Name: Moureen Kaki
Job: Chef and partner in Saha Palestinian Cuisine, now doing a Saturday residency at Little Death Wine Bar, 2327 N. St. Mary's St., through April 29.
Age: 31
Birthplace: San Antonio
Industry Experience: Began as a pizzaiolo's apprentice at age 19. I'm also a former bakery owner with four years' catering experience.
Something that makes you smile: The smell of a freshly picked fig when it's torn in half.
Why does Palestinian food resonate with you so much?
It's a love of two things combined really — a love of food and a love of Palestine and Palestinian culture. When I first learned to cook, I thought the foods we made at home — Palestinian food — was lame and not fancy enough to serve in a restaurant. And I'm glad to say now that I realize how wrong I was. Somewhere along my food journey, I intersected with this sort of need to connect with my Palestinian roots and different ideas for recipes started to float around in my head and, along with them, the memories of sharing and making these foods with family and friends.
Tell us about your process for selecting ingredients. Are any intimidating to work with?
At Saha, we try to showcase as many Palestinian ingredients as is possible. What's available to make these dishes back home isn't always the same as what's available here, so it can be intimidating to have to make these kinds of adjustments while still ensuring that what we're serving is authentically Palestinian.
What has Saha allowed you to express that can't be explained otherwise?
Saha has allowed me to express my pride and love for who I am and the place I come from in ways that words can't do. When people think of Palestine, their first reaction often isn't very positive, but we have such a beautiful culture with a profound respect and love for life that I think is really apparent in our food and food culture.
Saha is still new to San Antonio and rotates its menu every week. Is there a specific dish you have lined up that you are excited to showcase to the city?
There are a lot we're excited to share and also a lot that is limited by the availability of seasonal ingredients. One dish I'd love to be able to share with San Antonio is dawali, which is a stuffed grape leaf dish. There's a vegetarian version too called yalangee. The traditional way to make it is to use fresh vine leaves and stuff it with a rice, tomato, meat and mint mixture that's cooked in a beautiful broth that features pomegranate molasses. It was my favorite dish as a kid.
What's something you want people to feel when they try your food?
There's something about sharing food that feels like you're passing on memories and the love of that food along with each bite.
Have you traveled to places beyond Palestine that have influenced your food?
I haven't really had much chance to travel other than to places to visit family, including South Florida and Los Angeles. Those [visits] motivated me more to pursue food, but not so much an influence on the recipes. The influence of the Saha recipes comes from where my family has traveled as a result of leaving Palestine. My mom was raised in Brazil. They didn't always have access to all the Palestinian foods my grandmother grew up with, so they made adjustments.
Sara and Suzie Masoud — [my business partners] and fellow Palestinians — have also influenced the menu. Their family comes from a different part of Palestine than my family, so we'll often put our heads together and adjust based on our own recipes and the traditions our families used. — Brandon Rodriguez
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