My Healing Table - Chef Hanan Rasheed on Bringing Palestinians and Israelis Together Over Food

Welcome, everyone. This is Chris with the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast, and today I have Hanan Rasheed. How are you?

I'm good. How are you?

I'm great. Thanks for coming on the show. I'm gonna throw it over to you. Why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.

Thank you for having me. I'm actually let's see, I'm an immigrant to the US. I immigrated in 1973, and since then I had five kids, and they had kids so now I have nine grandkids. And they all live all over the United States, so they live in fun places where I get to travel, and cook with their grandkids and spend time with them. I love cooking. I was self taught at the beginning, because I needed to cook to make myself comfortable in the US when I came in 73'. Nothing smelled or tasted like how I left Palestine. So I started cooking from memory, whatever I remember based on my mother's food and smell. Of course that took a long time. A lot of stuff I burned. A lot of stuff I threw in the trash. A lot of stuff was stuff was salty. But you know, you learn, as I learned, and my thing is I love cooking, and I love feeding people. And I love introducing my Palestinian culture to others through food. So that's what I've been doing, and a lot of stuff, good stuff, with people like you.

Yeah, it's kind of disappointing. You were hoping to come down to Fredrick here. And we were going to do an event and a demo. And as we're talking with everyone, obviously, with COVID-19, a lot has changed. But I'm so glad we could get you on to do the Zoom one, and then, you know, we'll reschedule for a later date. It'll probably be a good reason to get people together and kind of break bread once we can all hopefully communally sit down together and do that.

Yes, yes. I can't wait. Honestly, I was so looking forward to it. But you know, they say... man plans and God plans, and his plan is the best. So we're gonna have to sit, take a breather and get to know our families and our homes, and spend time with each other, maybe before we go outside and have fun with others. Maybe we need to learn how to be kinder, and more tolerant and patient. Maybe that's what COVID is for us. To test our patience. And we just pray that everybody keeps doing good. And we feel sad for what's happening, but hopefully this will pass, like everything else.

You did a TED Talk. Can you talk a little bit about that, and the subject of that?

Yes, I did a TED Talk last April in Jacksonville at FSCJ. They found out about what I do, which is bringing people of conflict together at one table to break bread. I believe that bread is a common denominator, and it brings people together. So I started The Healing Table, where I wanted to bring the Palestinians and Israelis together to one table so they can discuss the issues of Palestine and Israel. So, I did that. I went to Jacksonville. It was an amazing event. It was a live event, and a lot of things I had to re-learn. It's so funny that all of last year I was relearning things like in culinary school. I had to relearn everything all over again, even chopping onions. So, with the TedX, I'm like, I can take that on because I really want to spread the message of peace, and the message of togetherness and the message that we are one people. We're all the same, equally have the same invocation on earth by God. And I just think that people sometimes allow evil and allow politics to take over and we forget about the human side of us. And I wanted to bring that as much as I can into the table of sharing food together familiar food to the two people so it was amazing. I loved doing it. I love talking about Palestine and I love collaborating with people in Jacksonville. We actually did an actual healing table when we cooked. I cooked with a person there that they assigned to me in heat and that we just study lovely, his name is Shai and we both cook the same. I chose I always choose to To Cook That chick shuka dish, because the Jewish community is familiar with it, housing community does it but we call it like a polite paid with mandurah, which is fried eggs, with tomatoes, right tomatoes of eggs. And so they do the version differently because they bought it from North Africa from like Tunisia and Morocco. And they do it like sweet where we do it savory with a kick in Palestine like spicy. So it was amazing to see we had the bed, I think it'd be 70 to 80 people come in and there was not just Palestinians and Israelis. It was from all walks of life. But we mixed the tables, the hosts over there, Fs TJ made the tables, not everybody just come in and sit with the family and leave we wanted to see people interaction. And that was really interactive for the first time or the other side. It was peaceful. As always, I think good peace. And it was really a good gathering that I wish to have more of in the US to just make People see. Because in the US we have, you know, everybody has their problems and everybody has their responsibilities. Everybody has a job. And sometimes we don't take the time to get to know something. And we make, like wrong narratives and stereotypes about people. And for me, I felt like the policies are usually unheard as much as we see. People don't hear us or don't want to hear. So don't agree that they need to save with us they feel that they need to say, with an ally to the US, rather than just make, you know, think about these people what's going on with people, the native fellas in Palestine. So the food is a great discussion because people will ask you, where is this food from? Where is your accent from? Where is the spices from? So I felt like it is a segue to kind of go in and say what actually is Palestinian? This is homeless. This is buffalo news. This is pita bread is a Palestinian and the people who eat the food already in love the food and they want to cook it and learn it. I wanted him to know that, that food that you love and that dish that you love, you need to know where it came from. And when you know where it came from that will bring the people closer to each other in my create,

