Mahshi

Mahshi is a taste of home. My first time making mahshi was with a Coptic Queer friend. We cooked several Egyptian dishes including kofta, goulash and stuffed grape leaves (mahshi). We spent hours washing the leaves, blending the vegetables, folding the meat and rice to create the stuffing mixture, filling and rolling the mahshi and finally packing them tightly together to be boiled in chicken broth with tomatoes and lemons. We put our labor, love and joy into the dishes we’ve spent a lifetime experiencing with our families and respective Coptic communities. I think about cuisine as a container of culture and how it holds values and tradition in the diaspora. Queer people are asked to reject their culture and religion to freely love and grow. As two queer people going through the motions of creating a celebratory meal we reclaimed Coptic tradition, warmth and community

Prints available upon request.