Photo courtesy Yuki SugiuraLemon-Roasted Almonds with Saffron from “New Middle Eastern Street Food: Snacks, Comfort Food, and Mezze from Snackistan.”

“Snackistan: a slightly east-of-center, fictitious land where tummies are always full, and there’s a slightly naughty smile on every face.” — Sally Butcher, cookbook author and owner of London’s Middle Eastern food emporium, Persepolis.

Food trucks have helped Americans rediscover street food, but the concept of buying and eating casual food and snacks from outdoor vendors or restaurants, and lingering over small plates of delicious goodies with friends and family is, of course, an ancient one.

The fascinating and entertaining new cookbook by Sally Butcher, “New Middle Eastern Street Food: Snacks, Comfort Food, and Mezze from Snackistan” (Interlink Books, 2013), inspired us to take a look at this style of eating, and check in with Bend’s three Middle Eastern restaurants: Kebaba Modern Middle Eastern Foods, Joolz: Where the Mezze Meets the Mesa, and Mazza Bistro.

We talked to them all about their favorite Middle Eastern street and snack foods, discovered that many of the recipes are easy to make at home (see recipes), and were reminded that you can tell a lot about a culture by what people are eating, and how they’re eating it.

Butcher, 50, owns the food shop, Persepolis, in Peckham, England, with her Iranian husband, Jamshid Gollshan Ebrahimi. Their shop is nicknamed “Persia in Peckham.” (http://foratasteofpersia.co.uk).

“New Middle Eastern Street Food” is Butcher’s third cookbook about this region’s food. She’s the main cook for their takeout food, and for the in-store cafe they call “Snackistan,” where the top-selling dishes include falafel (chickpea fritters), kibbeh (ground lamb) and hummus (chickpea spread).

In her cookbook, Butcher traces the history of “mezze,” or the small-dish way of eating, back to ancient Mediterranean cultures — the classical age of Greece and Rome — when people didn’t always have an oven or kitchen at home, and therefore bought food from vendors.

The warm climates of cultures that eat a lot of street food also create a slower pace and social atmosphere that suits sitting, talking and snacking.

“Of course, it helps that most of Snackistan enjoys considerably warmer weather than northwestern Europe and many parts of the United States: this coaxes people out of doors and fosters street culture and politics, both of which need feeding,” she writes in her new book.

In our email interview with Butcher, she said that eating a variety of small servings of different appetizer-style foods, or “mezze,” should appeal to most food lovers.

“Mezze is a state of mind, as much as anything. It’s about sharing and feasting with the eyes as well as the tummy, and making food a real experience. It is a great thing for Westerners generally to assimilate, as it accommodates healthy, lighter eating, social exchange and too, the fact that most of us are now ‘grazing,’ (eating little and often), rather than having set, large meals,” Butcher said.

We asked each of Bend’s three Middle Eastern restaurants to share a great street food or snack recipe with Bulletin readers.

Their delicious choices, along with Butcher’s recipes for lemon-roasted almonds, lamb kebabs and her mother-in-law’s comfort food stew follow.

Mazza Bistro’s Majadara

Mazza Bistro is Bend’s newest Middle Eastern restaurant, opened by the Shehadeh family in August 2012 at 806 N.W. Brooks St., No. 110, Bend.

Chef/owner Mike Shehadeh was born in Amman, Jordan, but lived most of his adult life in Southern California. He and his family vacationed in Central Oregon for many years before deciding to move here permanently in 2005. Most of the recipes at Mazza Bistro come from Shehadeh’s paternal grandmother, Teta Samira, and he takes great pride in making everything from scratch like she did.

“Everything is made from scratch, including the yogurt. Nothing comes from a jar, except pickles. The hummus and falafel are started from dried beans,” he said.

Shehadeh shared his grandmother’s recipe for Majadara with us (see recipe, next page). It’s spiced lentils, rice and onions that work well as a side dish or a main dish. Shehadeh told us he loves to eat a big bowl of it, with diced cucumbers, a little crushed garlic and plain yogurt seasoned with mint.

“The sweetly spiced rice and lentils strewn with soft, caramelized onions is as comforting as it gets,” he said.

“What’s good about Middle Eastern food is that it’s fresh, it’s good for your heart, and good for your blood pressure. We don’t use saturated fats. If you’re vegetarian, you can eat a lot of dishes without meat; if you’re dairy-free, you can do without the yogurt. The other thing is the taste. The flavors are so complex; it makes it a really good eating experience. I have a customer who tells me, ‘When I don’t eat your food for a while, my body tells me I have to have it.’ It’s joy through food,” Shehadeh said.

