Chips Oman manouche @ Blends
14 Williamson St, Liverpool, L1 1EB
Blends, which opened last year, is so named for the mix of Mediterranean cuisines it serves. But while there’s rich Italian roast coffee in the espresso machine and pleasingly greasy Greek spanakopita on the counter here, it’s from the Levant that most of the café’s offerings originate.
Look around you and most customers are eating plates of falafel, mutabal and shawarma or — cornerstone of the menu at Blends — manouche ; a baked Lebanese flatbread traditionally topped with citrussy, sesame-flecked za’atar.
While this classic iteration is available there are manouche to suit all palates; hummus and beetroot, beef kofte and pomegranate, even — in an act of culinary fusion reaching far beyond the civilisational cradle — fajita chicken and sweetcorn.
There are two standout options though. First the mouhamara and kashkaval, which combines sweet and smoky Syrian red pepper and walnut dip with nutty and piquant Balkan sheep’s cheese. Like a margherita pizza with the contrast turned right up.
And then there’s the Chips Oman manouche — a boat of baked dough filled with Puck brand cream cheese spread and served with a bag of Chips Oman crisps.
Made in Muscat — but popular across the Gulf — Chips Oman are thicker, crunchier and less oily than Walkers. Ostensibly they’re chilli flavoured but are more tangy than spicy — like a bag of tomato ketchup Golden Wonder from a leisure centre vending machine.
Crushed inside the bag, shards of crisp are emptied on to the manouche, piercing the lightly burned crust on the liquid cheese.
The whole thing is then liberally doused in what is described as chatta (an Arabic chilli paste) but which I suspect is Tabasco, Crystal or another hot pepper sauce. Take a bite and feel a warm, soporific calm wash over you.
It’s a dish seemingly inspired by the snacks found at the roadside cafeterias often frequented by South Asian migrant workers in Dubai. There sandwiches and paratha rolls are filled not only with masala omelette and aloo tikki cutlets but also crunched-up Chips Oman.
Not exactly Mediterranean, sure, but a delicious blend of food cultures nonetheless.
