Skip to content
  • Image
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Podcasts
  • Email
  • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
  • Contact
The Arab Daily News

The Arab Daily News

Original news, features, opinions from Chicago to Jerusalem

  • About
    • About
    • Our Writers
    • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
    • Book Store
    • Contact
    • Submit Book Reviews, Press Releases
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Corrections Policy
    • Profile on Ray Hanania
    • Submit Press Release
  • Features
    • Food
    • Book Review
    • Humor
    • Movies
    • Travel
  • Arab Stores Targeted
  • Arab Community Network Page
    • Arab Community Network Page
    • Arab Heritage America resources
    • Directory
      • Groups & Organizations
      • Mosques, Churches
      • Restaurants
      • 2008 & 2014 Arab Media Directories
    • National Arab Heritage Month
    • Video: Chicago Arab History
    • Video: Photo Array of Chicago Arabs
    • Overview of Arabs in America
    • Hanania standup comedy
    • Arabs on the Titanic
    • Obituaries
  • Podcasts
    • Ray Hanania on Politics Podcast
    • Arab News Ray Hanania Radio
    • Arab Radio Podcast intro
    • Radio Baladi Detroit
  • Hanania on Tiktok
  • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
  • Toggle search form
  • photo credit author Nehemia Gershuni-Aylho www.NGPhoto.biz and Wikipedia
    Emergency Court Motions to Stop Elbit Drone Parts Shipment via Frankfurt Airport  Activism
  • American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh murdered by Israeli soldiers May 11, 2022
    Documentary names soldier it says killed Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022 American Arabs
  • Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ
    Jordan bans 12 news sites for ‘spreading media poison’ following corruption report Arab World
  • CAIR Logo. Council on American Islamic Relations
    CAIR Condemns MIT for banning Class President from Graduation Ceremony over Anti-Genocide speech Activism
  • ADC creates emergency fund to defend people who are being punished for expressing views on the American-sanction violence by Israel in the Gaza Strip. Photo courtesy of ADC
    ADC Condemns ADL, Rep. Torres’ Defamation of Dr. Lara Sheehi Activism
  • UN Special Committee on Israeli practices in occupied territories warns of a second Nakba  Arab World
  • Arab American community liaison Hassan Nijem, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas and Bolingbrook Mayor Mary Basta at the Arab American Heritage Month event hosted by Pappas’s office.
    Pappas honors Arab American business and community leaders for Heritage Month Activism
  • 04-28-25 Pappas Arab Heritage Month
    Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas recognizes Arab American Heritage Month by honoring business and community leaders American Arabs
  • Stuffed Grape Leaves. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania
    A recipe on how to make Stuffed Grape Leaves with lamb, ox tail and rice American Arabs
  • Andrew Boutros, interim US Attorney Northern District of Illinois. Photo courtesy of the US Attorney's Office
    Andrew S. Boutros Takes Oath of Office as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois American Arabs
  • Israeli massacres of Palestinian civilians March 18 2025
    Palestinians demand investigation of Israeli war crimes in Gaza Strip Arab World
  • Illinois Muslim Action Day April 9 2025
    Illinois Muslim Action Day Policies at April 9 Statehouse News Conference American Arabs
  • Investigation demanded in March 23 massacre of 15 first responders by Israel's military in Rafah
    Investigation demanded into Israel slaughter of First Responder in Rafah on March 23, 2025 Arab World
  • More than a dozen candidates running for various local offices in the Chicagoland suburbs attended an Ifatr dinner Thursday, March 13, 2025 hosted by the Arab American Chamber of Commerce at the Jerusalem Banquet Hall in Bridgeview.
    Candidates promise fairness and engagement at Arab Chamber Iftar event March 13 Activism
  • Orland Fire Protection District, Fiscal Voices, receive endorsement of the Arab American Democracy Coaliton
    Independent candidates for Orland Fire receive Arab and Muslim American endorsement Activism

Cooking Middle Eastern food is a passion and necessity for American Arabs

Posted on September 20, 2014August 20, 2019 By rayhanania 1 Comment on Cooking Middle Eastern food is a passion and necessity for American Arabs
SHARE ...
          
