my teacher before saying that...). There are two meanings for the word in our country: a traditional dish and a mess of good things.
Even before we began our language study, friends had shared this word with us. They explained that sometimes, instead of referring to food, the phrase is used to express that things are kinda a mess or it's a bunch of good things all jumbled together. Since then, we have often used this word with our language teacher to express that we are learning a lot of good things but sometimes all the Arabic and English and Arabic verb tenses and Arabic culture and Arabic blessings just get jumbled up in our head.
We use the word so often in class that when I heard the word used while eating at a traditional restaurant, it felt out of context. But I quickly recovered from that slight shock and moved into a mini-celebration over having correctly heard and understood a word in Arabic! We celebrate the small victories over here.
"The Restaurant of the Lonely Woman," as it is literally translated, is quickly becoming one of my favorites. It is located in the heart of the medina (which is like the city within the city, surrounded by the old city walls that look like a castle. There is little room for cars, although a few motorcycles manage to get through the narrow old stone streets. The medina is definitely something you'll have to see when you come!) and we always attend with a group. Beth once compared it to going to Cpaw's. It's true that everyone comes in and goes behind the counter to see what's cooking on the stove and to hug the old ladies that cook. Some of our friends even bring their own bread because they don't like the bread that's served there. It's quite entertaining. We always eat traditional food there, in the traditional way (with your fingers or bread, and without napkins) and this last visit we finally got to try the shek shouka.
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| Shek Shouka! The first one is shek shouka wa lham (with meat) and the one with fries is shek shouka with veggies. |
So this is shek shouka and this is what my brain feels like everyday after 4 hours of studying Arabic...a hot mess. =) Thankful that He can make something beautiful and useful out of something like this.
