Aheda's Kitchen | With Love - Palestinian Food Truck
Chef and asylum seeker Aheda Amro and her Aheda's Kitchen serves falafel, baba ganoush, hummus, wraps, and a range of heartier dishes at 15 Hope Street, Brunswick, every Saturday from 11am to 4pm.
broadsheet.com.au says
This New Palestinian Food Truck Drew a Crowd of Hundreds on Its First Day
"Everyone in my town has a little garden called kareem [which means dignified in Arabic] with a lemon tree, a grape tree and a fig tree, and sage, mint and oregano," Aheda Amro tells Broadsheet of her hometown in Palestine. "I want to share my culture here in Australia."
On Saturday September 21, around 400 people lined up outside Superhuman in Brunswick for the launch of Aheda's food truck, Aheda's Kitchen, a project two years in the making.
Using halal-certified produce from suppliers along Sydney Road, she served her favourite traditional dishes - baba ganoush; hummus; falafel; and mansaf, a Jordanian dish of tender lamb served over rice with yoghurt - on paper plates to an eager crowd that wrapped around the block.
The truck, branded with red lettering by Melbourne artist Abbey Rich and proudly marked "With Love", was funded through a Go Fund Me campaign. With the help of videographer Sam Biddle, Aheda raised more than $20,000 to bring her dream to life.
"The truck brings the community together; it's family to her and she is family to me," Biddle tells Broadsheet. "She'll cook for anyone, even when she has no funds for herself."
In just two hours, the food Amro had spent two days preparing solo in the Superhuman kitchen sold out. Fifty per cent of the profits went to support newly arrived refugees from Gaza.
"It was a dream come true," she says. "Many customers brought containers, asking 'One for me, one for my family, and one for lunch tomorrow'. This made me very happy."
It wasn't without a hitch, though. The day before opening, the trailer snapped while turning onto Sydney Road. Despite the setback, Amro was able to open with the help of a tow truck (and several wooden pallets propping it up), but she incurred $3000 in repair fees. (Her original Go Fund Me page is still live, for those who want to donate.)
After seeking asylum in Melbourne in 2018, Amro settled in Footscray, where she tends to her own garden that reminds her of home in Halhul. The village in the West Bank is where she learned to cook from her parents, Mrom and Abdelaziz, starting with a simple salad and later mastering her favourite, tabbouleh. "I'm quick at cutting parsley, very fine too. My mum would say, 'Maeim naeim!' which means 'soft like silk' in Arabic."
Aheda's Kitchen will continue to serve falafel, baba ganoush, hummus, wraps, and a range of heartier dishes at 15 Hope Street, Brunswick, every Saturday from 11am to 4pm. Amro also holds regular cooking classes.
Published on 24 October 2024
by Sarah Palmieri | broadsheet.com.au
❊ When ❊
Happens: Saturday
Times: 11am to 4pm
❊ Where ❊
⊜ 15 Hope Street, Brunswick Map
❊ Web Links ❊
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