Let us munch on murgh biryani
or a tray of well-made mandi
sip some sour Turkish ayran
top it off with date-based candy
Grills, you gotta wrap them snugly –
in tandoori naan-afghani
add a raita, try a bite o’
barfi à la Hindustani
Start a food tour from yum Turkey
pass through Egypt and Beirut
land in Dubai, on to Mumbai
for falooda filled with fruit
Pulao, machboos, taht-el-jeder
dashing dishes – do them all
allied with some aloo methi,
plus a tad of desi daal
Aish and roti, khubz and sangak
fava beans with thick tameez
hearty hummus, rich as humus
coal seared lumps of goat-milk cheese
Mirch is merch for pepper lovers
can you take the heat of chilli?
one fun flake of fiery filfil’s
sure to leave your taste buds silly
Crave a beef-based Gulf hareesa
or Iraqi rice-stuffed koosa?
the Levant has sweet harissa
which in Egypt’s called basbousa
Fenugreek and racy spice
Roz-bej-jej from Lebanon
juicy sides of jasmine rice
Butter-chicken-baptised naan
Slabs of tah– plus –deeg or –cheen
kabab barg arrayed on chelo
one blue bowl of mast-o-khiyar,
cap the meal with chai or helo
Brew a batch of pitch-black gahwa
proffer cups with your right hand
furnish guests with heated halwa
spicy karak on demand.
Wael Almahdi is a poet, translator, and healthcare professional from Bahrain. In 2023, he won a High Commendation from the Stephen Spender Poetry Translation Prize. His Classical Arabic translations include work by Lewis Carroll (‘Jabberwocky’), Carl Jung (‘Seven Sermons to the Dead’, as yet unpublished), and Hanan Issa, the National Poet of Wales. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in ArabLit Quarterly, Copihue, Snakeskin, The Knight Letter, The Raven’s Perch, Ekstasis, Blue Minaret, The Ravi Magazine, and Beletra Almanako.
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