Defiant cuisine and hope for a better future

Can a kitchen be defiant? Yes, she can. At least when she has experienced as much as the Palestinian one. What this means becomes clearer when you get to know Mona Al-Ghalayini. She lives in Cairo, just like my colleague Dunja Ramadan. In 2023, Al-Ghalayini fled the war in Gaza to Egypt. In Gaza she was the best-known businesswoman in the coastal strip, ran a company and invested in hotels, restaurants and import-export companies. “I go to bed early, get up early, am unmarried – the master of my time,” she tells Dunja when she visits her in her new restaurant in Cairo. Because Al-Ghalayini couldn't stand sitting idle in Cairo for long. Instead, she wants to bring the Egyptians closer to the cuisine of their homeland - and the exiled Palestinians a piece of home. »It is our identity. If we stop cooking, we stop hoping for a better future," says Al-Ghalayini. Even before Al-Ghalayini fled, the cuisine in Gaza was no longer fed on the fields, which were largely destroyed in the war, but on what checkpoints, import lists and air strikes left behind. “Our cuisine is defiant and often spicy, so that you feel that you are still alive,” Al-Ghalayini told Dunja. Her restaurant in Cairo is a love letter to something that never leaves you, even - and especially not - when you are not there. His home. I highly recommend Dunja's reportage. And I bet: Afterwards you will google “Palestinian restaurants” in your area.