CULTURE CLUB
Some cafés chase Instagram trends, but Saha in Adelaide serves century-old dishes instead.
“We wanted to bring our heritage into our cooking,” says Jinan Mehio, who runs the business with husband Abdoullah. These recipes have survived a lot, such as war in Lebanon and a devastating fire at Saha’s original location. They moved the café to a new site after the 2019 blaze, the fatteh, ful and manoushi remain as their grandparents’ grandparents made it: the chickpeas topped with yoghurt tahini, broad beans flavoured with garlic, lemon and olive oil and flatbreads seasoned with za’atar.
Don’t treat the whole menu as an ancient text that can’t be changed, though: Mehio recalls their mothers “workshopping” dishes at the café’s start. “It was a bit like World War III some days – hearing
