Fettah - an odyssey in garlic

On Saturday night we went over to Christie and Marc's house for an Egyptian treat. Every time we go - I am completely blown away by the food. Not because it is delicious, or beautiful, which it is, but because I have a deep recognition with this food: it fits me.

Me, the German/Irish hybrid - I loathe the cuisine of my ethnic forebearers (no offense Matthias - you know I can never get enough hand kase) But this, this is something else. The simplicity of Greek cuisine, with flavour times ten (no offense Pitsa!)

So I grabbed their camera and documented the assembly of Fettah - a winter dish served on special occasions in Marc's family.




First came the garlic, a full head.






Some of it is fired in butter, the rest is reserved, raw, and added to red wine vinegar.






Then a stack of crisped pita, broken and lining a casserole.







Onto the pita, you ladel chicken broth, then the vinegar and garlic.




Next comes the rice.




And the yogurt.



And finally the golden, buttery garlic.



This is served with roast chicken, salad, and Marc's vinaigrette perfection (sorry, I have no photo, but it is thick, savoury, sweet - perfection in four simple ingredients).

And can you believe they both said they thought it wasn't garlicky enough?

Surprisingly it is not at all over powering. So while we loaded up, the big girls were playing upstairs, the little girls watching Shrek. And we made off with a tupperware of fettah.

I'm going to miss this town.