Skip to content
  • Image
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Podcasts
  • Email
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Opinion
  • News
  • Features
  • Comment
  • Store
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 eNewsletter
  • Toggle search form
  • Mahnoor Ahmad Photo courtesy of her website at AhmadforCongress.com
    Muslim American woman challenges unresponsive Congressman Sean Casten in March 19 Democratic primary Activism
  • Committee to Protect Journalists website. Number of journalists killed in Gaza war now 50
    More than 50 journalists killed in Israel-Gaza war Arab World
  • AHRC Logo new Feb 2021
    On World Children’s Day, Israel has turned Gaza into a Graveyard for Children: American Arabs
  • Jewish Defense League members participated in the Washington D.C. rally supporting Israel Nov. 15, 2023. Photo courtesy of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
    Doctors Without Borders condemns deliberate deadly attack on convoy of staff and family members in Gaza Arab World
  • Palestinian protest land grabs by Israel's government from Palestinian Christians and Muslims. Photo courtesy of Peace Now
    Peace Now: Attempt for the Establishment of a New Settlement in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City Arab World
  • Palestinians walk around buildings destroyed during the Israeli bombardment in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on October 29. (Photo: AP/Hatem Moussa)
    CPJ expresses grave concern over 4th communications blackout in Gaza Arab World
  • Comedian Ramy Youssef courtesy of his Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ramysfaceboo/
    Arab American Comedy Festival, 209th Anniversary National Tour returns to New York roots American Arabs
  • The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and nearly 100 human rights, civil rights and civil liberties, immigrant rights, faith based organizations, and ADC’s Volunteer TPS/DED Lawyers Working Group sent a request to Secretary of State Anthony Blinkin and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas urging them to designate Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) and/or Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Palestinians present in the United States.  
    Nearly 100 Organizations Join ADC in Demanding TPS/DED for Palestinians American Arabs
  • Jewish Defense League members participated in the Washington D.C. rally supporting Israel Nov. 15, 2023. Photo courtesy of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
    Terrorist groups involved at pro-Israel demonstration in Washington D.C. American Arabs
  • Doctors without Borders calls for end to Israeli attacks targeting hospitals in Gaza Strip. Nov. 11, 2023
    Patients and medical staff trapped in hospitals under fire in Gaza Arab World
  • Attorney Sarah Gad
    2024 election battle among Arab Americans shaping up in Ilhan Omar’s Minnesota congressional district American Arabs
  • Palestinian civilians flee their homes as Israel continues its savage bombing and missile attacks against homes, neighborhoods and buildings destroying most of the buildings in most of the Gaza's cities. Photo courtesy of Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights
    US Congress: Reject Bill to Support Forced Israeli Displacement of Palestinians to Third Countries  American Arabs
  • RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia and Francis Godolphin Osbourne Stuart - http://www.uwants.com/viewthread.php?tid=3817223&extra=page%3D1
    Arabs on Titanic: Arabs share the pain but not the glory in ship’s tragic tale American Arabs
  • MedGlobal humanitarian appeal for Gaza violence victims
    Bombing of Al Ahli hospital in Gaza worst attack on healthcare this century  American Arabs
  • IDF soldiers and Israeli settlers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
    Israeli Academic Institutions Persecute Palestinian Students for Social Media Posts Amid Offensive on Gaza Christian & Muslim

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

Loading

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

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
rayhanania
rayhanania
Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster at The Arab Daily News
RAY HANANIA — Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster

Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.

Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).

Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.

Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.

His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.

Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.

Click here to send Ray Hanania email.

Follow RayHanania on Gettr.com, the uncensored Twitter Ray Hanania on Gettr, the new Twitter
rayhanania
Latest posts by rayhanania (see all)
  • Hostages versus Prisoners: Israel war on Gaza is as much a war on weaponizing words - December 1, 2023
  • Muslim American woman challenges unresponsive Congressman Sean Casten in March 19 Democratic primary - November 21, 2023
  • More than 50 journalists killed in Israel-Gaza war - November 21, 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

  • Reply to Mordechai Vanunu Question for Netanyahu and Trump American Arabs
  • Cook County Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough, is the Democratic nominee for the office of Cook County Clerk.
    Arab American Forum Oct 21 to showcase Illinois Speaker Madigan, Clerk candidate Yarbrough American Arabs
  • Maqdess/Fusion from Jerusalem Majd Elsheikh/Taha Othman/Mousa Abbasi Sunday, 17 September Taybeh Oktoberfest in Palestine
    Taybeh OktoberFest promises wide range of entertainment Arab World
  • Third Melbourne protest for the Palestinians of Gaza against the brutal attack by Israel - 18 Jan 2009 Organisers estimated 12,000 people marched in the Melbourne Protest against Israel's attack on the Palestinian Gaza territory. View the slideshow or see the photo set. View 2 videos: We are all Palestinians and Micheal Leunig on Gaza and the morality of the heart on Takver's Youtube channel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
    Al Jazeera: Palestinians debate impact of Diaspora efforts American Arabs
  • New Jersey officials hopes in Facebook post Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib will die
    Calls for New Jersey official’s resignation after threatening Tlaib on Facebook American Arabs
  • Ilhan Omar Becomes First Somali Arab-American To Win Minnesota Congressional Primary
    This Land is Your Land: God Blessed America for Me American Arabs

More Related Articles

Palestinian Journalist Muhammad al-Qiq suffers in the Israeli Gulag prison system. Photo courtesy of DailySabah.com Hamas, Abbas slammed for media abuses Activism
Algeria Kamel Daoud Why Algeria Should Get a Leader Like President Erdoğan?  Abdennour Toumi
“Julie Taboulie” is really cooking on TV American Arabs
Endorsements: Democrats in the Illinois June 28, 2022 Primary election Activism
Algeria At The Crossroads, Normal Bro! Abdennour Toumi
Statement from Claire Magone, MSF France General Director of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières Doctors Without Borders calls on Israel to ‘show humanity’ Activism

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.

