ششبرك (Arabic for Mac n 'Cheese)

Not really... ششبرك is Arabic for shushbarak, what I think is the existential equivalent of Mac n' Cheese in the world of Arabic cuisine. Like Mac n' cheese, sushbarak is steamy, gooey, and chewy. It expands in your belly, evoking the comfort, warmth, and security of a warm bath. You know the feeling of falling asleep with the heater on, only to wake up in the middle of the night from such a deep stupor because you're too hot? Well, take that feeling, lower your body temp two notches so that you're warm, so warm, the kind of seizing, hibernation-inducing warmths that's not too hot, that's what sushbarak, the ultimate comfort food, feels like. Yup, I think the shushbarak/ Mac n'Cheese analogy holds with one exception: it is very timely and labor intensive to make- massochists in the kitchen, we are; if it's simple, you must be doing it wrong.


I found shushbarak (under the alias "Manti") on the menu of Turkish restaurant called Antique Garage, in Soho. After reading the description, I asked myself if this could possibly be true? When the waiter came to take our order, I asked him too; not "could this possibly be true?," but "tell me about these," and what he described, dumplings filled with minced beef swimming in a warm yogurt sauce, describes shushbarak indeed, and was my order, indeed.


I have little to say more than what I describe above; the return to comfort and contentment on the most primal human level, the months (9) that we frolicked about in amniotic fluid in total security and warmth, knowing nothing of the sorrows of the world, were returned to in this dish.
And, our check was delivered in an authentic 1940's cigarette tin. Coooool.