MELBOURNE | Rahaf Al Khatib started Beit Siti (“grandmother’s home”) in 2022 as a way to honour and share the food and stories of her grandmother, Jamal, and mother, Jamileh, with the wider Melbourne community. What started as occasional pop-ups, soon evolved into the Falastini food truck and, as of May this year, a bricks and mortar cafe in Coburg.
The cafe is a deeply personal affair. It’s a small space, fit-out DIY with help from family, friends, and the local community. It’s decorated with plants from Rahaf’s house, family photos, Palestinian literature and music, and tapestries from the West Bank. A display features Palestinian-made clothing, embroidery (and soon, pantry items) to purchase.
The menu currently features cakes and pastries, and a regular and vegan breakfast “sofra” set menu. As time progresses, more items, including regional specialities, will appear. Herbs and spices are grown in Rahaf’s garden, and everything on the menu is made from scratch, on site.
It’s a meze-style affair, featuring things like qudsiyeh (hommus topped with ful (warm spiced fava beans), olive oil, and green chilli shat’a, labneh topped with olive oil and sumac, and the precursor to shakshuka, galayet bandora (sauteed tomato with garlic, onion, and green chilli). It’s all very tasty stuff, served with an unlimited supply of pita to mix and match each bite with.
It’s not just about traditional family recipes at Beit Siti. The pastry menu, in particular, riffs on Rahaf’s upbringing as a “third culture kid”, who was born in Jordan and moved to Australia when she was four. There’s things like cheese and chicken mortadella croissants, labneh-topped danishes filled with strawberry, pomegranate and molasses jam, and labneh cheesecake brownies.
To drink, you can enjoy coffee made with Constance coffee beans, tea, and juices. Be sure to try the sahlep. It’s a hot, milky drink made using orchid tuber flour, flavoured with rosewater, and topped with shredded coconut.
There’s also on-site workshops where you can learn to how to do things like make yoghurt and labneh, and pickle vegetables.
Beit Siti
150 Bell Street
Coburg
Victoria 3058
Australia
Telephone: n/a
E-mail: [email protected]
Website
Open
Tue – Sun: 8:00am to 3:00pm