It would be traditional Arabic coffee, flavoured with cardamom and served with ma'amoul, the little shortbreads stuffed with dates and nuts and made to her Palestinian grandmother's recipe.

Or it would be good old Bushells tea with a slab of pavlova. And she would have whipped up the pav herself.

El Masri is proud to have been formed by two cultures — the Arab world and Australia. And she insists on claiming both.

"I don't accept one culture has to rule the other out and I would never forfeit one for the other," she said. "Being Muslim and being Australian are a good fit."

In her memoir Tea with Arwa, El Masri invites people into her life so she can "extend the hospitality Arabs are famous for" and share her journey as a migrant woman, a Muslim and an Australian.

And, of course, to promote understanding of Islam and Arabic cultures.

The book is sprinkled with her favourite recipes — Egyptian, Palestinian, Lebanese, Italian and Australian — because El Masri believes that it is around food that people are most likely to share their experiences and realise they have a lot in common.

She is asking people to look behind language, clothes, colour and religion and find the shared humanity underneath.

And to judge the behaviour of the individual rather than the whole culture when things go wrong.

El Masri, 35, was born in Saudi Arabia to Palestinian migrants, a schoolteacher and an engineer.

She has bachelor of arts in English literature, is married to former Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs star Hazem El Masri and is a mum of three.

At 23 and just married, she decided to wear the veil —"a commitment that can only be done for God" — which has raised a lot of questions.

"It is my choice as a feminist to decide how much of me people can see."