you know, create some friendships, it creates some sympathy for the other. So that's, that's my hope. That's my hope is bringing people together and then open dialogue over food in a peaceful and safe space in an equal space in the US. We're on equal space here. And I hope that I keep going forward with it. We've done one at NYU same thing before in New York, and that was a little tougher than fsck because the students in NYU really don't get along and don't like each other much. So kitchen connection is the one who hosted that event at NYU. We had the same way about 70 minutes. 50 people, and on both sides and others, and at that time, one of the students who was doing his master's, he was actually from Israel. Very lovely. His name is Tamara. And we did the same thing. He did his sweet with cinnamon Delta rose, and I did mine with it spicy kick. And you see the two people when they come into the room, it always happens even when I was doing a lot of politics and speaking a little bit in the media years before I would see the two people come in. And they each go to their sites. It's just natural because of all what's happened and all the hurt and all the pain and this occupation is not making things easy for either side. So yeah, and then I when they see the table, and they see the date and the data and the left knee and the hammers and people you see them dive in with the bread. They're looking at each other like oh, it's a military enough.

Yeah, and I think those are all dishes that have even been really introduced into the American food, cultures and palates these days so that everyone's kind of familiar with those So I'm sure it's an amazing event. I mean, I would love to come and eat and one of those, but I

do one in your place, which

I totally understand, you know, it's so hard, like, I didn't grow up in a very culturally diverse city. And one of the things that strikes me is we had a Vietnamese restaurant in town. And then like the 80s, I remember my dad like adamantly not wanting to go there and actually being pretty rude about like, some of the comments he's made, you know, because he was of the generation where we had the Vietnam War, and it was kind of like, we're not going to go and support this restaurant. And I mean, I don't agree with that at all. And I'm, I'm really disappointed because Vietnamese food is one of my favorite foods to eat. And I wasn't introduced to that at a young age because just like, you know, white American people in my hometown, we're not going to support that restaurant. And you know, now looking back I wonder how how well they did in our community and how hard it was for them to stick it out. Because I'm sure there's some pretty terrible people who said some not, you know, nice things to the owners. Yes. And you know,

You say back then in the 80s, which you wish it's 2020 that that was left behind that we've learned a lesson in America from like you said from the Japanese Look what we've done to the Japanese look, but American Indian, you have so much, you know, stuff that has done and people don't take the time to understand that when you're doing this to a ethnic people, you're cleansing them, you're cleansing everything, but you're adopting the food. But you're going to school and learning a second language, like what's been going on with this administration and the immigration toward the say, Mexico. I mean, they're our neighbors, and they have so much to offer and they offered so much to this country, they enrich this country and I want people My fellow Americans to understand that without the immigrants without the spices we brought and without this amazing dishes that you love to eat and with the people who are making it, it just didn't walk over by itself this dish and we went through a lot of discrimination when we came into this Country 1973 when I came in no one you would Palestine was, I would say Palestinian, they would say Pakistani. I'm like, No, that's a different country, different language, Palestine, and then they will not know it. And then we went through the discussion because of the color then we went through this mission because of were Muslims. And then now is sad to see with all the tribes and all the things that great leaders done, these civil leaders and other people who are immigrants, amazing immigrants who contribute to this country that in 2020, we're back to that. We're back to that age of discrimination. So I always tell my friends, I'm like, you like, Oh, my God. Yes. I love hammers. You like the bread? Yes. And I'm like, the best Palestinian. And they would say to me, oh, yeah, we love Israeli food. I'm like, okay, Back up. Back up here. Israel when Israel came in and occupied Palestine in 1948. It didn't just buy a land. It didn't just take our land. It took a dump. The food they speak Arabic like some of the Palestinians speak Hebrew inside the 48 territories were three religions in Palestine. People don't understand this Christianity. I'm like how can you be Christian believe in Jesus a nice alehissalaam peace be upon him and you don't know where he was born? Or where where have you walked his walk? Have you gone to Lazarus? Have you come to Bethlehem? That's where I'm from. So how can you say that to love Jesus or love the Holy Land without knowing that there are more than when people there more than one religion there that it's for everyone, but Jerusalem is for everybody. It's not just for one person. So the Palestinians have a right and a lot of the people now I see with Corona. Chris, the chef, the Palestinian chefs are really having to start this amazing, beautiful campaign of no us through our food. This is our food. This is Palestinian. This is our embroidery. Is our language this is who we are. We love to feed we love to host. And yeah, it's like, I pray that this occupation will end. So the two sides can live in peace side by side, why can't people be neighbors and nice to each other? Why do we have to fight with each other? Why do we have to put a wall between US and Mexico?

