6. Warak Enab (Stuffed grape leaves)

THESE! THESE WERE SO GOOD!

This is another food that our Arab classmates brought whenever we had a potluck or party, ever since Fatima brought them to our after-second-quarter-final-exams-celebration. We, non-Arabs, immediately started hoarding as much of it as we could on our plates, with respect of leaving some for the others. It’s ironic it became our favorite, alongside the luqaimat, as it was actually on of the last dishes and we only stared getting (read: hoarding) some after we’ve eaten everything. Some of us non-Arabs were a bit hesitant as the Arabs told us this was the spicy version, but one of us non-Arabs who didn’t like spicy tried it and told us it was good we began finishing it up. Enough of story time.

Warak enab can come in either plain or spicy, personally I like the spicy version better as it’s usually not the spicy and the spiciness actually adds an exciting touch to the stuffed grape leaves so instead of just being sour, it’s sour, a bit minty, and spicy. The plain Warak enab is not as exciting but still good, it’s just sour and bit minty.

As you can read in the title, it’s stuffed grape leaves. The leaves are stuffed with extremely soft rice, meat, and some spices. It’s sour because before steaming it for an hour they our lemons juice over the grapes.