São Paulo – So you would like to end the year well and attract prosperity for 2011 in the best Arab style? Then you can have a menu replete with flavours from Arabia. That and filling your heart up with good feelings, of course. Three chefs who excel in this type of cuisine, from three respected restaurants in São Paulo, teach the must-haves in a menu of this type. All of them, by the way, like to celebrate the New Year’s Eve in the company of family and friends, preferably tasting delicacies that they first tried while they were still children.
"The Arabs are gluttons, they eat a lot, they like to settle their issues and celebrate life on the table," says chef Samir Moysés, of the Folha de Uva restaurant. "It could not be otherwise in the New Year." According to him, a good Arab-style New Year’s Eve party calls for "some nice lamb and grape leaf rolls." "In my house, it is never lacking. I shut down the restaurant for customers and have some friends over," he says. "It is a way of returning the love that I got over the last twelve months."
According to Moysés, lentils are part of the recipe for attracting wealth. To wrap things up, desserts like malabi, a pudding with damascus. "So that the sweetness of damascus will be repeated throughout the entire year that is coming," he teaches.
Another memory that the chef treasures among his family’s traditions for December 31st is the habit of cooking dinner for more people than the number of guests expected. "The idea is to share the food with more people. If I have 20 guests, I’ll cook for 30, 40," he explains.
A granddaughter of Lebanese and the owner of the Arábia restaurant chain, Leila Youssef Kuczynski names dishes such as roasted lamb and leg of lamb as essentials for the last evening of the year. Highlights also include dried fruit, pomegranate and nuts. "In my family, stuffed lamb is very important," she explains. "My mother used to always cook it." Such dishes, of course, are also a must in the dinner at the Árabia restaurants, which will open on the 31st, with prices ranging from 144 to 170 Brazilian reals (US$ 85 to US$ 100) per person, depending on the dishes.
Also true to her origins, the owner of the Tenda do Nilo restaurant, Olinda Isper, enjoys a nice Arab meal on New Year’s Eve. Lebanon-born, naturalized Brazilian, she shares her business with her sister, Xmune. And the businesswoman will be in the company of her and several other relatives next Friday (31st), around the table.
"We will have lamb, grape leaf rolls, several Arab creams," says Olinda. "Everything will be very typical," she says. The entrepreneur also cites another widespread habit among the sons and daughters of the community. "The Arabs believe that a house without fruit is no house," she claims. "One of my brothers always buys kilos and more kilos of fruit for our New Year’s Eve dinner, lots of grape and fruta do conde, everything real flavourful and abundant," she explains, summing up the Arab recipe for dinner that should fill the next 12 months up with energy and flavour.
Service:
Arábia:
http://www.arabia.com.br/site
Folha de Uva:
http://www.folhadeuva.com/
Tenda do Nilo:
http://www.tendadonilo.com.br/
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
