Restaurant review: An authentic taste of Syria in Shandon at The Four Liars
- The Four Liars Restaurant
- O'Connell Square, Shandon, Cork, T23 P592
- www.fourliars.ie
The distance from Aleppo, in Syria, to The Four Liars, a Syrian restaurant in the historic Shandon quarter of Cork City, is 4,944km. It took chef-proprietor Ahmed Saqqa six years to get from one place to the other.
In 2013, Saqqa, wife Hadeel, daughter Ghazeel and son Ghassan, began the journey on foot, over mountains from Syria, smuggled across the border into Turkey. They walked by night, to avoid detection, carrying two-year-old Ghassan. By day, they slept on bare ground, in just the clothes they wore.
The bus ride from Antakya to Istanbul took 13-hours. It took a year of undocumented working in Istanbul to pay for the night sea-crossing from Turkey into Greece on a crowded RIB. Applying for asylum, they were temporarily housed in Athens.
Two years later, asylum granted, they came to Direct Provision in Dublin. In 2019, they were allocated a house in Cork, Ahmed’s parents were allowed to join them. At the journey’s end, Cork is now home.
Of course, Saqqa and his family didn’t endure such hardship to fulfil a boyhood dream of someday opening his own little place under Shandon’s ‘Goldie Fish.’ He dearly misses his beloved Aleppo, one of the world’s great cities, its sophisticated epicurean heritage, thousands of years old, and he will always be proud of his Syrian roots.
But Ireland was the country that accepted him and his family when they fled Bahar al-Assad’s murderous regime, which has led to almost 120,000 civilian deaths to date: men, women and children.
He repeatedly emphasises it was the "kindness of Irish people" from the moment he arrived in Ireland that allowed him to open his first restaurant in 2020. His Shandon neighbours pitched in with offers of help and materials for refurbishment; customers of his initial takeaway operation left outrageously generous tips, spontaneous ‘crowdfunding’. Each day, Cork feels more like home, serial customers gradually becoming friends.
The Gambler, Monsieur ClinkClink and I trudge up Shandon St at 6.30 pm on a cold, dark evening. The Four Liars Bistro opened in the late 90s, wheezing to its little-mourned demise several years ago, but ‘Bistro’ is no more and this new dawn features a pleasant, simple makeover with Arabic accents, including ornate shishas, as welcoming and familiar as donning old slippers.
It is full by 7 pm, probably the most diverse crowd, in age, colour, creed and class, to be found in any Cork restaurant, Northside ‘locals’, Southside ‘tourists’, the joyous babble of accents and languages, an orchestra tuning up.
It is a neighbourhood restaurant of a type so common elsewhere in the world where sharing food is central to life, all types mixing easily in a communal ‘parlour’; unfortunately, we’ve always thought the pub alone was sufficient for that kind of social interaction. And does your local do belly dancing on a Thursday night?
A BYOB policy sees the resourceful MC produce a magnum of bright, juicy Beaujolais Villages Nouveau (Jean-Claude Lapalu) flush with fresh blackberries. Glasses aloft, we engage the menu.
Warak Enab are succulent stuffed grape leaves, filled with rice, tomatoes, parsley and poached in olive oil, served with cucumber, yoghurt and flatbread. I want one now, as I type.
Bulbous miniature ‘Eggplant’ (aubergine) is stuffed with rice, minced lamb, Syrian Spices (a mix of seven) and served with tomato broth. The same fruit also becomes smokey, creamy baba ganoush, enriched with tahini.
Hummus is the Middle Eastern equivalent of Irish Brown Soda Bread: everyone’s own recipe is the best, especially if handed down from ‘The Mother.’ Saqqa’s is superb: chickpeas imported from Syria, tahini, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, spice, salt, lemon salt; timing and technique is crucial, including ice cubes to maintain the purity of colour.
It is smeared over the entire plate and ‘cratered’ with the back of a spoon, indentations cradling chopped parsley and coriander, pomegranate seeds, sumac, Syrian spice mix and slicks of grassy green olive oil; in the centre, a cluster of whole chickpeas. Served with flatbread, it is a delicious, elegant and elemental meal in itself.
Falafel is another iconic Middle Eastern speciality that has become fair game for any aspiring cook with a bag of chickpeas and a recipe, and it is unsurprising to find the subtleties of a truly authentic recipe dwindling away, the further it moves from the original source — you can learn a recipe, but won’t find an epicurean genetic inheritance on the internet.
I have once or twice tasted falafel nicer than Saqqa’s, but all made by Middle Eastern cooks delivering from their personal culinary heritage. This falafel is certainly the best in Cork City: crisp, fluffy, surprisingly moist interior, bristling with deftly deployed flavour.
Syrian Rice, grains, spices and vermicelli pasta threads, first fried in oil before being boiled in water, is as comforting as a bowl of good porridge. Mashawy is a mixed grill of lamb and chicken skewers, well marinaded and turbocharged with a Syrian Spice mix and garlic mayo. Tabbouleh is another splendid Middle Eastern classic: an emerald salad of finely chopped parsley, with tomatoes, lemon juice, olive oil and crushed bulgur wheat.
There’s more but I’ve ordered too much of everything except the time to do it real justice. Ideally, it would be spread out over three, even four hours of languid grazing, guzzling and great conversation.
We’re comparing calendars even as we race out the door.
The season that’s in it, I can’t help but think of another ‘family’ that endured an arduous trek through the Middle East. They wound up inspiring this whole Christmas business. I’m not remotely religious but I very much subscribe to the bit about loving, caring and sharing with friends, family and even strangers. The story of Ahmed and his family is truly heartwarming and inspiring, offering real seasonal cheer at the end of yet another difficult year for so many people all around the world. Happy New Year!
