Izz Café team on their new book, favourite recipes, Cork, and Palestine

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

With their glorious pops of colour on the cover and their compact A5 size, the Blasta Books cookbook series is rapidly becoming an iconic Irish 'brand'.
Featuring alternative voices, they have captured imaginations at home and abroad — including gushing praise from Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson — upending the traditional cookbook market and some, such as Goldie chef Aishling Moore's Whole Catch, have sold exceptionally well.
However, I'd suspect the latest in the series may well eclipse the sales of all 14 previous books combined. That book is Jibrin, by Izzeddeen Alkarajeh and Eman Aburabi, of Cork's renowned Izz Cafe — in collaboration with their head chef Habib Al Ostaz.
Husband-and-wife team Izz and Eman are Ireland's most famous Palestinians.
Arriving to Ireland and into the direct provision system in 2016, they began with a stall at Mahon Point Farmer's Market, eventually opening a proper bricks-and-mortar home, Izz Cafe, on Cork City's George's Quay in 2019.
Even through the pandemic, their star still rose, entailing an expansion of the premises last year, and when travel restrictions eased, diners flocked there from all over Ireland.
However, it is Israel's ongoing genocidal onslaught on Gaza that has placed Izz Cafe and the couple front and centre, and both are active campaigners for Palestine.
Eman's recent Coffee for Palestine drive, created with co-campaigners Clare Condon (Good Day Deli) and Deirdre Breen (Studio Boon) aimed to raise €5,000, and topped out at €100,000.
The cafe is the spiritual HQ for the especially passionate Cork Palestine Solidarity campaigners.
Izz and Eman Alkarajeh pictured at Izz Café, Cork City, as chef Habib Al Ostaz pours traditional Palestinian coffee. Picture Chani Anderson.
On a gloriously sunny afternoon in Izz and Eman's back garden in Bishopstown, we and Habib are drinking Palestinian coffee, grazing on Palestinian treats.
'We made a list representing different areas of Palestine,' says Izz, 'and we also wanted to add an Irish dimension by inventing a recipe that combines Ireland and Palestine. Habib came up with the Paddy-stinian croquettes [including Tayto crisps] — I think it's his signature on the book. Everybody suggested different recipes, we got 40 and chose 30 of them.'
Sometimes they had to fight for a dish's inclusion.
'Sumigayya [sumac stew], for example,' says Eman, 'It was impossible for me to try it, [I hate] cold meat, ugh! It is the only dish served with cold meat. And it is very important for me to see lots of colours in the food but it is just brown and red. The first time, I was saying, 'oh my God, I can't, no, impossible,' but Habib said, 'just taste it,' and when I did, it was amazing and now I love it.'
'We had to decide,' says Izz, 'would we only include dishes that have ingredients easily available in the West, because we are writing for people in Ireland and the West in general. But we decided to go with recipes as they are and in Izz Cafe we try to sell Palestinian ingredients that are rare in Europe.'
'I want to thank Izz and Habib,' says Eman, 'they worked very hard on this book. For me, the hardest thing was the weights and measures because I usually cook [as opposed to bake] by hand — and working out how many servings from each dish.'
Habib may be an employee but the couple treat him like a beloved younger brother, fussing over him and teasing him in equal measure; he responds happily in kind.
Eman Alkarajeh pictured with a cake baked using a recipe from the new book Jibrin at Izz Café, Cork City. Picture Chani Anderson.
'Everywhere I've lived, I've been a refugee'
Eman's own family lives in exile in Jordan, while Izz's family live in the West Bank.
Habib's parents, his sister, and three of four brothers are still trapped in Gaza — another brother, Ramzi, also works in Izz Cafe. Habib arrived in Ireland in late 2021, making his first 'pilgrimage' from Dublin to Cork, to Izz Cafe.
'I was born a refugee in Gaza,' says Habib. 'Everywhere I've lived, I've been a refugee: Palestine, Greece, Ireland. March 25, 2022, was my first visit as a customer. I had heard about it and did my research and found they had my favourite dishes there, za'atar manaeesh [flatbread] — and Palestinian coffee.
In my first hour in Cork, I had to find the cafe — and it was perfect. I couldn't express my feelings about trying the coffee for the first time since I left Gaza.
"Six years without our own coffee. It's mad. [Izz Cafe] was amazing.'
Eman gently prods: 'Tell us about your feeling when you first opened the door.'
'In our country,' says Habib, 'we used to smell the manaeesh from far away, which brings a feeling from the nose to the soul. Ireland smells different and then smelling the manaeesh … it makes you feel like home, to have the perfect coffee, the perfect manaeesh. Za'atar manaeesh is not just a meal, it's identity, it's the most beautiful thing. I said, 'oh, I'll spend all my money here and so I planned to work in the kitchen and then everything will be free'.'
