Yalla Padaria

Today Oliwia and I went to Yalla Padaria, a small Lebanese restaurant near Palácio de Cristal. Since they make their own bread, it makes sense that they call it “Padaria”, but I never gave too much thought to what “Yalla” means. Luckily, since Oliwia is learning Arabic from a Lebanese teacher, she said it means something along the lines of “força”, which I found really cute. Força Padaria has a funny ring to it.

The owners are a really lovely Lebanese couple (or at least I assume they are a couple). The wife is normally behind the counter taking the orders, and is a lot more shy than her husband. Regardless of her shyness and soft-spoken demeanor, she fills up the room with a contagious happy energy. I really love it when people radiate energy like that.

The husband is the manager and alternates between being behind the counter and zigzagging in between the tables. It’s funny how despite him being constantly stressed from juggling a million things at once amid the hordes of customers flocking in, he always finds the time to stop and actually have a conversation with whoever’s there. I wonder if it was him or his wife that painted the shape of the Lebanese borders with a Lebanese flag inside.

I also wonder how they ended up in Portugal, out of all places. The only other Lebanese “thing” in Porto is another small restaurant called Tazah. But I imagine that there must be some community of people who come from the Levant region, as I have met some Syrian and Iraqi people in Porto. There’s also a nearby shop called Orient Gate that sells food products from that region, such as za’atar.

Either way, Oliwia and I got takeaway because they were full, but it was actually very pleasant as we had a little picnic on a shaded bench in the Palácio de Cristal. I got my usual, the Chicken Shawarma, which I love for two reasons: firstly, it’s delicious and spicy, and secondly, it’s made with chicken breast that is neither dry nor suspiciously pink inside. Oliwia got a za’atar and jebneh flatbread, and a plain za’atar flatbread to share.

I think my usual will change — I am definitely joining the za’atar and jebneh cult. Honestly, eating it was a religious experience that transformed me into a new person. I have no idea why I loved it so much, but it just hit all the right spots. We even went back to the restaurant to tell the owners how much we specifically loved the za’atar and jebneh flatbread. Oliwia loved it, but preferred the shawarma as it’s more to her taste. I think her tastes are wrong.