When Ghaleb and Rana Khechen moved from Melbourne to Brisbane in 2013, they planned on opening a pizza joint at Palmdale Shopping Centre in the city’s south-eastern suburbs, but they were beaten to it by a another fast food competitor around the corner.
Instead, Ghaleb drew inspiration from his uncle, a baker in Lebanon, and opened Watany Manoushi.
Watany Manoushi was one of the first shops in the plaza to serve food. Nowadays the car park is blanketed with competing smoky flavours from the neighbouring Turkish and Pakistani grills, and Watany’s customers linger over shared meze and endless pots of tea.
But it’s the manoush that everyone is here for. The pillowy flatbread – which is traditionally eaten for breakfast – comes in more than 20 varieties, with clearly marked vegetarian and vegan options. The signature is the za’atar manoush, round flatbread topped with Watany’s house blend of thyme, oregano, sesame, tangy sumac and olive oil, which can also be served wrapped around fresh tomatoes, cucumber, mint, labneh and olives.
Other highlights include mhamara, a rich chilli capsicum paste textured with crunchy walnuts, and the kishik (dried yoghurt), where the sharpness of the yoghurt complements the sweet onions and lingering flavours of olive oil and sesame. Halal meat toppings include chicken and garlic served with Lebanese pickles, and lahm bi ajeen, featuring delicately spiced minced lamb and onion.
The fatayer is a triangular bread parcel filled with spinach, onion and sumac (feta and mozzarella are optional).
The secret to their manoush is the community behind it, says Ghaleb’s and Rana’s daughter Lauren Ayass. In Lebanese villages, households often bake their manoush in communal ovens. At Watany (which means “my country” in Arabic) you’ll find the custom-made oven behind the counter, surrounded by bakers busily shaping and baking bread. “Across the Middle East everyone makes and eats manoush differently,” says Lauren. “The recipe for our dough hasn’t stopped evolving. That’s what makes it unique.”
Their menu also tells newer stories of migration, like the manoush with sujuk (a spicy sausage) and cafe-style fried eggs, as suggested by one of their regulars. “That’s the beauty of manoush,” says Lauren’s husband Samer Ayass. “You can work your own magic with it.”
As well as the manoush, there are meze plates for sharing. Lebanese cuisine relies heavily on pulses and vegetables – raw, fermented, or in complex flavour combinations of za’atar, olive oil, sesame, sumac, garlic, lemon juice, mint and parsley. At Watany, the ultra fresh falafels are a must – they come drizzled with tahini and balanced atop jewel-toned pickled radish, cucumber and peppers. The fatte is a textural wallop of yoghurt crowned with tahini, crispy pine nuts, chickpeas and cracked toasted bread; while the mixed salad and dip plate is a rainbow of fattoush, tabbouleh, hummus, baba ganoush, salty black olives and pita.
The popular breakfast dish foul (also known as ful medames) is a deeply savoury and comforting stew of fava beans, garlic, mint and lemon, served with thick bread made from the same dough as the manoush. Lamb kibbeh come in two styles: Lebanese (made with pomegranate molasses, pine nuts and bulgur) and Iraqi (made with rice and tumeric), and both versions are crisped to perfection.
Follow with cardamom-spiked Arabic coffee, sticky Lebanese sweets, then a browse through Watany’s grocery store, where you can find dates, fresh green almonds, Lebanese tahini, dolmades and giant jars of pickles and olives. (There’s also a second Watany Manoushi branch on the Gold Coast.)
Watany Manoushi is usually buzzing mid-morning as diners drop by the plaza for traditional breakfast dishes (the eatery is open daily from 7am through to 7pm). A meal here offers the very best of community dining, and a taste of home for Brisbane’s Lebanese and Arab communities. “It was my family’s shop” says Lauren with pride. “Now it’s everyone’s.”
Watany Manoushi, Palmdale Shopping Centre, Shop 6, 2120 Logan Road, Upper Mount Gravatt, Queensland, 07 3420 6898, watanymanoushi.com.au
