Mana’ish

When I was a few days from giving birth, I felt a need to make manaquish.  It was an odd nesting sensation diagnostic of our unique life, of the comfort foods we might need in those foggy postpartum weeks.  Good thing I’d stashed our own local zaatar into my luggage.  Zaatar is a comfort food in the Middle East, a shared daily dip.  My children love it as much for the taste as for the dipping ritual.  I believe it started as a result of hillside foraging.  Women might take a walk together and gather wild thyme (“zaatar” in Arabic – it’s pronounced ZAH-tar).  They might bring it home to dry it, mix it with sumac, roasted sesame seeds and a proprietary blend of lemon and salt unique to that household.  While it is delicious as a daily dip, adhering to bread slick with olive oil, manaquish (pronounced mana’ish most often) elevates zaatar.  It is the ultimate street food, purchased from small store fronts where dough is thrown and stretched, spread with olive oil, sprinkled with zaatar and baked in a very hot oven.  It comes out a bit charred, the crusts tan with heat and oil.  It is crispy and tangy and, in our house it turns out, the ultimate comfort food.