Journal
Sunday Lunch, and the Table We Grew Up Around
Ask anyone in our family where Salma’s Kitchen began and they won’t point to a stove or a recipe. They’ll point to a Sunday.
Back home, Sunday had a rhythm. Church in the morning, and then the whole family would spill out toward one house, usually ours, for lunch. Nobody sent an invitation. It was simply understood. Aunts, uncles, cousins, the neighbours who had nowhere else to be. By the time the food came out, the table had grown twice its size and we were still dragging in chairs.
That lunch was never small. There were platters that took two hands to carry, dips scraped clean and refilled, rice that somehow multiplied. And there was noise, the good kind, the kind that fills a house.
When we came to Canada, we carried that Sunday with us. The city was new, the winters were strange, but the table stayed the same. It’s how we understood a place could become home: you set out the food, you pull up another chair, and slowly the room fills with people you love.
What goes on an Armenian Sunday table?
Four things, always. If you want to set a Sunday table of your own, ours has always held the same four:
- Something off the grill, and always more of it than the table strictly needs
- A pot of fragrant rice that somehow never empties
- A fresh salad or two, bright with lemon
- Dips and warm bread within everyone’s reach
We started Salma’s Kitchen because we wanted to keep setting that table, just a little bigger this time, with room for our neighbours here in the Fraser Valley. That is where the menu came from, and it is the shape of every spread we send out for catering across the valley, starting at our own table in Abbotsford. Every kabab off the grill and every half-kilo of dip is us saying the same thing we’ve always said on a Sunday afternoon:
Sit. Eat. There’s more than enough.
Frequently asked questions
What is a traditional Armenian Sunday lunch?
It is the big family meal after church, where everyone gathers around one table without needing an invitation. Platters of grilled meat, rice, salads, dips and bread arrive to the centre and get passed around for hours. It is less a menu than a habit of hospitality.
What food is served at a Middle Eastern family lunch?
Shared platters rather than individual plates: grilled kabab and chicken, fragrant rice, herb salads like tabouli, dips with warm bread, and always more than the table strictly needs. The spread is built for passing and refilling as people linger.
How did Salma's Kitchen start?
It grew out of those Sunday lunches. When our family came to Canada we kept setting the same table, and Salma's Kitchen is that table made a little bigger, with room for our neighbours here in the Fraser Valley. The food on our menu is the food we serve our own family.
Can you order a Sunday style family lunch from Salma's Kitchen?
Yes. Order a spread of grill meals, salads and dips ahead for pickup and set it out at home the way we do: everything in the middle, everyone reaching in. Call us and tell us how many are coming, and we will help you size it.
Salma’s Kitchen cooks Armenian and Middle Eastern food in Abbotsford, BC. See the menu, our catering service areas, or how to order. Phone only: (819) 743-5953.