By Elizabeth Bridge, CBC Digital Archives

I had a "plate o' shrimp" moment recently. (For the uninitiated, this is a reference from the 1984 movie Repo Man. Without going into too much detail, "plate o' shrimp" means a moment of synchronicity, or a freaky coincidence.)

I was on a short vacation with a day in Montreal (and, of course, I stopped on St. Viateur for a bagel fix). My husband has family there, and we took some time to visit with his aunt, a woman I had met only once before.

Among the snacks she offered was a tasty white spread, strewn with black olives and served with veggies and pita for dipping. Intrigued by the flavour, I asked her what it was. A Middle Eastern cheese, she said, mixed with a spice blend that she spelled out for me: za'atar. The cheese, she said, came from a local shop, but when she lived in a remote part of Quebec she'd make her own by straining plain yogurt. Then she pronounced the name, which to my ears — perhaps because of her francophone accent — sounded something like l'abanaye. I pledged to find it as soon as I could.

Plain yogurt is the first step in making a tasty Middle Eastern dip.
(Skip Peterson/Associated Press)

Here's the plate o' shrimp part. Later that day, in the airport on the way home, I bought the New Yorker to read on the plane. As I paged through it, my eye fell on a review of a restaurant where "the jalapenos and the harissas and the labnehs and the lasagnas get along fine." Labneh! I suppose I would have hit on the correct spelling on my own eventually. But with this happy coincidence I was able to do a quick Google search to find the method for making labneh, and it can't be easier.

All you do is mix two cups of plain yogurt (the full-fat kind, please) with a dash of salt. Pour into several layers of cheesecloth or a coffee filter set in a strainer, and place over a bowl to catch the protein-rich liquid, or whey. Put the works in the fridge, and after a day or two you'll have labneh.

But that's only half the equation. Get your hands on some za'atar – a mixture of dried thyme, oregano and marjoram, plus salt, sesame seeds and sometimes sumac. (I found the blend at my local spice dealer.) Mix a teaspoon or more with the labneh, stir in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and toss a few black olives on top. Serve with pita triangles and crudites. After years of enjoying baba ghanoush and hummus, I can't believe it took me this long to hear about labneh and za'atar.

Have you ever had a food-related moment of synchronicity?