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Friday 19 December 2014

Tamam Feast

I've been hearing raving reviews about Tamam since it opened but yet to try it.

And when I did, I went all out and took a group of lovely colleagues out to Tamam. A large group meant a feast and a feast meant I had a chance to try almost everything on Tamam's menu (and it was all amazing).

Tamam serves authentic Palestinian food prepared by a lovely Palestinian owning family. 

With Palestine a walking distance from Lebanon, you'd think the food will be the same. 


It is the same in terms of what the food is, but the preparation and spicing is different enough to make this a truly unique eating experience even for me.

And using Palestinian olive oil in the food (which is the best olive oil in the world in my books) just elevated the taste of everything even further.

Most authentic humus and baba ghanouj in the city and all freshly made.

The humus was warm (which meant the chickpeas were warm when smashed, a sign of freshly made). You could identify the taste of eggplants in the baba ghanouj, again a sign of freshly made.

Generous amounts of olive oil and sumaq. Lots of fresh pita and the feast begun.

A perfect Fatoush with tricks to learn - add chopped shallots, lots of salt and oil and sesame seeds.

But the star of the appetizers was the Halloumi Eggplant.

Fried eggplants served with grilled haloum and soaking with zaatar and olive oil. 

A perfect flavour combination that I will be trying at home soon.



The meat mains are slow cooked, well spiced and elegantly presented.

But my favourite was the Freekeh that came with it.

No idea how it was cooked, but way better than any Freekeh I tried making at somerville kitchen.


The stuffed grape vine leaves is where the real difference between Lebanese and Palestinian stood out.

Rolled in a ball, spiced with more than my salt and pepper and cooked with tomatoes.

The same variation went for the stuffed cabbage rolls. 


Too stuffed for dessert, but who could resist these home made baklawa's packed with pistachios and generous amounts of rose water. Delicious, I will be ordering a tray one day and eating it all myself.

Thank you Tamam for putting together a lovely feast and looking forward to my next visit.




Tamam
2616 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

Tamam Fine Palestinian Cuisine on Urbanspoon

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