  • OPINION COLUMNS
  • A child stands in front of an apartment building bombed by Israeli using an American made 2000 pound bomb.
    Hostages versus Prisoners: Israel war on Gaza is as much a war on weaponizing words
    December 1, 2023
  • Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib
    Americans rally to support Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib targeted by Islamophobic racism
    November 8, 2023
  • Palestinian parent and child seek refuge as American sanction terrorism by Israel spreads through Gaza Strip Oct 2023
    Some American legislators stand up for justice and against all violence
    October 15, 2023
  • Map of the Gaza Strip, courtesy of Wikipedia
    Israel-Palestine conflict as much about American hypocrisy as it is about violence
    October 11, 2023

Events

  • Sonia Khalil hosts fundraiser for candidacy in the 36th state House District
    Sonia Khalil hosts fundraiser for candidacy in the 36th state House District
    20 Dec 23
    Orland Park
  • Arab American Democratic Club to host candidates brunch Feb. 18, 2024
    Arab American Democratic Club to host candidates brunch Feb. 18, 2024
    18 Feb 24
    Bridgeview
  • NEWSWIRE
  • Palestinians walk around buildings destroyed during the Israeli bombardment in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on October 29. (Photo: AP/Hatem Moussa)
    CPJ expresses grave concern over 4th communications blackout in Gaza
    November 18, 2023
  • Racist grafitti a Palestinian Cultural Center for Peace and Boston Islamic Seminary, one of a wave of acts of racism targeting Arabs and Muslims in the wake of Israel's war crimes in Gaza October 2023
    CAIR-MA Calls for Hate Crime Probe of ‘Nazi’ Vandalism Targeting Boston Palestinian, Islamic Sign
    October 11, 2023
  • American Middle East groups oppose granting Visa Waiver approval to Israel Sept. 27 , 2023
    American Middle East organizations protest against granting Israel Visa Waiver approval
    September 27, 2023
  • The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, announced Tuesday (Sept. 19, 2023) the filing of a lawsuit with a dozen plaintiffs seeking an end to the government’s secret watchlist that almost exclusively targets Muslims for harassment and humiliation when they travel.
    CAIR Announces Lawsuit in D.C., Mass., N.J., Mich. Seeking End to Secret Government Watchlist
    September 19, 2023

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.

  • 250-x-250-Ziyad-banner-Ad.jpg
  • NEWS
  • Mahnoor Ahmad Photo courtesy of her website at AhmadforCongress.com
    Muslim American woman challenges unresponsive Congressman Sean Casten in March 19 Democratic primary
    November 21, 2023
  • Committee to Protect Journalists website. Number of journalists killed in Gaza war now 50
    More than 50 journalists killed in Israel-Gaza war
    November 21, 2023
  • AHRC Logo new Feb 2021
    On World Children’s Day, Israel has turned Gaza into a Graveyard for Children:
    November 20, 2023
  • Jewish Defense League members participated in the Washington D.C. rally supporting Israel Nov. 15, 2023. Photo courtesy of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
    Doctors Without Borders condemns deliberate deadly attack on convoy of staff and family members in Gaza
    November 19, 2023
grab450

Recent Posts

  • Hostages versus Prisoners: Israel war on Gaza is as much a war on weaponizing words
  • Muslim American woman challenges unresponsive Congressman Sean Casten in March 19 Democratic primary
  • More than 50 journalists killed in Israel-Gaza war
  • On World Children’s Day, Israel has turned Gaza into a Graveyard for Children:
  • Doctors Without Borders condemns deliberate deadly attack on convoy of staff and family members in Gaza
  • BOOK REVIEWS
  • Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    October 24, 2022
  • Stories My Father Told Me by author and artist Helen Zughaib, book cover. Photo courtesy of Cune Press
    Stories My Father Told Me by author and artist Helen Zughaib
    November 1, 2021
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • Comedian Ahmed Ahmed at The Comedy Bar in Chicago June 9 - 11, 2023
    Comedian Ahmed Ahmed performs in Chicago June 9-11, 2023 at The Comedy Bar
    June 9, 2023
  • Ziyad Food item
    Essential recipes and ingredients during Ramadan 
    April 4, 2023
  • Hussam al-Mayman, The Mayman Show, podcast Arab News
    Arab News launches third season of The Mayman Show podcast
    December 15, 2022
  • Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    Interlink 2022 Cookbooks Make the Best Holiday Gifts
    October 24, 2022
  • Comedian Ramy Youssef courtesy of his Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ramysfaceboo/
    “Ramy” cable series melds Arab world reality with every day American life
    October 22, 2022
  • New-iTunes-1400-x-1400-The-Ray-Hanania-Show-Podcast-Icon-300-x-300.jpg
  • terroristbookcover-300-x-300.jpg
  • The-Kings-Pawn-Book-300-x-300.png
  • Podcast-iTunes-Logo-Chi-City-Hall-1985.jpg
  • powerpr300x300ad.jpg
Arab News Newspaper Logo
Read the Arab News, the leading English language newspaper in the MIddle East

Follow Ray Hanania at Gab.com, MeWe.com and IDobbinate.com, the alternatives to Facebook and Twitter Censorship.

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

Copyright © 2023 The Arab Daily News.

Powered by PressBook Premium theme