But it's been such a long conflict for those two countries specifically. I mean, I don't know how many years it's going to take to kind of

Somalia

to ease those tensions. I mean, you have some of those rivalries. Although, you know, you kind of look at the United States and Russia and cold war stuff. I mean, that's eased a little bit from where that was, but over time, maybe you can get there. I remember. Another thing besides food is like soccer, right? Like it's such a global sport football. And in 84, when they had the Olympics, my parents took me to a soccer game, and it was Iran and Iraq and talking about you know, like, very similar thing like as Americans we had, you know, no skin in the game, and we just went to watch this Olympic game. But the people there I mean, there were fights physical like fights in the stands and in the streets. And you know, when you see those countries that have had conflict for so long, I wonder if you can ever really get past it.

I have hope. And I am hopeful because like you said, history tells us that nothing is forever. But we want history to be kind to the Palestinians soon and just, you know, we're not we're hoping that we stay standing and we stay steadfast on our peaceful cause to regain back our country and regain back Jerusalem and Jerusalem last year was so devastating. It comes this president who thinks he's playing Monopoly on Park Avenue, buying buildings and opening them for hotels, he goes and says, I want to give Jerusalem to the other side. I'm like Jerusalem is not yours, but it's a gift. It is not the US decision to give people houses and countries and cities and things There's only one kind. That's what creates the friction. That's what creates the division. And my hope for America is to get back on the right path of being the peaceful, honest broker. That's what we want. And the policies and the people on the fucking people are so similar. I swear I'm like, I'm an American citizen. So I could fly into Tel Aviv. And I could rent the car from the airport, and I can drive and go wherever I want, because Elena can citizenship but like my family and Palestine, they cannot enter beyond the world. They want to go to Jerusalem and pray, they have to get a visa. So I have an aunt, that every time we would actually say you come to the Dome of the Rock to pray, oh, my God, let me catch you. When you come back. Let me smell you from because they haven't been there. They're not allowed to get there. I'm like who is man? To be above God to say that these holy places that were opened by God, since the time of birth started for someone to come and say, with military force You can go play, you can go worship to your place, that is unheard of as an human. So my thing on politics and we'll get back to talk about food is that someday the US will recognize that Enough is enough. We have enough of us funding wars that are killing people enough. We need to be the honest broker, we need to be the people that look up to as a role model of bringing people together. And I think the policy is really can be brought together if the Palestinians, like white human basic human rights are met. And of course, you know, the Israeli security is guaranteed, which is, that's where, you know, the circle keeps going right, you give the Palestinians the rights, given the freedom that children need to live peacefully with, like any other children in the world. And that would create, you know, peace and peace of mind for the Israelis to be on their side, and there's enough to share. There's two people one land, they need to share the land that was given to both by God That's what I say. So we do our small steps towards humanity and toward peace. And I just did the went through food and shot alive, Craig that more people can sign on this food journey and food, Peace Train, and come taste the people and get to know the people through our food.

