Shadia Al Hili is urging a woman passing by her Altrincham Market stall to sample the food on offer.
But there’s a problem.
The woman appears more confused than interested by what’s on sale.
Shadia tries again, this time in Arabic.
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“Honestly, it’s authentic ful madamous – give it a go.”
The woman frowns. Real ful madamous doesn’t exist ready-made outside her homeland – never mind the UK. This doesn’t seem right.
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She gazes at the pot on the table, sniffs, piles up a spoonful, and raises it to her lips.
There’s a pause.
All of a sudden, she urgently beckons her husband over to the stall. They stand together tasting samples for some time, before the woman turns to Shadia, places a palm on her shoulder and looks her right in the eye.
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“Thank you for doing this,” she says.
All those endless hours in the kitchen suddenly seemed worthwhile. Shadia felt she might just be the right person to introduce ful madamous to the British market after all.
Ful madamous – a dish of cooked fava beans served with a stash of aromatic spices, olive oil, garlic and a touch of chilli heat – is not just a favourite for Middle Eastern families; it’s an essential part of their staple diet. It tastes like home.
Shadia, a mother of two and entrepreneur from Salford, is the first woman to popularise the magnificent, healthy cuisine in the western hemisphere. And it’s making a big impact.
This is how she did it…
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“We’re putting ful madamous on the map”
The fact that ful madamous has never quite made it onto British soil as a supermarket snack seems bizarre for two reasons.
Firstly, it’s one of the oldest foods in the world – having been a staple of the eastern diet for more than five thousand years.
Second, it offers pretty much everything the body and mind needs to fire on all cylinders.
Packed with healthy carbs, protein and vitamins, it’s what Shadia refers to as a “little bowl of heaven” – and Shadia is selling it for just £2.95 a pop.
Ful madamous- translated as “mashed beans” in English – is nothing short of a superfood, tasting like a thicker, fuller version of hummus although with 75% less calories.
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Among its incredible health benefits is the also the presence of levodopa – a dopamine precursor and chemical proven to fight Parkinson’s disease.
“We’re trying to put madamous on the map,” explains Shadia, who set up her ful madamous brand Cuzena in 2017.
“It has so many benefits for people, it offers a real insight into Middle Eastern culture, and it’s perfect as a meal or snack.
“The fact that you couldn’t just buy it off the shelves seems mad to me. It’s one of the tastiest, healthiest foods in the world!
“I’ve always had a bit of an entrepreneurial mind-set, but when I closed the fridge one day after realising my family hadn’t made ful madamous, I thought – ‘Why can’t you just buy this in supermarkets?’.
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“It wouldn’t leave me, and I decided to give it a real go.
“I’ve been very passionate about making it happen ever since.”
“They have hummus now”
Raised by Middle Eastern parents – who’d moved to Salford in the 1950s – Shadia is convinced her dad is looking down on her right now and laughing at the fact she’s introducing a nation to a food that’s reigned humble but supreme in the east for centuries.
“He’d find it bizarre, but I think he would be very proud” laughs Shadia.
“I remember my mum coming home and excitedly telling my dad – ‘You won’t believe it, they have hummus in the shops now.’”
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“It was a big thing then. But nowadays, hummus is everywhere. That’s the plan for ful madamous.”
Shadia calls ful madamous the “cousin” of hummus, but this concoction differs in the fact it can be eaten hot or cold. It’s also earned privileged status as ‘SYN FREE’ at Slimming World whilst fitting in a veggie or vegan diet.
So why, until now, has ful madamous evaded British buyers?
“I think for many years, people didn’t enjoy the earthy colours of dark food,” Shadia explains.
“I certainly think the stars have aligned for us to introduce our bean ranges with the growth of plant-based eating.
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“I think a lot of people believe the best beans are grown elsewhere. But we’ve actually had excellent beans growing here since the iron age.”
Not that that made it any easier to make ful madamous, of course.
Shadia had to go through more than 1,000 tests until she found a blend that really hit the spot. But two years ago, she successfully completed the soft launch of Cuzena – which is now available both in Manchester and nationwide.
There are currently three flavours for sale – garlic & coriander, fiery chili, and caramelised onion – with plans in the pipeline to expand the range in 2020.
“ I think the perception of Middle Eastern food is that it’s really complicated and contains all sorts of things like rose petal water” Shadia tell us.
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“The fact is – it’s humble food with magnificent flavour and Cuzena plans to show how thoroughly simple and thoroughly modern the food is. I’m just so glad more people are beginning to discover what it’s like.”
“True happiness must be shared”
Nobody had heard of Cuzena a few months ago. Barely anyone knew what ful madamous was, either.
Yet, Shadia’s Middle Eastern dish is now available at Wholefoods, As Nature Intended, Bents Garden Centre, Unicorn, Ancoats General Store, Sale General Store, two city centre SPARs (Princess St and Oxford Rd), Booths supermarket and Selfridges.
Cuzena is also enjoying distribution from Cotswold Fair and The Health Store.
“It’s been a busy few months, but I’m so glad people are discovering it,” says Shadia.
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“At Cuzena, we respect the Middle Eastern tradition to share from ‘one plate’ – we only make food that you can share.
“That’s our attitude: True happiness must be shared…”
Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s ‘favourite’ brand of teabags, according to new data
Danny Jones
The Great British debate of which teabag is best is one that will rage on for millennia, that’s just the way it is, but according to new data, it sounds like we might at least have an answer to which brand makes for Manchester’s favourite brew.
It won’t be a surprise to many of you and we can certainly confirm it on our end but the one and only Yorkshire Tea looks to have taken the cuppa crown when it comes not only to Manchester’s preferred teabag but seemingly the best-loved in Britain as a whole.
