"To create the time-tripping, border-crossing menu at Aalia, Paul Farag drew inspiration from 600 recipes in a 10th-century Baghdadi cookbook, but also his Egyptian father’s eggplant mes’a’aha. Some of his references are more than 1,000 years old, but his ideas are inspired and ultramodern, like a sweet and smoky dip of buffalo labneh and beetroot molasses, or dulce de leche caramelized with colocasia leaves (a regional staple for several millennia) and layered with salted cashew and brik (brittle Tunisian pastry)." - Lee Tran Lam
Jason Loucas