So where's that leave you now? What are your plans? I mean, obviously, a lot of things are on hold. Is there anything you're doing kind of online or behind the scenes right now? Well, we can't be out. communally dining.

Yeah, well, you know, I was, I'm a personal chef. So I like working in restaurants and stuff like that. I like the one on one connection, the lecture of telling my clients This is my club upside down. This is Palestine. They know they are my clients in the West Village, and amazing clients that are only interested in me cooking Palestinian food. So that's on hold because first of all, I'm in California. I came to California for a wedding and put on it happened and my daughter in Manhattan Beach got stuck with me. But if I was in a Was village in Manhattan New York my clients on the bed anyways and you can go to the house so that's like you said that effective things I give like I do I send recipes to my clients when they when they say oh hang on what can what can we do so I send them recipes and then I've been baking cookies because this is Ramadan and I'm used to a month of Ramadan usually I'm cooking every night I'm taking care of the Congress that come in brand new to Islam because they have no idea what happens in Ramadan. I mean, the born Muslim with so much family you feel lonely because of all that seclusion. You want to be isolated to just do your worship in in your meditation. Imagine them just coming into not knowing the language not knowing their religion. So I cook a lot they use a lot that make them feel at home. Another thing is we I made cookies and I'm shipping them that's that's my meditation. That's my Zen is I make two boxes a day and I ship them to boxes and then I shipped them and I feel like I'm doing something. So I want to go crazy. And then I have my grandkids here. Which I adore, and they help me my three year old Zachary. He comes in and he does more cookies. They've cookies with me saying the same thing. They will wake up in the morning like, oh, take them, which means grandma and Eric when you're making us today. And then I started teaching my daughters, which, you know, I have four daughters, I have five kids with less than $4. And they were always like, busy with school and sports. And they were really amazing students excel in athletes. So I didn't want to say, hey, come clean your room or come cook with me. I figured, you know, they're going to hire institutions to learn. In America. That's good enough, I'll do the cooking. But now they're all in one of them is the one in New York. And her her job now she can do anything. She's a diplomat, actually, the Palestinian mission to the UN so everything is closed. So she's home with the children. And she would say mom, so I taught her like six very hard, complicated Palestinian dishes, ethnic dishes that she thought she would never learn. So I've been teaching her and teaching the other daughters and we would do a zoom and we'd come in and I would sit there or FaceTime and she'd make them a clue. But she made them a Kupo which is upside down. It's a lot of steps, desserts, you know, talking to the kids about Ramadan teaching the kids, you know, they want it they call and say, Can we pray? Can you teach us about Ramadan, and for me, that helps me stay connected to to my homeland by passing a little bit of what I brought with me, to them and to their kids. So that's how I've been feeling my Ramadan and my Corona, and I've been walking a lot. I get out in, in our development here. She lives behind the gates. So we figured what I'm used to the germs and bacteria to our, you know, little cul de sac so I get out tonight, a walk in the same area with my math. We do the same thing. Yeah, you have to get out, get out. Get out. Good luck. And I think I'm taking on a two edged sword reflected like you said, Where do we go from here? As people and why would What should we see as people with reasonable sanity? Let's say, how do we take this Corona lesson and make it to be like a lesson forever and the lesson that we can actually you know, because first sit in home for the past three months and we haven't learned anything good from that, I would say that's like that very sad thing. So I'm hoping that I, you know, I have plants and I would love to teach more than be a personal chef. I would love to have my cooking school and pass on this Palestinian cooking traditions to others. I know like you said, there's a lot of welcome in and a lot of people are receptive to the Middle Eastern food, especially the Palestinian food. A lot of people ask me about recipes, like I said online, so I would love to be able to teach it online and in person one, Corona evaporated. You know, love to always say I want to produce my book with the most important recipes that kind of shaped my life since I came into the US with my story because I think immigrant stories and all of our stories, we all have stories that just say immigrants are very, very important. And we should, you know, nurture them and pass them on to our kids and grandkids. So I hope that we come out of Khurana all in good health and alive and move on to do better things in life.

