{"id":19022,"date":"2025-12-12T14:14:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T06:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=19022"},"modified":"2025-12-12T14:14:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T06:14:41","slug":"kuala-lumpur-restaurant-brings-palestines-rich-flavours-to-malaysia-with-an-extra-kick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=19022","title":{"rendered":"Kuala Lumpur restaurant brings Palestine\u2019s rich flavours to Malaysia \u2013 with an extra kick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2025\/12\/10\/e09b9b55-b615-466d-9634-24da098b47f8_913bcf5e.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A large mural stands at the entrance of Yafa Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur\u2019s charming Taman Tun Dr Ismail township. In bold, graffitied letters inspired by art on the West Bank barrier \u2013 which divides the Israeli state from the western Palestinian territories \u2013 a slogan reads: \u201cMake hummus not walls\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Step past into the patio area and you will be greeted by the vibrant scents of cinnamon and wild thyme; walk a little further in and you will see wallpaper featuring pomegranates, oranges, poppies and patterns of the Palestinian keffiyeh in shades of olive.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Yafa Restaurant, which opened earlier this year, transports the rich flavours of Palestine to the Malaysian capital. The name references the ancient Palestinian port city of Yafa, known in English as Jaffa and located in modern-day Israel.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cMy dad was one year old when the first Nakba happened,\u201d says co-founder Ahmad Hallalo, referring to the 1948 mass expulsion and displacement of Palestinian Arabs when the Israeli state was established.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">His father, originally from Yafa, migrated to Gaza before earning a scholarship to study in Lebanon and finally settling in Abu Dhabi to raise his family.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hallalo\u2019s journey eventually took him to Kuala Lumpur 17 years ago. It was here he met Zara Ahmad Riza, a Malaysian native, and their 13-year marriage led them to co-found the restaurant as partners in both life and business.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/food-drink\/article\/3335874\/kuala-lumpur-restaurant-brings-palestines-rich-flavours-malaysia-extra-kick?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A large mural stands at the entrance of Yafa Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur\u2019s charming Taman Tun Dr Ismail township. In bold, graffitied letters inspired by&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[4605,5402,5500,2573,6567,6568,4349,12612,476,4434],"class_list":["post-19022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-brings","tag-extra","tag-flavours","tag-kick","tag-kuala","tag-lumpur","tag-malaysia","tag-palestines","tag-restaurant","tag-rich","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}