My chief food co-hort, Jesse Olivarez and I happened upon the annual Mediterranean Food Festival at St. Elijah’s Church on Saturday.

The event was a fundraiser for the church and included a car raffle, food market, dinner, lunch and dessert. Got myself involved with a chicken kafta sandwich. Typically, kafta is a ground meat dish. It’s derived from the Persian word Kufta, which means to beat or grind. But this was a nice Okie-friendly interpretation that included a full, grilled chicken breast with dressing, onions, black olives and feta. The tabouli was less reliant on bulgur than others I’ve had, instead using it as a complement to the parsley, mint, green onions and tomato. Finally, we had a baklava sundae. Yes, baklava ala mode and striped in chocolate and caramel. Yes, it was soooo good.

Dinner included cabbage rolls, kibbe, salata, pita bread, and hummus.

They also had a bake sale featuring an assortment of Lebanese entrees, breads, cookies, cakes, pies, cinnamon rolls and baklava. 

As was everything. Look forward to dropping in again next year. But next time, I’m not leaving without recipes.