Zeeba's: A Spoonful of Home

Category: Interviews

Sitting on stools, elbows resting on a wooden slab that functions as a bench, glancing out on to the street through a large glass panel, over a Turkish apple ice tea, a chicken sandwich and a hot githeyo mirus sauce, Lonumedhu had a lovely conversation with Zeeba Saeed, the owner of the popular and cosy Zeeba’s Deli & Café. We talked about many things including her famous cinnamon rolls, her favourite ingredients and her love for bananas and garudhiya.

Lonumedhu: Do you remember the first thing you ever cooked?

Zeeba: That was such a long time ago, so I can’t really recall the first thing I ever cooked. But I do remember the first time I made roshi. I forgot to put in the salt (laughs). I also remember making a dish with tomato paste and dried fish quite often.

Lonumedhu: Tell us a little bit more about this tomato paste dish.

Zeeba: It’s made with onions, dried chilli, dried fish and tomato paste; it’s really delicious with roshi. I still make it, and my son loves it too.

Lonumedhu: So, since how long ago have you been cooking?

Zeeba: I began to cook while I was in grade five or six. I love roshi, so I was making that, and apart from the tomato paste dish, I was making things like kulhimas.

Lonumedhu: Making kulhimas when you were ten, that’s impressive! How’d you learn to do that?

Zeeba: Back then I just loved to watch other people cook. Also, during school holidays our family would visit Buruni, my dad’s from that island, and there would be these big community-cooking events and I remember being so excited to take part in them.

Lonumedhu: Community cooking sounds really interesting; tell us a bit more about that.

Zeeba: It could be for Eid, a wedding, or for government officials visiting the island for a function. The people from the island would come together to cook everything, and we’ll make things like chicken curry and biriyani

Lonumedhu: That must have been fun.

Zeeba: My family actually loves food. My dad would often invite people to our home for these huge meals, he might even invite everyone on the island when we visited Buruni, so there’s always cooking.

Lonumedhu: Let’s talk about Zeeba’s Deli & Café’. We see so many types of food here. You have stews, Thai curries, pastries, cakes etc. How did you learn to make all of these?

Zeeba: Whenever I travel, I try new things. And if I like something I’ll want to make it myself. I’ll look it up on YouTube and find recipes online. Obviously it wouldn’t turn out great on my first attempt, so I’ll keep making adjustments until I get it right. For example the cinnamon roll here came out of one of my travels.

Lonumedhu: Okay, tell us some more about the cinnamon roll.

Zeeba: I had my first cinnamon roll from Cinnabon, in Malaysia, and I just loved it. Took a lot of tries to make them as soft as they are now.

Lonumedhu: How about your banana bread?

Zeeba: I’ve always loved banana. If something has banana in it, I’ll usually want to check it out. I did try out a lot of recipes to come up with the banana bread here as well.

Lonumedhu: I think a lot of people would describe Zeeba’s as homely. What did you have in mind when you designed the place?

Zeeba: I actually wanted people to feel at home here, and have a homely meal. At first I had a takeaway place in mind because the space is so small, but I made some adjustments such as making the kitchen smaller, so that some customers can sit around.

Lonumedhu: So, when running Zeeba’s, what’s the most important thing for you?

Zeeba: It’s all about my customers. I always ask my staff whether there were any customer complaints. I want my customers to be happy and that is my biggest concern.

Lonumedhu: Since you do a lot of cooking, and cooking involves so many processes, what part of it do you enjoy the most?

Zeeba: The worst part of it is cleaning up (laughs).

Lonumedhu: I agree, that really is the worst part of cooking!

Zeeba: I am also really happy when someone else takes care of the chopping and prepping. I am not so much into presentation either. For me, I think what I enjoy most is finding the right taste, making adjustments until the flavours are spot-on.

Lonumedhu: You and cooking, there seems to be a real union there.

Zeeba: I find cooking to be therapeutic. If I’ve had a stressful day, I’ll usually cook something really delicious and afterwards I’ll feel very relaxed. I also enjoy serving my food to other people; conveying happiness to people through my food.

Lonumedhu: Shall we talk about ingredients? I notice that you use a lot of cinnamon in your cooking, what else are your favourite ingredients?

Zeeba: Yes cinnamon is one of my favourite ingredients. Other than that I love lemon, butter, garlic and parsley. Even seeing them sitting in my fridge makes me happy (laughs)!

Lonumedhu: Okay, last question, if you were cooking just for yourself, what would you make?

Zeeba: Roshi and garudhiya. That’s my comfort food. But the garudhiya has to be made just right.

Lonumedhu: It was really lovely talking to you about all these food. Thanks so much Zeeba.

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