Kilkenny city is a buzzing melting pot of nationalities, both visitors and residents, and a new community initiative there is aiming to promote cross-cultural integration through food. The Global Kitchen celebration of international culture and cuisine is a series of pop-up cafes, bringing the food of Lebanon, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Poland and Romania to the city throughout the year.
The idea came from the success of the Ukrainian Borscht Cafes at the city’s Savour Kilkenny food festival and Yulefest last year, which were organised to welcome refugees to the city and help them integrate. “When the Ukrainians arrived, we recognised that a lot of them were in accommodation with food provided so they weren’t having the opportunity to eat their cultural dishes,” says Sharon O’Gorman of Kilkenny LEADER partnership, the non-profit local development organisation spearheading the project.
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The pop-ups each run for one day in the city’s Home Rule Club, a social enterprise and cultural hub, and tickets can be bought online for a two-course lunch, cooked by representatives of the host country, who are living in the city. A Lebanese pop-up served more than 70 people on a recent Saturday and will be followed by a Malaysian Cafe on May 20; a Polish Cafe for the Polska Eire Festival in June, a Bangladeshi Cafe in August and a Cafe for Romanian National Day in November.
Guy Jones is head chef in the kitchen when I visit for the Lebanese pop up. A mechanical engineer by profession, he works with Veolia Water Ireland in Kilkenny and has lived there since 1999. “It was love that brought me to Ireland,” he says, introducing me to his Irish wife, Christine. The pair met in Abu Dhabi, where Christine was teaching.
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Jones has been promoting Lebanese culture while living in Kilkenny. “I noticed, back in 2001, with the troops coming back from Lebanon, there were no links between Ireland and Lebanon. So, I thought, okay, if my daughter is going to grow up in this environment – and I do not want to indoctrinate my children – what’s the best way to create cultural activities? So, I started a project called the Irish Lebanese Cultural Foundation. We have a huge history between Lebanon and Ireland.”
He loves to cook the cuisine of his heritage and has brought Lebanese food to the attention of visitors to the Savour Kilkenny food festival, which has been running since 2008. “My idea behind that is that there is a lot of recipes coming out in different magazines speaking about Lebanese food but very rarely and seldom, you will find the genuine recipes, the original recipes. When you try a Lebanese restaurant, if your chef is not Lebanese and his mother and grandmother are not Lebanese, he has not tasted the food as it comes originally; they will never get it right.”
For authentic Lebanese food in Ireland, he has two restaurant recommendations: Mezze in Athlone and Mejana in Limerick. “They were like a breath of fresh air because the chef is Lebanese, everyone there is Lebanese. They know what they are serving.”
Jones has help in the kitchen for the pop-up from his daughter, Sophie, and others. “Hasam and Hakim are International Protection asylum seekers from Algeria who arrived in Kilkenny about a month ago. Everybody is working really well together. It’s very positive,” says Sharon O’Gorman.
His menu offers a meat and a vegetarian option, along with dessert, and the two-course lunch is priced at €13 (or €12 plus booking fee if booked online), with O’Gorman pointing out that it is a non-profit event, relying on volunteers. Over a steaming hot cup of cafe blanc – orange blossom water diluted in hot water – which Jones tells me is a traditional digestif in Lebanon, he explains his menu choices.
“Lebanese food is famous for its wide vegetarian range so we have falafel with tahini sauce. The loubieh is famous because in every home, they do this. It’s so easy; green beans cooked with tomato sauce.”
The meat lover’s choice is kibbeh with cabbage salad and hummus. “Traditionally, it would be a mix of beef and lamb because lamb gives a bit of softness, tenderness. But, I did not use lamb because in Ireland, lamb is very greasy. I don’t want to compromise the taste of the beef, as it’s very good. A good lean mix is good.”
The minced beef is mixed with chopped onions, cinnamon, salt and bulgur wheat and layered up on a baking sheet with more onions, very finely chopped, mixed with pine kernels and Lebanese seven-spice. The bulgur (cracked wheat) is added raw, “so it can soak up the juices from the meat”. The kibbeh is topped with olive oil and cooked in a 200 degree oven before being cut into squares to serve.
The cabbage salad accompanying the kibbeh proved more problematic to source ingredients for. It requires a special Middle Eastern type of cabbage. “It’s softer. Unfortunately, the white cabbage here, you can bang it against the wall and it will dent the wall,” he says. The correct type of cabbage was bought from a halal shop in Tallaght, Co Dublin. The cabbage is chopped finely and crushed garlic, salt, lemon juice and olive oil are added and it is left to soften for a few hours. Then, happy days,” Jones says.
Out in the bar area of the Home Rule Club, the Lebanese lunch is going down well, with the vegetarian option proving to be the most popular. Joanne Lalor is at a table with a group of girlfriends. “I saw it on Twitter and booked it for us. I’ve eaten Middle Eastern food before but not in Kilkenny so it’s a lovely change and it’s lovely to support something in the Home Rule Club. It’s a lovely venue and everyone has been so welcoming.”
The group said they plan to book tickets for the Malaysian Cafe pop-up, which will take place at the same venue on May 20th. The cooking for that one will be done by Pathma Vasuthevan and tickets are now on sale on the online ticket platform Eventbrite.
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Back in the kitchen, Jones and his team are plating up dessert, a spiced pudding called maghli, made with powdered rice and garnished with coconut. He is happy with the way the day has gone and delighted that his Lebanese lunch proved to popular.
“In my opinion, cultural diplomacy is the best diplomacy. If I want to promote Lebanon in Ireland, I will promote it this way, by cooking and sharing Lebanese food. I will not go on TV. I will not go on radio. I will not be talking politics. I will not be talking about the Middle East,” Jones says.
If you are living away from your home place, perhaps unwillingly, the novelty of eating “foreign” foods and trying new things can dissipate quickly, in a cloud of homesickness. In challenging times, what’s needed is the comfort of food that is familiar. Sharing that food with others, who might not have tasted it before, can be a source of great pride and stimulate communication, as this excellent initiative is showing.