'You smell the mountains,' says Izz, 'you smell the countryside, you smell Palestine.'
Chef Habib Al Ostaz reads from Jibrin, the new cookery book co-authored with Izz and Eman Alkarajeh, at Izz Café, Cork City. Picture Chani Anderson.
Habib began cooking in the asylum centre in Greece, during the pandemic: 'I started doing recipes, watching YouTube and I made my own setup in the kitchen. And I loved it.
'It became my favourite thing to do. I didn't cook as a child because my mom wouldn't let anybody get into the kitchen. And that's the mom's tradition in the Middle East.'
Habib waxes lyrical about favourite childhood dishes before talking about the melange of regional variations to be found in Gaza: 'Because most are refugees, they bring together recipes from different cities, so there are lots of options, different recipes, and you could even find in the same house [shared between several families], let's say, magloubeh [rice, meat and veg in a single pot, inverted on to a large serving dish]. For example, if you are married to a woman from a different city and your brother's wife is from another city, they both have different ways, both delicious but both different. Some use cauliflower, some use aubergine, some use lamb, some prefer it with chicken.'
Izz says: 'And Habib shared his recipe for sumagiyya [beef or lamb sumac stew] which I used to hear about growing up in the West Bank.'
'It was my grandmother's recipe,' says Habib, 'one of the most traditional recipes in Gaza and really hard to make. So that's why I did my research, YouTube, reading books, asking friends, then putting my own touch on it and it was successful.'
A Palestinian cake prepared at Izz Café, Cork City, from one of the recipes featured in Jibrin. Picture Chani Anderson.
'I am still stateless'
Habib is a gentle, even shy soul, polite, softly spoken, although he has a wicked sense of humour, taking great delight in embellishing for comic effect a tale of 'stealing' coffee cake from the cafe that has the four of us falling around with laughter. Yet, those same eyes, just a moment ago glinting with mischief, cloud over with pain and sadness as he talks of his family still trapped in Gaza. How are they?
'Hungry,' says Habib. 'I find it hard, really hard to ask them about the current situation — or even to talk to them. I know how hard it has been for two years — how can I still ask every day, how are you? It's ridiculous. When I call, I make sure that they're still alive and that's it. I feel very guilty, making food in a place where food and everything else is so easy to get while they cannot. Even if I send money, food is too expensive. And you cannot protect them — I cannot handle that.
"They love to hear about me. They say, if you are OK, we are OK. And that's … It just doesn't make any sense, I still feel [their situation] in my heart. They can't feel safe like I do just walking in the street.
In the market, I think about how they can't go to the market. Even if they do, there is no market, nothing to buy.
"The most painful thing is we are all on the same planet but in an absolutely different situation. I haven't seen them in nine years now, and I want to see them again.'
'And we are his family as well,' says Eman softly.
'When I moved to Ireland,' says Habib, 'and found all the [Palestinian] flags everywhere, it made me feel more comfortable. I didn't know it then but I am the luckiest man on earth — they moved me to Cork and I didn't know that I would be in this restaurant with these people, but that's God's plan, and I'm so thankful — but I am still stateless.'
A glimpse into the kitchen at Izz Café, Cork City, as Iman Alkarajeh prepares a traditional Palestinian cake featured in Jibrin. Picture Chani Anderson
In a few days, Izz will return to the West Bank to see family. But even as an Irish citizen since 2023, Israeli authorities still impose stringent restrictions on entry. Even the book's title could prove contentious.
'I think they are not happy with the name,' says Eman, 'Jibrin was [the first Palestinian town occupied by the Israelis in 1948] where my family came from [before they were forced into exile in Jordan].'
While they dream of peace, freedom, and sovereignty for Palestine, Izz and Eman view Cork as home.
'Cork people are very supportive,' says Izz, 'very kind, very social. They approach you. They tend to hear you, your stories, your pains, and the Palestinian cause makes them even more engaging because it touches their humanity, so you feel them close to your heart. Becoming Irish citizens has been one of the most transformative experiences in our lives — not just legally, but emotionally and culturally as well... In Cork, we celebrate every aspect of our Palestinian heritage openly which amazes people in Palestine. People here have embraced us wholeheartedly, giving us space to be ourselves fully.
'This is why we fell in love with Cork and we feel we want to give back even more, to the community."
Jibrin, the new cookery book by Izz and Eman Alkarajeh and chef Habib Al Ostaz, pictured alongside freshly made dishes from the book at Izz Café, Cork City. Picture Chani Anderson.