This is according to numbers pulled by local firm, TonerGiant. The Atherton-based ink and toner suppliers decided a poll around the office wasn’t enough and instead chose to turn their knowledge of the market and consumer trends into a bit of online research.
At the end of the day, tea has got to be the most important of all office supplies, surely?
Using data from trusted online source Statista, which nailed down the top 25 teabag brands in the UK, each make was then ranked in relation to its average monthly searches via Google Keyword Planner to reveal that Yorkshire Tea was clearly the top dog.
With roughly 390 searches per month in Manchester alone, compared to PG Tips as the next best (260), it seems us Mancs have to concede at least one thing to our fellow Northern county: Yorkshire makes a bloody good brew.
The Roses rivalry raged for centuries but if there’s one thing that brings us together, it’s a good cuppa.
In terms of other tea brands that came in high on the leaderboard, Pukka Tea (170), Twinings (140)and Teapigs (90) made up the rest of the top five most-searched tea brands in Greater Manchester. It’s also interesting to see how those figures looked when extrapolated nationwide. Here’s the full ranking:
Rank
Tea
Average UK monthly searches
1
Yorkshire Tea
27,100
2
PG Tips
18,100
3
Pukka Tea
14,800
4
Twinings
12,100
5
Teapigs
8,100
6
Whittards Tea
6,600
7
Tetley
4,400
8
Clipper Tea
4,400
9
Lipton Tea
3,600
10
Barrys Tea
3,600
11
Thompsons Tea
1,300
12
Typhoo
1,300
13
Taylors Tea
1,300
14
M&S Tea
1,300
15
Tesco Tea
1,000
16
Tick Tock Tea
880
17
Sainsbury’s Tea
720
18
Lyons Tea
720
19
Asda Tea
590
20
Aldi Tea
590
21
Waitrose Tea
590
22
Lidl Tea
480
23
Morrisons Tea
320
24
Bewleys Tea
90
25
Cafedirect Tea
40
Few of these on here we’ve never heard of. Taste test, anyone?
While Yorkshire Tea was found to be Manchester’s and the nation’s favourite, Belfast was the only UK city where Yorkshire Tea didn’t take the top spot. Instead, it was Irish-owned Barry’s Tea that came out as their favourite – we definitely need to hold a ‘brew-off’ between the two. The Hoot, you up for it?
As for supermarket’s own-brand offerings, out of the eight options on the list, Marks and Spencer’s teabags were found to be the most popular, closely followed by Tesco and then Sainsbury’s.
Commenting on the findings, TonerGiant’s Stuart Deavall said: “With so many office workers opting for tea to get through the day, it’s no surprise that the UK has a day dedicated to the drink.
“In light of National Tea Day on Sunday, 21 April, our new data shows that Yorkshire Tea is the nation’s favourite, with over 27,000 Brits searching every month… We can expect many Brits to be celebrating in style this Sunday, no doubt with a mug of Yorkshire tea in hand”. Speaking of, anyone fancy a brew?…
Featured Images — Yorkshire Tea/Rumman Amin (via Unsplash)
News
Manchester palaeontologist unearths bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile
Emily Sergeant
A Manchester-based palaeontologist has unearthed the bones of what may be the largest known marine reptile.
This new identification is a crucial part of a fascinating eight-year long discovery journey.
It all started when a seasoned fossil collector named Paul de la Salle found a giant jawbone on Lilstock Beach, near Bridgewater in Somerset, back in May 2016, and then father and daughter, Justin and Ruby Reynolds from Devon, found the first pieces of a second jawbone and another giant bone while searching for fossils on the beach at Blue Anchor, also in Somerset, in May 2020.
And now, a palaeontologist at the University of Manchester (UoM) Dr Dean Lomax, has identified the fossilised remains of the second gigantic jawbone that measures more than two metres long.
Experts have identified these bones as belonging to the jaws of a new species of enormous ichthyosaur – which is a type of prehistoric marine reptile – and astonishing estimations suggest the oceanic titan would have been more than 25-metres long.
Dr Lomax has been working together with Justin and Ruby Reynolds, along with Paul de la Salle and several family members, since the father-daughter duo first contacted them about their groundbreaking discovery in 2020.
“I was amazed by Justin and Ruby’s find,” Dr Lomax commented.
“In 2018, my team and Paul de la Salle studied and described Paul’s giant jawbone, and we had hoped that one day another would come to light.”
He explained that Justin and Ruby’s new specimen was “more complete and better preserved” than the first find, and that he “became very excited” at the chance to learn more following their discovery.
As mentioned, the Manchester-based research team, led by Dr Lomax, revealed that the jaw bones belong to a new species of giant ichthyosaur that would’ve been about the size of a blue whale, and they have called the new genus and species Ichthyotitan severnensis – which means ‘giant fish lizard of the Severn’.
The bones – which represent the very last of their kind – are around 202 million years old, and date back to the end of the Triassic Period in a time known as the Rhaetian.
During this time, the gigantic ichthyosaurs swam the seas while the dinosaurs walked on land.
The University of Manchester, where Dr Dean Lomax works as a palaeontologist / Credit: UoM
Ichthyotitan is not the world’s first giant ichthyosaur, but the discoveries by Paul, and Justin and Ruby, are said to be “unique among those known to science”, as they appear roughly 13 million years after their latest geologic relatives – including Shonisaurus sikanniensis from British Columbia in Canada, and Himalayasaurus tibetensis from Tibet in China.
Speaking on the confirmation of the bones’ identification this week, Dr Lomax said: “This research has been ongoing for almost eight years.
“It is quite remarkable to think that gigantic, blue whale-sized ichthyosaurs were swimming in the oceans around what was the UK during the Triassic Period.