East Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Soul Food

Sababa Bali | April 2022

East Mediterranean & Middle Eastern cuisine is finally having its moment in Bali. Sababa Bali, a fresh new lifestyle restaurant opened in Berawa recently. The eatery’s name refers to a Hebrew slang word meaning "great or cool" and can express passion and pleasure. Sababa comes from the Arabic word tzababa, which means great or excellent in spoken Arabic. Like the name, Sababa’s food has its roots in both Jewish and Arab cuisine, personifying the true melting pot that is the Mediterranean region, and the jargon sense of its name.

Home-made Labneh

Employing tangy flavors, fragrant spices, a bit of zippy chilies and heaps of fresh herbs to build layers of flavours in complex dishes, it’s a cuisine that deserves to be known. Be it the Octo ‘ ganoush - grilled octopus and smoked babaganoush-, the house-made labneh, a Lebanese version of cream cheese, a lot tastier and lower in calories, serve on a plate, basted with onion and coriander dressing. The Crispy Okra with homemade harissa, bell peppers ragout & sesame oil, or the Lamb Kefta, a deliciously spiced and tender type of Moroccan kebab made using ground lamb with a mixture flavoured with cumin, paprika, minced onion, coriander & parsley and formed into skewers. Juicy, tasty, comforting.



Octo-ganoush

Crispy Okra with home-made Harissa


While the starters and mezze pack a punch at the beginning of your meal, the mains keep up the momentum. The Braised Lamb Shank is to die for. Sprinkled with dry fruits, cashew nuts and served with a real tabouli salad. Not the white one full of semolina, no, no, no. The traditional one with a shiny verdant color made up of a lot of parsley, a bit tomatoes and a dash of green onions, all finely chopped and tossed with olive oil and lemon juice. Oh my! As a sharing plate, highly recommended the Levantine Grilled Meat Platter that should be named the Levantine meat feast! 3 cooked to perfection meats. Free-range chicken legs, Australian lamb, and Australian beef striploin, all distinctively and beautifully spiced. The remarkably tender meat trio arrives with a fluffy hill of golden organic jasmine rice and a bright salad of chopped tomatoes and cucumbers.



Levantine Grilled Meat Platter

Braised Lamb Shank


If you still have a room for dessert, the Knapfe is a must-try. Also spelt Kanafeh, Knafeh, and Künefe, it’s a Middle Eastern dessert most often eaten in the countries of the Levant. A sweet made from unripened cheese. Originally made with Phyllo dough, the twist of Sababa is that the homemade cheese is wrapped in puff pastry and then bathed in simple syrup. Its flavours and textures are so well balanced. The creamy cheese contrasts with the flakiness and subtle crispiness of the dough. The addition of pistachios offers yet another layer of crunch, while the yoghurt ice cream with coriander and orange molasses brings a refreshing and zesty final.

Knapfe

What else can I say, everything about Sababa is cool. The interior is warm, the service is attentive, and the cuisine relies on simple, fresh ingredients combining several cultures, from Tangier to Tel Aviv, through Beirut and Ankara. East Mediterranean & Middle Eastern soul food, you might call it, based on tradition but not enslaved by it. It’s so compulsively craveable, nothing short of a genuine foodie’s experience!

Experienced April 2022