Super Dishes brings Egyptian cuisine to Vancouver
Alexandria native Huda Abd Elhamid makes items like koshery, the ancient country’s national dish
On the menu at Super Dishes Halal Egyptian Cuisine are items like koshery (clockwise from bottom left), Ghzaly date cookies, and hawashi, a stuffed pita. Photo by Super Dishes
CUMIN, CINNAMON, CARDAMOM, coriander, paprika, and pepper are more than pantry staples for Huda Abd Elhamid; they’re also a connection to her culture and home. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, she worked as a teacher before moving to Canada four years ago via Saudi Arabia with her husband, son, and daughter. Now, Abd Elhamid is pursuing her passion by sharing the food she grew up with, a cuisine that’s little known in Vancouver.
Abd Elhamid is the founder of Super Dishes Egyptian Halal Cuisine. She makes dishes like koshery—Egypt’s national dish, a comfort food made of pasta, lentils, chickpeas, tomato sauce, garlic sauce, and crispy fried onions—and hawashi (pita stuffed with beef, onion, fresh herbs, and spices), a popular street food.
Her fondness for food goes back to her childhood in the port city on the Mediterranean Sea at the edge of the Nile River delta. The youngest of seven daughters, Abd Elhamid learned to cook from her mother.
“I was always helping my mom in the kitchen,” Abd Elhamid tells Stir via Zoom. “When I came to Canada, I wanted to try something I love and present my recipes to this community.
“I cook Egyptian dishes the way my mom did,” she says. “I love cooking and baking. It makes me happy. I hope I have a small store or restaurant one day.”
Huda Abd Elhamid makes items oike hawashi at Coho Commissary. Photo by Super Dishes
Super Dishes is a cohort member of Dream Cuisines: A Newcomer Women’s Food Business Pilot Program created by Flavours of Hope in partnership with Coho Commissary, where it operates.
Although the Egyptian community in Vancouver is small, the Arabic community is not, and Abd Elhamid sources many of her ingredients from Persian and Middle Eastern grocery stores. While meat and fish are central to a standard Egyptian diet, koshery just so happens to be vegan, making it a popular item in Vancouver; Super Dishes’ hawashi also comes in a vegetarian version.
Abd Elhamid makes everything fresh daily by hand, including a nourishing vegan lentil soup with carrots, garlic, onion, cumin, and turmeric.
Then there are her Ghzaly date cookies, naturally sweetened, traditional treats with sesame, cardamom, and cinnamon; and baklava made with walnuts.
Through food, Abd Elhamid has found herself building community both inside her business and out. She has swapped dishes with her neighbours, and despite not speaking the same languages, has learned about Indian and Chinese cultures bite by bite, through scents and spices. She calls Canada “the best”.
“It’s just amazing: the diversity in all the communities, people from all over the world living together in peace—all religions, from all countries—it’s something I didn’t see in any other country,” Abd Elhamid says. “It’s such a good community.
“In Egypt food is a big value connected to family and culture,” she says. “It’s an important way to educate people about culture and healthiness—by feeding your family and your community.”
For more information about Super Dishes, see here.
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