Souk el-Khodra Run and Maqluba Lunch

We meet at 8am at the Second Circle end of Rainbow Street and taxi down to Souk el-Khodra, where the wholesalers have been working since five. It is not a photogenic market - wet concrete, diesel, men shouting prices over crates - and we go because that is where the aubergines cost 40 piastres and Rana can tell by touch which cauliflower will hold together in the pot. We buy for the day, carry it back up the hill, and cook: aubergine sliced and salted, chicken browned with seven spices, rice layered into a pot that has never once been non-stick. The flip is the point. You do it yourself, over the sink, and if it collapses we eat it anyway. Lunch lands on the family table around half twelve with laban, salad and more bread than anyone needs. Two things worth knowing before you book. The flat is a third-floor walk-up, 46 stone steps, no lift. And in July and August the kitchen runs at about 34C with four gas rings going - there is a fan, and you will still sweat through your shirt.