Shawarma poutine plus a hookah

Shawarma poutine might be the ultimate Canadian-Middle Eastern fusion dish at Corydon restaurant Arabesque.

The poutine is one of the menu favourites, along with beef and chicken shawarma, falafel, hummus, and lamb donair, at the restaurant opened by business partners Mohammed Naser and Heba Abd El Hamid in 2016. “The food (besides the poutine) is the genuine flavours you would taste [in the Middle East], which we incorporated into a Winnipeg lifestyle,” says Mohammed Naser, who is of Palestinian-Syrian heritage. “We wanted to open something that would show everyone our culture. Our goal is to maintain our culture and show the beauty of it through food, which is the easiest way to get to know a culture. Even sushi used to be new in Winnipeg, and now it’s more common.” He orders food from suppliers in Montreal and Toronto—“for example, Middle Eastern pickles like turnip pickles are different from Canadian pickles.” But they have happily found a good local source for halal meat in Manitoba.

The restaurant also offers hookahs as part of their attempts to give authenticity and culture to the cafe, trying to create a feeling of being in the Middle East when you enter. Staff are used to explaining the process for customers who want to try a hookah for the first time. “A lot of customers come in and have never tried it before, but they want to try something new,” says Naser, who compares it to vaping. “I try to give first-timers a light flavour that gives a lot of smoke, as people enjoy that.” He recommends flavours like watermelon-mint, orange-mint and blueberry-mint for those new to a hookah.

The first year of the restaurant was hard work for Naser, who says he sometimes slept only 3 or 4 hours a night, because the new business took up so much time. Today, he’s happy to look around the dining room at customers who he regards as family: “For every customer, it feels like their second home.” Naser came to Canada in 2012 with a background in business, although this is his first time running a restaurant. Getting his first job in Winnipeg was tough. Now Arabesque makes an effort to hire refugees and immigrants who need a job, and the restaurant has hired about 35 over the past few years from countries like Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia and Iraq. “I love it when people don’t speak English at the beginning but after working here for a while, they learn to speak English and start to learn the culture,” says Naser.

This summer, the restaurant has been open for lunch as well as dinner, partially because customers wanted a relaxed place to go for lunch meetings and a hookah. “Everyone comes,” says Naser happily. “Winnipeg is multicultural. When I look around, I see tables of people from everywhere.”

All Photos by Kristhine Guerrero