 
  

  • Tweet

Cooking Middle Eastern food is a passion and necessity for American Arabs

By Ray Hanania

Sahtein Cook Book of Middle Eastern and Arab food recipes
Sahtein Cook Book of Middle Eastern and Arab food recipes

I remember watching my mother standing in the kitchen in the afternoon preparing the evening’s meal. She was Palestinian from Bethlehem and all of her recipes were phenomenal Palestinian and Middle East food dishes.

One of my favorite is grape leaves stuffed with rice and lamb chunks. Wuriq Duwally. But she also made it all. Stuffed zucchini, Cousa Mahshi. Tabouleh salad, hummus, baba ghanouge, and falafel. That was just the tip of the culinary iceberg, though.

To make the grape leaves, we’d have to have grape leaves. In the 1950s and 1960s, you couldn’t just buy grape leaves the way you can today. We’d drive around and she’d see a large grape vine and she’d urge my dad to stop. She’d have plastic bags in the trunk of the car and we’d all quickly snip leaves one at a time from the vine and fill up the bags, which she would later put in a small freezer.

Today, there are and endless supply of Middle East recipe books. But back then, there was only one. It was in in a plastic comb binding called Sahtein! It was definitely the one and only book of Middle East recipes anyone every needed. I still have my copy. Published by the Arab Women’s Union of Detroit, it offers 312 pages of recipes. The copy I have is from 1976. But there was one produced even earlier in a less formal pamphlet format.

It had everything in it. Nowadays, I tap the growing recipe database offered free of charge by Ziyad Brothers Importing, based in Cicero, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. The Ziyad Recipe database has more than 100 recipes of favorite Middle East dishes with photographs.

Ziyad played a major role in the development of Arab food recipes in America. For many years in the 1950s and early 1960s, my mom would have to take several airplane trips on PanAm Airlines to Amman, Jordan and then travel to East Jerusalem which was an open city for everyone. Mom would travel with three suitcases, two empty ones and one with her clothing. On the way back to Chicago, the two empty suitcases would be packed with food ingredients. Her favorite was Mulukhiyah (mloukhiya, molokhia) which she used to make a sauce for chicken and lamb dishes. It was hard to get the spices for kibbee and falafel. There were so many things she’d bring back including Cracked Wheat to make the tabouleh salad, and couscous, Arabian pasta.

Grape leaves
Grape leaves

Try doing that today, carrying a suitcase filled with spices through an airport. It’s hard enough traveling through racist profiling security at most Western Airports even without a suitcase, let alone with a suitcase filled with anything but clothing.

But you can’t go to East or West Jerusalem any longer. West Jerusalem was occupied by Israel’s military forces in 1948 in violation of the United Nations proposed Mandate. Israel prohibited Arabs from entering the city. Under Israel’s military control, West Jerusalem was a closed city. But East Jerusalem was always the heart of Jerusalem and its famous market, The Souq, offered a wide array not only of key ingredients for Middle Eastern foods, but also many of the spices that are used. In 1967, Israel captured East Jerusalem and put the West Bank in a repressive military occupation, as they did in Israel, and banned most Arabs from traveling there. Even today, my relatives, who live in the West Bank, are prohibited from entering East and West Jerusalem because they are Christian Arabs. Israel also bans Arab Muslims from entering the city. Jerusalem is basically a closed prison for non-Jews. It’s a shame. (Check some of the videos below I produced on YouTube.)

Fortunately, right about that time in 1966, food wholesalers like Ziyad Brothers began importing foods from the Middle East, mainly Jordan, to Chicago and other cities around the country.

Today, Ziyad Brothers Importing owns hundreds of acres of date palms in Jericho where they employ Palestinians and produce naturally grown Palestinian Medjool Dates, a delicacy that is unmatched anywhere.

You can go to almost any city and any grocery retailer and find the ingredients you need to make any popular Arab food dish today. You don’t have to drive around with plastic bags in your car trunk to find grape vines, and you don’t have to travel with empty suitcases

Fasulia, beef chunks and green beans with rice side dish
Fasulia, beef chunks and green beans with rice side dish

I try to make at least one Middle Eastern food dish a week. Sometimes two. Usually on the weekends because preparing the foods are time consuming, although it is fun when you know the prize that will be ready at the end of the hard work.

