Mohamed Hadid has contributed recipes to Craving Palestine, a new cookbook which describes itself as a "love letter and tribute to Palestine". It aims to take budding chefs "through Palestine though the voices and tales of inspirational Palestinians from all walks of life".
The collection was co-authored by Farrah Abuasad and Lama Bazzari, and co-curated by Fadi Kattan, and was released on Thursday, October 1.
Palestinian-Jordanian real estate developer Hadid has contributed two recipes to the book, which is donating its proceeds to youth education, development and health programmes that benefit Palestinian refugees and communities in refugee camps across Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan through its NGO partner, Anera.
"Come with me on my journey through the towns, cities and villages of Palestine ... follow me into the thousands of years of food culture that’s the land [of] olive oil, olives, zaatar, grapes and grape leaves," Hadid wrote on Instagram.
"Two of my recipes in this book I learnt from my mother that she learnt from her mother ... my mother cooked for everyone. I learnt a lot from my mother and father about how to eat and what to eat, and most important is to host and feed people from all gods, all religions, from the plentiful, well-cultivated earth of Palestine."
The book is a collection of more than 100 "beautifully curated recipes", which include qidra, a spiced rice stew; chargrilled octopus; okra stew; and kanafeh. The recipes have been contributed by Palestinians from all walks of life, the website explains.
Contributors span the worlds of actors, entrepreneurs, artists, authors, academics, poets, chefs and politicians. As well as Hadid, there are a number of major names who have played a role in the curation of the book, including US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, poets and authors Naomi Shihab Nye, Susan Abulhawa and Lisa Majaj, and musicians Le Trio Joubran.
The website reads: "The book is a love letter and tribute to Palestine and goes to the heart of the relationship between food and identity and includes a very diverse community."
Cooking with Mohamed Hadid
Hadid regularly shares Palestinian recipes on his social media.
In September, Bella Hadid shared videos to her Instagram Stories showing her father cooking the family a Middle Eastern feast. The videos showed the whole kitchen counter covered with freshly made dishes, including hummus sprinkled with parsley and drizzled with olive oil, laban with fresh cucumber and Arabic bread sprinkled with zaatar.
During Ramadan he shared his maeloubah recipe, which his son, Anwar Hadid, and Anwar's girlfriend, Dua Lipa, tried their hand at making from London.
'Craving Palestine' costs $49.95 and is available now from order.cravingpalestine.com
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The Lowdown
Us
Director: Jordan Peele
Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseqph, Evan Alex and Elisabeth Moss
Rating: 4/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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