Syrian Grub Club

The concept of pitching up at a stranger’s home and sharing a home cooked meal with others may seem a bit too far fetched for most. But then again, in London anything is possible. Grub Club is a site that looks to connect chefs with diners. Chefs and cooks who want to host events sell tickets on their website, where dinners can in turn choose and pick meals to go to. For chefs, this is a great way to test out new menus, start/sustain their business without a permanent location or interact with others. For diners, its great to try something different and for an affordable price.  The Quest for Bold Flavour used Grub Club and hosted a Syrian Grub Club event, with all proceeds going to the Hands up Foundation. The charity looks to help support those effected in Syria, especially raising money to support prosthetic limb clinics and for medical salaries for staff in Aleppo.

A cracking evening of great food, live music and new people, all for a fantastic cause.

Syrian Grub Club

The meal was in a beautiful house in West London. On arrival, we were greeted with friendly hosts who offered us some Rosewater gin and tonic, along with some puff pastry, Fatayers. The pastry was fantastic and freshly made from their own pizza oven in the garden. I couldn’t quite decided what was more amazing, the puff pastries or the fact that they have a pizza oven in the garden.

The Meal

After seating around 20 people in the kitchen, homemade pitta bread from the pizza oven was served. Beautifully fresh and uneven in size, this went really well with their Muhammara (a thick dip made with Aleppo chilli).  Not your usual hummus or aubergine dip, but the flavours were great and the spices really worked well with the pitta bread. We really couldn’t stop eating this.

The 4 hour slow cooked lamb was next and was extremely succulent and juicy. Anything slow cooked tends to be good, but sharing the lamb around the table and mixing in the aubergine and vegetables just took it to another level. Soft and juicy and simply amazing with the pitta bread.

Sweet to Follow

Baklava is a classic middle eastern dessert and when done right, is simply amazing. With the option to dip your own honey, the pastry was crunchy and full of chopped nuts and pistachio. You can really taste the difference compared to your local Lebanese restaurant.

Musical Finish

The evening finished off with a performance by Whitebrow, a Canadian singer/songwriter with his mate on the saxophone, playing some very engaging and well written music. Predominately playing in intimate concerts such as So Far Sounds (blog post to come!), it was a fantastic way to finish off an evening filled with delicious food, great people, all while helping a great cause.  A great evening after all.

You can check out the music from his great performance here.