My mom would roll a pot of grape leaves, one at a time. It took an hour to do several hundred tightly wrapped grape leaves. But it was great. I do that now myself. The trick is to make the rice “al dente,” not soft and mushy by hard and tasty.

Tonight, I decided to try one I hadn’t made in years. Fasulia or lamb (or steak) meat chunks in a tomato stew with long green beans and a side dish of rice. It’s so good. You can use steak or lamb, but lamb is the best. It’s still not easy to find lamb at every food store, Oftentimes, you have to drive to one of the growing number of Arab-owned grocery stores in regions where Arab populations are large.

Tabouleh is a mandatory side dish salad, too.

All those recipes are online at Ziyad Brothers Importing. Give it a try. Enjoy it. And if you do cook a Middle Eastern meal, take a picture and send me the recipe and we’ll post it, or go to The Arab Daily News Facebook Page and share it there.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter and columnist. He is the Managing Editor of The Arab Daily News www.TheArabDailyNews.com. Reach him at rayhanania@theArabDailyNews.com.)

 

A Video Tour of the Israeli occupied East Jerusalem Souq:

 

Below, Making Tablouleh Salad

 

Making Stuffed Grape Leaves:

 

Related articles
  • Ziyad showcases heart-healthy Mediterranean Diet recipes
  • Israel’s discriminatory housing message: This is a Jewish state; Arabs out
  • Ziyad Liquid Jameed and Middle East holidays
  • An Arab-Jewish Thanksgiving
  • Recipes: Go out and cook a Mediterranean meal. It’s fun, easy and healthy
  • Israeli settlers destroy Palestinian grape vines as Israel Steals More Land
  • An Arab-Jewish Thanksgiving
  • Several Palestinians Injured Near Bethlehem

newswire info
  • About
  • Latest Posts
rayhanania
rayhanania
Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster at The Arab Daily News
Ray Hanania is an award-winning columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.  

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.

Follow RayHanania at Twitter
rayhanania
Latest posts by rayhanania (see all)
  • Israelisnipers shooting and killing hospital workers in Gaza - December 11, 2023
  • CAIR Condemns Israeli Executions of Wounded, Unarmed Palestinian in West Bank   - December 11, 2023
  • Arab and Muslim American voters face a “simple choice” between Biden’s inhumanity and Trump’s edgy politics - December 9, 2023

  • Tweet

SHARE ...
          
 
  
 
          
 
 Tweet 
American Arabs, Bloggers, Commentary, Features, Food, Israel, Palestine & Jordan, Ray Hanania Tags:Arab, Arab food, East Jerusalem, fasulia, grape leaves, Israel, Jerusalem, Mediterranean, Middle East, Ray Hanania, recipes, tabouleh, West Bank, West Jerusalem

Post navigation

Previous Post: New Dilemmas for Turkey’s Syrian-Iraqi Kurds
Next Post: Gaza Human Rights group: probe sinking of ship that killed 400 refugees

Related Posts

  • Map of the Gaza Strip, courtesy of Wikipedia
    Israel-Palestine conflict as much about American hypocrisy as it is about violence Arab World
  • APN protests detention of New Israel Fund VP Activism
  • Daoud Nassar, Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
    Churches for Middle East Peace: Pilgrimage to Peace (P2P) Tour with Daoud Nassar American Arabs
  • AHRC Logo new Feb 2021
    AHRC’s Annual “Spirit of Humanity” Awards and Dinner Gala Scheduled for October 27, 2022 American Arabs
  • Iran flag. Photo courtesy fo Pixabay.com. pixabay.com/fr/photos/iran/
    Why Israel has an interest in a militant Iran Arab World
  • ADC Census Update Sept. 18, 2020
    ADC Hosts online conference on the 2020 Census American Arabs