Kebaba Modern Middle Eastern Foods’ Za’atar Flatbread

Kebaba was Bend’s first Middle Eastern restaurant, opening in 2006, and it is still serving lots of locals and tourists at 1004 N.W. Newport Ave., Bend.

Owners Jake Lewis, Mike Ormsby and Steve Koch shared their recipe for Za’atar Flatbread with us (see recipe, next page).

“It’s pretty much the ubiquitous street food in many Middle Eastern countries,” said Lewis.

Freshly made pita dough is topped with oil that’s been flavored with za’atar spices.

Za’atar is an aromatic herb native to the Middle East, but the name also refers to a spice blend composed of dried thyme, sesame seeds, dried marjoram and sumac. Lewis said it could be found at Bend’s Savory Spice Shop in the Old Mill District.

The flatbread goes well with tzatziki (yogurt sauce), hummus (chickpea spread), baba ghanouj (eggplant spread) and other appetizers.

When we talked with Kebaba owners Lewis and Ormsby, they told us why they think Middle Eastern food is appealing, and how Americans can learn to enjoy it. Lewis likes the many choices: falafel, kebabs, vegetables dishes like karnabeet (seared cauliflower), salads and spinach pie.

“There are a lot of snacks, street food style and small portions. You can make a meal of five choices; you don’t have to be locked into one. Most American diners feel comfortable ordering one plate, and one plate only, and we have that at Kebaba. But if I could wave a magic wand and change the dining habits of Bend, I’d encourage many small plates. You get the same quantity at the same price point, but you have five different experiences,” Lewis said.

Ormsby likes the variety of Middle Eastern sauces that are available.

“Don’t be afraid of the sauces: tahini (sesame seed paste), tzatziki (yogurt sauce), red sauce (jalapeno pepper, onions, sugar), green sauce (Serrano chile, garlic, parsley). They’re only 50 cents each, but they can make the meal. My favorite meal at Kebaba is spicy lamb with red sauce, hummus and rice, plus a little pickled cabbage and onions,” Ormsby said.

Joolz: Where Mezze Meets Mesa’s Lebneh

Ramsey Hamdan, chef/owner of Joolz: Where Mezze Meets the Mesa at 916 N.W. Wall St., Bend, grew up in Beirut, Lebanon, and left at the 21 to come to the United States.

He fell in love with Oregonian Juli Stonelake (hence “Joolz”) and stayed. Joolz mixes Central Oregon flavors with his native cuisine.

“Hummus on the Range” is a small plate of elk seared in olive oil, lemon, sumac, toasted pine nuts and Italian parsley, served over hummus. There’s an almond-crusted ling cod on the menu, served with Israeli couscous and braised Moroccan carrots.

“We do a version of Romesco sauce that’s Lebanese-style: very similar to the original walnut and roasted red pepper puree, but with pomegranate molasses and olive oil and garlic, served with phyllo cheese puffs,” Hamdan said.

He concurs with Sally Butcher’s observation that Middle Eastern food is a reflection of its warm-weather plus its bounty of fruits and vegetables.

“The food is very seasonal. I remember carts in the summer of corn on the cob, roasting over charcoal; roasted fava beans in the spring that we’d peel and eat off newspaper, served with a lemon wedge. Instead of candy, a fresh peach from a tree is a treat there,” Hamdan recalled.

He shared his easy recipe for lebneh, a creamy yogurt spread, made by draining yogurt and simply adding salt. At Joolz, it’s served as a small plate, drizzled with olive oil and za’atar spices, or topped with olive oil and toasted nuts (crushed blend of toasted hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, sesame seeds and spices).

Hamdan hopes Americans will experience the Middle Eastern tradition of snacking and visiting.

“Everywhere in the Mediterranean the people are very social, so they always put food out that you can eat at room temperature. They want to sit and visit and chat and eat and sip a little bit and not be in a hurry, so the food is made to last at the table, in case a neighbor walks by,” he said.

Hamdan took his American father-in-law to Lebanon about five years ago. The culture’s food traditions were a little awkward at first.

“We were going through all the little villages on the way to my village, and had to stop and say ‘Hi’ to old friends. Every time we stopped, the food was out. I said to him, ‘You can’t not eat. It’s an insult to not sit.’ My uncle was with us, and by the time we got to the fourth village, my uncle said to me, ‘Your father-in-law is going to explode!’”

Hamdan told his father-in-law that eating just one nut, or one olive was OK.

“My uncle said, ‘You’re going to kill the poor guy. We have three more villages to go.’”

— Reporter: ahighberger@mac.com