For Dyna Eldaief, cooking is about expressing love. The Bacchus Marsh woman speaks with Sumeyya Ilanbey about cooking and her new cookbook, Tastes of Egypt.
What’s your connection to Bacchus Marsh?
I live here – I moved from Malvern three years ago.
What’s your favourite thing about living in Bacchus Marsh?
I really like the people I’ve gotten to know; I find it very friendly. People are very supportive of me … since I’ve published the book, I’ve had so many people say, ‘Where can I get it, can you sign a copy for me?’ I’ve heard people say, you should run a cooking course here.
What would you change about the area if you could?
I think, and council already knows this, the transportation issues with Main Street and Grant Street, because there are so many more families moving into the area. I think it’s really easy to leave people out and in isolation, so opportunities for them to engage.
Where’s your favourite place to hang out in Bacchus Marsh?
I like Maddingley Park and Baby Black Cafe. A group of like-minded ladies got me exercising, … we’d walk around the park together and then we started catching up weekly for coffee and breakfast in winter. It made me feel connected and have a sense of belonging.
What’s your fondest memory of cooking?
Probably the time I was in the kitchen – 18 years ago – with my mum and there was a recipe I remembered from years and years ago, when I was small. I told my mum, ‘You made a thing’ and described it to her … but she couldn’t remember how to make it. So the two of us spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to make the batter the right consistency and how to cook the little pillows of dough. They’re like half-moon shape, and they’ve got crushed nuts, sugar and sultanas in them. You deep fry them. They’re called atayef in Arabic, but I’ve called them crunchy syrup pillows in my book. That was one of those rare instances that my mum and I worked together in the kitchen.
What’s your favourite food to make and why?
Probably cakes and biscuits. I find food is a way for me to show love. I cook for people who are unwell or if they’re exhausted, or if there’s someone ill in the family or has passed away.
Tell me about Tastes of Egypt?
I think it’s about two decades’ of work. When I first started it was just an idea – I had moved out of my home and was living on campus. My mum would cook meals for me, freeze them in small portions and I would live off it for a week. So I started trying to track down ingredients for things she made and eventually try and work out how to do it. Most of the foods in the book have a memory attached to them. They all have emotional attachments to them.
Tastes of Egypt can be found at Collins bookstore in Bacchus Marsh or on amazon.com.
