When you are putting on an event, or perhaps offering lunch to hard working office employees, catering is a practical option. Mediterranean provides a nice break from pizzas and sandwiches, and offers wonderful options for a variety of special diets.
If you’re planning on having a lunch catered, here are some great options that everyone will love, including options for vegetarians and gluten-free.
Dolma is a popular pick because not only is it a crowd-pleaser, it’s also vegetarian and gluten-free. This is a great option for a variety of special needs diets, as well as food people who are not vegetarian or gluten-free will enjoy.
Dolma is also really practical in other ways because it can be eaten both as a snack, an appetizer, or the side on a main course. It’s ability to fill many different roles makes it a wonderful catering option.
If you need finger foods, Borak is a great option to include as well. These tasty filled pastries can be stuffed with lamb, cheese, or spinach. Get a variety so meat lovers as well as vegetarians can enjoy. Borak is very popular, so you may want to get extras of these when planning your catered event. These will go quickly!
Mediterranean cuisine has an abundance of grilled options too. Pick up some chicken or beef shawerma and some pitas to wrap it in. Throw in a few shrimp or lamb kabobs and you’ve got a lavish feast for your event in no time at all.
Grilled options are great because they offer a variety of flavors and options, and there’s even vegan kabobs available.
Hummus with pita or vegetables to dip into it is also another wonderful idea for including in an office lunch. Hummus is a very popular dip, and works great to help feed hungry people while waiting for grilled foods or other items to be brought out.
For special events, why not finish off with dessert? Baklahva is an incredible dessert, offering crispy layers and the sticky sweetness of honey in every bite. While Baklahva might be a bit overdone for a regular office lunch, it would be perfect for a retirement party or other event where something a bit special might be appropriate.
Mediterranean food is delicious, but sometimes you just need a quick and easy office lunch. If you need good simple food fast, there’s also the office lunch options of sandwich, soda and salad available as well. These are good options for feeding a large number of people quickly, and make a very practical choice.
If you’re ready to change things up with your catering and offer some fresh flavors to your loyal office workers, Mediterranean food is the choice for you. Mediterranean works great thanks to its ability to offer a wide variety of flavors and respect dietary restrictions for a broad number of people.
One of our feature salads at Aladdin Mediterranean Restaurant is Fattoush. This delicious and vibrant salad is of Mediterranean origin, and varies depending on where you get the salad. Most versions of Fattoush include leafy greens such as romaine lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes, and garlic. The dressing is usually a combination of olive oil and lemon juice. One of the most distinguishing features are the pieces of pita bread sliced into the salad.
This salad isn’t just a salad. The ingredients tell a story of centuries of tradition. It goes back to a time when resources weren’t quite as bountiful as they are today, and people of the Mediterranean had to be thoughtful about how to make their food stretch.
The combination of greens and bread is likely a practical way to use leftovers. By combining bread and salad, the people of the Mediterranean made use of everything they had to make something delicious.
This tradition spread in popularity because it was so delicious. Now it is a favorite food in the region, and a feature menu item at almost every restaurant in the Middle East
While Fattoush can’t be traced back to one particular person, most researchers agree that it probably originated in North Lebanon. Historians believe that the farmers in Lebanon would take their old, dry, stale flat breads and try to reuse them.
What can you do with old, dry bread? In their wisdom, Lebanese farmers figured out that if the old bread was baked or fried, it became crunchy and delicious instead. This old bread could then be reused in a flavorful, tasty way.
Salad greens are readily available throughout the year owing to their quick growth, so mixing it into a salad was a sensible choice. The result was Fattoush. Additional ingredients came along later, such as the lemon to brighten the taste of the salad. Sumac is also sometimes used to give the salad a distinctive flavor.
Many legends surround Fattoush, such as a family by that name harboring Christians who were fasting and couldn’t eat meat, but these stories are very unlikely. The name Fattoush is more likely to come from the Arabic word, “fatt” which means crushed or crumbled. It’s likely this word was used for the pieces of flat bread or pita crumbled into the salad.
Fattoush is often celebrated as a sustainable dish because of it’s history making use of leftovers. It also makes use of seasonal ingredients, and can be adapted to keep people fresh, healthy, and getting the most out of their food all through the year.
Fattoush has been popular in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine for hundreds of years. What was once a dish designed by thrifty farmers to try and reuse food is now a celebrated dish widely eaten around the world.
The next time you order a salad, consider trying this remarkable dish. Fattoush is delicious, healthy, and has a rich history behind it as well.
On the streets of Cairo, one of the most popular dishes you can order from a vendor is Hawashi. This minced meat stuffed inside of a pita is deceptively simple, but incredibly delicious. The thin bread of the pita combines with carefully seasoned meat to make a perfect, unique, sandwich.
After the food is combined, the food is then baked until the outside is golden, crisp and crunchy. This makes an extraordinary combination of flavors and textures while enjoying this food.
Compared to many other popular menu items, these delicious snacks have relatively modern roots. The sandwich only goes back about as far as the 1930s, with the earliest evidence of its existence a receipt selling one.
The receipt is somewhat disputed however, with some saying the sandwich was invented as late as the 1970s. Either way, this sandwich was invented less than 100 years ago, while many other popular foods can go back thousands of years.
What is known about this sandwich is that it was invented by an Egyptian butcher, either by the name of Mohamed al-Hawawshi or Ahmed el-Hawawsh. At some point, this man chose to combine meat, onions and seasonings with the super thin pita like bread called baladi.
Baladi is the colloquial word that simply means ‘rural bread.’ It’s typically used for things like falafel and mashed fava beans—not for slicing up as sandwich. He began selling these thin sandwiches anyway, which quickly took off in popularity.
While there’s no doubt as to how good they are, it’s not entirely clear why he put these ingredients together. Baladi is a very thin bread and is usually not used with fillers. It was an innovation at the time and is still highly popular in Egypt as well as around the world.
Why Hawashi Is So Loved
At a glance, Hawashi is similar to other foods like gyros. What makes Hawashi so special? Here’s a quick rundown of reasons that may be behind its popularity.
Both Crisp and Juicy
Hawashi is stuffed and then baked. The outside is golden and crispy, the inside is bursting with juicy meat. This combination of flavors and textures make it very popular.
Affordable
Hawashi is made with simple, affordable ingredients. This means it doesn’t have the high price tags of some of the fancier foods out there, while still being just as delicious.
Flavorful
Hawashi is carefully seasoned to be as delicious as possible. Seasonings vary depending on the shop. They can include chili seasoning, paprika and cumin. At Aladdin’s Mediterranean restaurant, roasted red pepper sauce is a key ingredient.
In some locations, the bread is cooked on a grill and has a smokey flavor as well. Grilling Hawashi is a popular choice, and can change the flavor depending on what sort of wood is used.
Conclusion
Hawashi is a beloved snack food in Egypt, and is sold nearly everywhere both by street vendors and restaurants. If you want to experience a taste of Egypt, stop by Aladdin’s and try this wonderful, unusual, sandwich.