Maqluba, or Makloubeh, often pronounced as Maalouba or Maglouba (Arabic: مقلوبة) is an upside-down rice and eggplant casserole, hence the name which is literally translated as "upside-down". It is sometimes made with fried cauliflower instead of eggplant and usually includes meat, often braised lamb. When the casserole is inverted, the top is bright red from the tomatoes that now form the top layer and cover the golden eggplant.
Maqluba is originally Palestinian and then adopted by many Arabic countries especially of Levantine, but it is popular throughout the Arab world.
(source: Wikipedia)
"Makloubeh" is a Palestinian dish
"Makloubeh" means upside-down
"Makloubeh" like the life of the Palestinian
Everything is upside-down
and wrong side up
"Makloubeh" is the reality of this world
"Makloubeh" like living in exile for over 60 years
for no sin
"Makloubeh" said "Um Ahmad" when her son asked "what's for dinner?"
"Makloubeh, yammah*" he said "I have no job still, I'm still the sinner."
"Makloubeh" like seeing my homeland through a screen
to watch a stranger safely dwell it
"Makloubeh" is this life
"Makloubeh" it will always be
and yet...
"Makloubeh" is what I am not.
Amal Ziad Kaawash
yammah: "My mother" in Arabic
2 comments:
My best friends from hight school was the first to introduce me to "Ma2louba". Sice then whenever someone says the name I see me dressed in school uniform, sitting at a small table watching her beaming mother as she puts huge portions in my plate.
Love it :)
A Palestinian friend from long ago made this dish for me in the mid 1990s. He used cut up chicken, carmelized onion, burnt cauliflower (said that the burning was a mistake) and rice. It, to this day, is my favorite all-time dish and I, too, burn the cauliflower on purpose. I use chicken broth for the liquid. I also make an accompaniment of scallions, tomato & cucumber with a lemon and olive oil dressing, as he did, for cold against hot. I have not heard from or seen my old friend since he went back home and hope that he is well, Suleiman.
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