By CINDA CHAVICH

Whether you’re marking Ramadan this month, or just celebrating a new season of Little Mosque on the Prairie, there are plenty of places in Calgary to find your favourite Middle Eastern ingredients and halal meats.

From fat fresh pita breads, straight from the oven, creamy yogurt, bulk bins of whole grain couscous, olives, chickpeas and salty pistachios, to fresh dates, preserved lemons and pomegranate paste, a trip to a halal grocery is like a stroll through the medina.

THE FOOD

“Halal” simply means “lawful” – indicating it’s permissible for Muslims to use or consume, and not forbidden according to their religious rules. What’s forbidden is pork (and any ingredients like enzymes or gelatins derived from pork products) and alcohol.

Of course, there’s no single Islamic cuisine – Muslims are found all over the world, from Africa to Southeast Asia – but when it comes to halal meats and groceries, many focus on Middle Eastern products.

You’ll find the ingredients for classic dishes like hummus made with chickpeas and tahini, tabouli salads of cracked wheat and bulgar mixed with fresh tomatoes and mint, or grilled kabobs wrapped in pita bread.

While Ramadan is a religious holiday for Muslims which requires a month of fasting, between sunrise and sundown, families typically break the daily fast with dates and sweet drinks.

At the end of Ramadan comes the three-day festival of Eid, which brings people together for feasting, often around dishes like biryani, a meal of rice studded with chicken or lamb and exotic spices, or koshari, an Egyptian dish of lentils, rice, chickpeas and pasta with fried onions and tomato sauce.

When it comes to meats, strict Muslims only consume halal products – that is beef, chicken, lamb and goat - that is butchered according to special rules. A prayer must be said before slaughter, and there should be no blood remaining in the meat.

When you’re in a Middle Eastern grocery, stock up on items that you can’t buy at regular supermarkets – things like pomegranate molasses or pomegranate paste (great for brushing over chicken or meats before grilling or adding to stews); all kinds of couscous (from regular instant to instant whole wheat couscous and big pearl-sized Israeli couscous); the freshest dates, raisins and dried fruits; all kinds of nuts, from pistachios to big walnuts, almonds and cashew nuts; and spices and flavourings, from spicy chili paste called harissa, to rose water and za’atar, a spice blend of thyme, sesame seeds, anise, coriander, sumac, cumin and salt, the perfect combination to rub over lamb chops before grilling, sprinkle on chopped vegetable salads, or stir into your pot of couscous.

Middle Eastern Groceries are also the best place to buy dried legumes of all kinds – from beans to lentils and split peas – and a great source of whole spices like cinnamon bark, cloves, allspice berries, nutmeg and saffron. Don’t forget about sweets like halva (sweetened ground sesame paste with pistachios), date-filled biscuits, baklava (or the filo pastry, honey and nuts to make it) and cardamom-scented coffee.

THE FIND

With 65,000 Muslims in Calgary, there are several Middle Eastern grocers and halal meat shops around the city, but you’ll find some of the best in the city’s northeast quadrant.

Hage’s Mideast Foods & Halal Meats – on 52nd St. N.E. just south of 16th Avenue - is a full service Middle Eastern market, complete with fresh fruits and vegetables, a halal butcher shop, and a café serving Middle Eastern takeout like chicken fatayer, za’atar pie, and even halal rotisserie or fried chicken. The take-out food here is worth the trip.

Owner Nagah Hage is partial to CLIC (Canadian Lebanese Investment Corporation) brand products from Montreal, including their canned or dried beans and lentils, dried fruits, halloom or baladi cheeses, Tukas jams and Gardenia spices. The large store is divided into sections where you’ll find specialties from Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Egypt and Turkey, and there are loads of choices, whether you’re looking for chewy squares of Turkish Delight candy studded with pistachios, instant falafel mixes, imported olives and fresh rotab dates from Iran, or big bottles of unfiltered Lebanese olive oil.

On 17th Avenue S.E. - Calgary’s “international avenue” – you’ll find Green Cedars Food Mart and Halal Meats, a smaller store where the friendly Sarout family sells a variety of international foods, many from their home country of Lebanon.

Specialties here include Miriam Sarout’s own cooking, from ready-to-eat (or ready to cook) kibbe and hummous to homemade yogurt cheese (labneh), tabouli salad and stuffed grape leaves. They also offer all manner of beans and lentils, grains (including smoked “green” cracked wheat berries called fereek), jars of preserved lemons and olives. Don’t miss the roasted pistachios flecked with lemon zest (in the bulk bins), and fresh baking, from local pitas and sweets to huge sheets of markouk, a Lebanese flat bread that’s as thin as a silk scarf. It’s perfect for mopping up stews or wrapping up falafels, grilled meats or leftovers. They even have fresh, spongey injera bread (an Ethiopian specially made locally), boxes of fresh local baklava and karkade (hibiscus tea).

For great Persian food and ingredients, visit Atlas Specialty Supermarket & Persian Cuisine, a comfortable downtown restaurant with a little grocery store tucked alongside. After you’ve enjoyed their halal menu and specialties like tender kabobs, slow cooked fesenjoon (chicken stew with pomegranate sauce) or masto mosir (a dip made with yogurt and wild garlic), you can pick up the thick homemade yogurt, dried garlic and pomegranate molasses you need to make these authentic dishes at home.

THE FIX

For an Eid feast at the end of Ramadan, you might serve a thick chickpea and lentil soup called harira and a lamb-studded rice biryani pilaf with date-filled turnovers (klaicha) and tea biscuits (kaak), for dessert. Kibbeh is another classic Middle Eastern dish – a kind of torpedo-shaped fried dumpling, with a crispy shell made with bulgar, and a spicy filling of vegetables or ground lamb.

Sweets are a big part of Ramadan, too. Dates are traditionally eaten to break the fast each day, along with sweet drinks made with apricots, guava and other fruits. Fatayer – pastries filled with savoury ingredients like spinach or meat – may be served. Pastries, filled with ground dates, nuts, raisins, figs and coconut, are also popular.

Amal Leithy, a teacher at Calgary’s Islamic School, recommends serving koshari, a vegetarian dish from her native Egypt, made by combining equal amounts of cooked brown lentils, small pasta and basmati rice, and topping it all with a spicy tomato sauce flavored with cumin and garlic, chickpeas and lots of caramelized fried onions.

(This Urban Forager column appeared in the Sept. 2008 issue of Avenue magazine)

©Cinda Chavich 2008

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