Check out these four new spots dishing out mandi rice, handmade baklava and muhalabiyah.
Mr Wael Ibrahim Ahmed Sonkor from Mr Kebab, Mr Fatih Karakas of Gaziantep Delight, Mr Abdulhadi Al Saadi of Damascus Delights, and Mr Alwee Bakhamis of Hadramawt Kitchen.SINGAPORE – Home to a cluster of Middle Eastern establishments such as Alaturka Mediterranean & Turkish Restaurant, opened in 2005, and Tabbouleh Lebanese Restaurant, started in 2008, the Kampong Glam enclave is a choice destination for diners wanting sizzling kebabs or mezze platters.
Meanwhile, hawker stalls selling Middle Eastern fare have also sprung up, such as Mr Kebab at Whampoa Makan Place, which offers Middle Eastern food with Egyptian flair, and Gaziantep Delight at Holland Drive Market & Food Centre, run by a Turkish chef who wants to deliver a legit taste of his country’s cuisine.
He serves up a tight but tasty selection, from his signature Kebab Chicken to the stall’s best-selling Mandi Rice With Chicken. Mr Wael Ibrahim started helping his uncle at the age of 12 and worked for him until he was 25. By the time he was 18, Mr Wael Ibrahim was able to prepare shawarma on his own.Shawarma was an obvious choice when Mr Wael Ibrahim and his wife decided in May 2022 to start their own hawker stall, first at Block 117 Aljunied Avenue 2. But business was poor and the couple decided to give up the stall after five months.
The Kebab Chicken is a hefty roll packed with fresh lettuce, tomatoes and slices of chicken shawarma. As Mr Wael Ibrahim adds mayonnaise and sweet chilli sauce to cater to local tastes, be sure to ask him to leave these out to better taste the aromatic chicken. In Singapore, he worked as a restaurant supervisor at a Turkish restaurant in Bussorah Street for over a year before asking for a transfer to the kitchen as he wanted to be a cook.After stints at a casual seafood restaurant and another Turkish restaurant, he started his own hawker stall in April as a stepping stone to his goal of opening his own eatery.He says: “I have seen how restaurants operate and I want to have more control over the way I cook. I don’t want to cut corners.
Locals make up 70 per cent of his customers, while the rest are mostly foreigners from the Middle East. Almost half of his customers are regulars. His family stayed for a few months in Lebanon before moving to Egypt, then settled down in Kuala Lumpur, where his elder brother bought over a restaurant in 2015 to run as a family business.
Mr Abdulhadi Al Saadi opened Damascus Delights in Tampines to serve authentic Syrian fare. ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO Mr Abdulhadi, who has not been back to Syria since leaving his country in 2012, is happy to serve Singaporeans a taste of Syria. Both his paternal and maternal grandfathers, who are from Yemen, settled in Singapore in the early 1900s.
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