Cooking for IAW 1

Saturday, March 26

During the past weeks Carla Arcos, Yusser Salih, Maia Lauffs, and me have been skimming the internet to look for Palestinian recipes we could cook for the AWA panel at BAK in Utrecht. The panel also featured the group Utrecht in Solidarity with Palestine and Alfrida Martis from WdKA’s Office for Inclusivity and had a focus on grassroots organising for Palestine within educational institutions. Cooking Something Up was invited to cook for the panellists and participants.


This time, Carla was in charge, so when I arrived in Utrecht on Saturday she had taken care of the groceries and preparations. It felt good to be there as the supporting hand, rather than the organiser. Maia Lauffs and Freeke van der Sterren were also there to cook. We spent the whole day in the kitchen, making Maqluba and Fattet Hummus, cutting vegetables, and mixing yoghurt and spices. Maqluba is a rice cake, it literally means 'upside down'. In an oiled pot one layers thinly sliced potatoes, tomatoes, baked cauliflower, eggplants, chickpeas, and fried onions and adds spices between each layer. The rice and bouillon are added on top. When the dish is done cooking, it needs to be flipped around on a plate. At some point during the cooking somebody brought us a huge bowl of apples, so we improvised a crumble as a dessert.

While cooking we were listening to the Reading Palestine radio broadcast, which had been recorded the Saturday before at Good Times Bad Times Radio. During the broadcast members of AWA and beyond read the collectively authored demands for the institution, demands written by other groups in the Netherlands with regards to Palestine, and texts on Palestine by different authors. It was a nice moment to reconnect in person as well. At first, the three giant Maqlubas were standing quite well, but later they gradually collapsed. The food was amazing and way too much for the 20 people that showed up for dinner. After quickly cleaning up the kitchen with many helping hands, we went live with the panel.

1 Israeli Apartheid week is an annual series of events aimed at educating about the apartheid system in Israel and gathering support for the BDS campaign (boycott, divestment, sanctions).


Images to the right: wdka.teachermemes. Cooking at BAK. 26. March 2022. Screenshots from Instagram.