A food blogger, food photographer and author who has been cooking all her life and simply loves food!
Food has always played a major role in my life. Even as a small child, I often volunteered to spend hours in the kitchen and watched my mother very closely as she prepared her Pakistani dishes. She cooked and baked for us 6 sisters and my father every day. I often helped her and learned all the tips and tricks of traditional Pakistani cooking and everything about the many different colorful spices and smells.
When I was still studying mathematics, I lived in a large student residence. Each floor was a shared flat with a communal kitchen and cozy living room with a dining area. Of course, I brought my exotic spices from home and cooked my beloved curries and massalas whenever I was homesick. This was always a highlight for my flatmates, as I often cooked for them too. The positive feedback made me realize for the first time in my life that my Pakistani cooking skills should not be taken for granted. I realized that my mother had given me a wonderful gift with which I could bring joy to others.
It was in the fall of 2020 when the whole of Germany was in lockdown. I was still on parental leave for my second child.
During this time, I plucked up all my courage and created my current Shibas Kitchen account on Instagram. At first I was ashamed
I’m a little bit sorry for that. “Who watches that? Who cares about that? I’m just spamming with it!” it haunted my mind
around. But somehow it was so much fun! I kept at it and started writing the recipes underneath.
Suddenly it started with strangers writing to me and asking me all sorts of questions about the recipes.
As I mentioned before, my roots are in Pakistan. My mother and father come from a small village
in the province of Punjab. So my mother brought a lot of traditional recipes with her to Germany, which she in turn received from her mother
. I am married to my husband Nayif, a Palestinian from Nazareth.
Before we got together, I had no idea what a talented and enthusiastic cooking family I had married into.
I am very grateful for this, because it has opened up a whole new fascinating culinary world for me that I cannot withhold from the
visitors to my food blog.
The World needs more oriental recipes! SIMPLE oriental recipes! I get so much feedback from people who are delighted that my recipes have finally given them the courage to try Arabic and Pakistani/Indian cuisine. have dared to do. For me, of course, it’s so nice to receive such great messages.
In 2021, I fulfilled a long-awaited wish. I created a self-published cookbook together with my husband. I wrote the recipes, cooked them and photographed all the dishes and my husband created the layout and design. Today I am overjoyed with this bold step. 40 recipes from Pakistan and Palestine are now immortalized in it and have ended up in countless kitchens since its publication, making many bellies happy.