More Related Articles

Turkish government comes to aid of Palestinians Arab World Politics
Holy Land Principles Push Cisco On Fair Employment American Arabs
Russia: 2018 World Humanity Festival Abdennour Toumi
Arab World represented by three films at Oscars tonight American Arabs
I Am Not Charlie Hebdo: I Am Not the Terrorists Either American Arabs
Lebanon Prime Minister Saad Hariri Have the Lebanese weathered the storm just in time? Arab World

Comment (1) on “Cooking Middle Eastern food is a passion and necessity for American Arabs”

  1. Ray Hanania says:
    September 20, 2014 at 8:07 pm

    I dare anyone to say they are a better Arab food cook than I am …bring on the challengers. (Write your story, send me a photo and I’ll publish it here and on our Facebook page) rayhanania@TheArabDailyNews.com

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Ray Hanania's 4 times a week columns at https://RayHanania.com at Substack

Enter Your Email to Subscribe to Ray Hanania’s Columns

  • OPINION COLUMNS
  • Photo courtesy of Journalist Abdennour Toumi
    France: Political Compromise vs Political Instability
    August 28, 2024
  • Zakia Restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia
    Arabs eat Middle East food like they are making love
    June 27, 2024
  • Zwar lamb kabob and kufta with white and yellow rice
    Zwar ranked the Best Middle East restaurant in Chicagoland suburbs
    June 8, 2024
  • Pictured: Rahm Emanuel, Afghan activist Salman Aftab who was co-chair of the Iftar dinner, and several non-Arab Muslim leaders. Also pictured is Ald. Joe Moore. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania for Arab News
    Comprehensive look at the failings of former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
    January 18, 2024
  • NEWSWIRE
  • CAIR Logo. Council on American Islamic Relations
    CAIR Condemns MIT for banning Class President from Graduation Ceremony over Anti-Genocide speech
    June 1, 2025
  • Arab American community liaison Hassan Nijem, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas and Bolingbrook Mayor Mary Basta at the Arab American Heritage Month event hosted by Pappas’s office.
    Pappas honors Arab American business and community leaders for Heritage Month
    April 29, 2025
  • 04-28-25 Pappas Arab Heritage Month
    Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas recognizes Arab American Heritage Month by honoring business and community leaders
    April 27, 2025
  • Mike Ghouse
    Celebration of 500th Interfaith Marriage Ceremony
    February 14, 2025

Creative Commons License
All work on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Do not edit original work. Give credit to the original source.

  • NEWS
  • photo credit author Nehemia Gershuni-Aylho www.NGPhoto.biz and Wikipedia
    Emergency Court Motions to Stop Elbit Drone Parts Shipment via Frankfurt Airport 
    June 7, 2025
  • American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh murdered by Israeli soldiers May 11, 2022
    Documentary names soldier it says killed Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022
    June 1, 2025
  • BOOK REVIEWS
  • Faisal Abbas Book Anecdotes
    Book Review: Arab author shares his anecdotes living in the United Kingdom
    October 22, 2024
  • Columnist Ray Hanania at the ADC Convention in Dearborn with the author Susan Abulhawa
    Book Review: Mornings in Jenin bySusan Abulhawa
    September 14, 2024
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • Television set and remote. Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
    MBC GROUP unveils MBCNOW, its brand-new groundbreaking entertainment service aggregator
    February 24, 2025
  • ArabCon 2024 Gala Program features Dr. Cornel West, Macklemore, and more
    September 6, 2024
  • New-iTunes-1400-x-1400-The-Ray-Hanania-Show-Podcast-Icon-300-x-300.jpg
  • Podcast-iTunes-Logo-Chi-City-Hall-1985.jpg
  • terroristbookcover-300-x-300.jpg
  • The-Kings-Pawn-Book-300-x-300.png
  • powerpr300x300ad.jpg
Arab News Newspaper Logo
Read the Arab News, the leading English language newspaper in the MIddle East

Follow Ray Hanania at
Twitter
Facebook
TitkTok
BlueSky
RayHanania Columns

Click here to get information on The Ray Hanania Radio Show and its podcasts

Copyright © 2025 The Arab Daily News.

Powered by PressBook Premium theme