Never in my life before have I tried shawarma. Not because I don’t like it, but rather because I never really had the opportunity to. It was never anyone’s favorite food in my family. When the rare night came around where we got takeout, we all would suggest our favorite things. Only now have I pushed myself out of that comfort zone to try some food from Restaurant Boustan. It was a tiny shop that could only fit about ten small tables with not much room between them. In the back was a TV streaming different sports for the customers to watch. I was a bit nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. There are a lot of things that go on your plate in shawarma, and I didn’t know what I would like your what I wouldn’t. However there was something I immediately recognized and know I don’t like, and that was hummus.
Now, I hate hummus. Something about the texture always throws me off, and leads me to avoid it. So I thought, “Well, I don’t want to put something on the plate I don’t like. I’ll just ask for it without hummus.” When it finally became my turn to order, I happily asked for no hummus. Little did I know, hummus is one of the more often seen things on a shawarma plate. It would be like going to McDonalds and asking, “Yeah could I have a burger with no patty.” Then what’s the point of the burger? Still, I asked for it to be off and was greeted with a very confused chef. His eyebrows narrowed and his eyes shot from my plate back to me.
“No hummus?” He asked again.
“Yes please, no hummus.” I responded.
He blinked and froze for a moment then the chef next to him asked a similar question.
“No hummus?” he seemed a tiny bit appalled.
I nodded once more, keeping a smile as the two chef looked at each other. I was starting to get worried they wouldn’t give me the plate at all. Finally one of the chef shrugged and mutter under his breath, “Okay, no hummus.” Then passed the plate to the cash register. The person at the cash register just finished up with the last customer and smiled, asking me what my order was. “Chicken Shawarma” I responded. Without hesitation the chef behind him putting together another plate muttered “and no hummus.” The man at the registered paused and for a moment lost his smile. “No hummus?” I sighed and nodded. “Yeah, No hummus.”
The whole event was pretty funny and I couldn’t help but realize that this tiny shop in Montreal, reminded me of a tiny shop back in Massachusetts. It was a breakfast shop that was owned and run by an older man, who cooked most of the meals. We found out later that most of the finances were managed by his daughter, but boy was this man a character. On an average day, you would come in to this tiny breakfast shop in a tiny town and look at the menu for a bit then he would walk his way over and ask “What you want?” with a heavy accent. To this day, I cannot figure out what accent this man had. Yet, you’d give him your order and he would narrow his eyes.
“You want sunny side up?” he’d ask then pause for a moment and scratch his beard.
“No, you want scrambled.” He finally responds then wonders to the kitchen.
No matter what you would ask for, he would always give you what he wanted to make. The issue is, everything that he would make was amazing! You couldn’t be angry when it was just so good. The way the two chefs in Montreal asked “No hummus?” reminded me fully of this man.
“No bacon? Ha! You get more bacon.” He’d say.
It was a nice reminder of my tiny home from this big city.