Al Baraka Restaurant

🇵🇸 PALESTINE / The "blessing" that is Little Arabia's Al Baraka is like being invited into a private dinner party at the home of its owners.

🇵🇸 PALESTINE
📍 413 S. Brookhurst Street,
Anaheim, Orange County.
🅿️ Ample parking in plaza
🥤 No Alcohol
🌱 Vegetarian Friendly

While its humdrum boxy concrete facade might not be the type to pull in random passersby, those that do come into three year old Al Baraka are in for a treat. Named for the Arabic word for blessing, the cooking coming from the kitchen really lives up to its name, and the hospitality feels just like home.

At any random time you arrive, you might find owners Aref Shatarah and Magida Shatarah (who is also the chef) at a table eating their meal or talking with a community member that has come in to ask for a catering quote for their own event or celebration. Grab a seat on the entry side to be closer to them and their TV playing news in Arabic, or a booth on the other, quieter side and tuck into the menu.

Make sure to look over the daily specials list, which has seven very different vibrant options depending on the day you come in. Some of these you are likely not to recognize from other Levantine menus in Southern California, dishes that are usually cooked for special occasions in Palestine rather than found in restaurants. What a blessing!

Come on a Sunday for what is likely the most special of all specials, makadem & karshat ($35, not shown), a lovely combination of slow-cooked lamb trotters and stuffed lamb intestines. The final presentation also includes tongue and comes with a heaping plate of rice like most other dishes.

If Arabic is not your language, Aref might take a quick look as you point to the menu to figure out what words you just butchered, but he will nod positively and tell his wife who runs the kitchen what you ordered. The two are originally from the West Bank, but on a couple recent visits have their eyes on the TV tuned to the Arabic feed of Al Jazeera showing the horrors of what Israel’s military is doing to the Gazan people.

Daily specials for the most part require hours of cooking and are all ready to go and come to the table quickly. Other main courses that are available daily like bamya ($22, above) do not take much longer. The centerpiece and namesake of this dish is okra, which shares space in the tomato-based stew with beef and an entire cabinet full of spices and herbs.

On a recent Thursday, the daily special sheikh el mahshi ($22, above) was enjoyed, three tubular squash stuffed with pine nuts, ground beef, and chopped onions. These are submerged in an oily yogurt broth that takes on all the flavors since everything is cooked together.

A bit of this saporous yogurt was left in the bottom of the bowl after the meal, and a small takeout cup showed up unsolicited. “You better take that!” Aref directed, a further hint of how special every drop should be treated. With such a high class of food, it can be seriously doubted that anyone in Little Arabia is missing the hookah and vape shop that occupied the space before Al Baraka opened in early 2021.

The Monday special is makluba ($22, above), which you can have with either chicken or beef. The name roughly translates to upside-down, and traditionally when served the pot is turned over onto a plate. At Al Baraka a layer of fried eggplant and cauliflower are laid over the rice before the meat is added on top. A roasted half-chicken dusted in spices is perfect for makluba, offering both dark and white meat cuts to eat with the rice and side of tart yogurt.

Recently this dish, which has been enjoyed by people in the Levant since at least the 1200’s, has been attempted to be claimed by Israeli chefs. This may seem harmless compared to the 75 years of violence inflicted by their military, but is another important example of the settler colonial project of so-called Israel and how no limits exist in what they will attempt.