What Salt Keeps
Maleh is fish cured in salt and sun.
It's how coastal families in the Emirates kept the catch through the year, and the knowledge passed from mother to daughter without ever being written down. This conversation is about that kind of keeping: how the cure is actually done, the salting and the waiting, what changes when a family tradition becomes a working brand, and what you refuse to touch.
Leen Al Zaben sits down with Nazek Al Sabbagh of Malleh Gourmet to ask about her story: the Dubai she grew up in, the company she built with her sister Zohoor, the craft behind the cure, and what it takes to carry an Emirati tradition into the next generation.
Nazek Al Sabbagh is an Emirati entrepreneur, born and raised in Deira. In 2010 she turned her retirement into a second career and founded Malleh Gourmet with her sister Zohoor, built around Maleh and Emirati food preservation culture.