Was it easier to observe Ramadan this year, I mean, I know it's probably challenging to do with day to day life normally, but with things kind of stopping slowing down kind of being stuck at home. didn't make it easier, or I'm sure it was a very different year for you.

It's very different because again, I spend my Ramadan every year like, going to the masjid and doing my prayer in person and then in a group With a community and every night there's an IF thought and I'd love to participate in cook steak something so I was always like I said cooking baking things. So I couldn't do that. So I'm that's what I'm doing the cookies and shipping them. It is easier in the sense of like, you don't have to get out and do an eight hour or something else and then rush back to your prayers because like we supposed to keep up with our five prayers on time. So if you're out working, you know like make them a Russian hide somewhere and in doing so that kind of gave me more time to be with with the meditation and be with the people in the house. My daughter and her family. You know, you're really like present last year it was really a lot for me because I was doing my externship at the James Beard house. And I said you know the first tournament on you always put an intention not only to fast but what could good deeds you want to do or what challenges you want God to help you with and prayers they went on. I said, oh my god like 250 hours. God please help me finish him. They have Ramadan and I wouldn't finish them. That's it. And it was a lot. It was a lot. I was doing my 10 hours and then I was persona shifting for my clients doing there was village running back doing that. And you know, you walk around everywhere. And it's like you can afford to take over or have a car. So I was walking it. And I was like breaking fast after the fact. A few chefs came in from Mozambique, and they were Muslims. And they were like, Whoa, you're observing Ramadan? I said, Yes. And so they came in and made me break the fast. I think that's the only time I broke fast on time. They were very nice. You know, like, Adam and the people I was working with, they would say it's eight o'clock except the break fast. So that in that I'm like, you know, look at that I'm teaching all these people that walk through James Beard that whole month whether the 80 guests that came in nightly, the chef's who at least had like between two to 12 shifts, sometimes the board and So they learned to I felt like there was a purpose of me being there they learned about Ramadan and and about the food and collaborated with amazing chefs from all over the world. So that was a lot of work last year this year, I would say it's easier because all I have to do is keep up with my prayers and keep up with my walk and make cookies.

So when it comes to Palestinian food, are you strictly a traditionalist? Or do you ever try to do anything innovative, different fusion? Or are you only kind of cooking the really traditional foods?

It's traditional in the sense of the recipe, like it is truly like Palestinian or from my town. But I, like I said, I have five American kids, so I have to infuse it. So it's kind of like American Palestinian. Like if you taste my food, it's very light, because I don't use a lot of fat and like there's some there which is like the butter, spices I can eat like my dish. That's a mine McLuhan and then my sister's McLuhan, you look at me seven years ago. counterfeit. Hers is really like I said, my sisters are amazing cooks all of them because my mom lost her soul she was an amazing cook she from her heart. My onstage I have two aunts that are amazing cooks so when I go to them like oh my god your food tastes different than mine You better not let my kids eat it but my kids being American and then they want to eat healthy, lighter and healthier and not so much. I had to take out some of the spices because some of the fat and sometimes I do things instead of white rice brown rice or quinoa but mclubbe I leave my club are the same I leave the race the Lambo, but I don't like okay for instance like Uber, it has the lamps I cook at the same the white race, but then the vegetables in Palestine they would fry them which is cauliflower, excellent potatoes, tomatoes, the garlic, they would fry that. So because my kids will not like that much oil. I bake mine with a drizzle olive oil. And so it comes out the same but less the two cups of oil that I didn't find them in. A lot of these short corners I had to take to kind of modify it a bit. So my kids came and I wanted to do the policy for that I wanted them to, to know it and to be proud of it, because when they were going to school, it was tough. You know, like you said, Nobody knew what was going on. We lived in a town called Danville, predominantly white, and they had no clue what hits him when we moved in as Palestinian Muslims. Even in the schools, they were not honoring any, like holiday except for a few holidays. And when I walked in, as a class mother, they told me I cannot say Merry Christmas, so I had to run a campaign in the school district to bring Christmas back. This is back to the calendar. Then the superintendent called me and he said Mrs. fishy We were happy to announce to you that Christmas will be back on the calendar. I said, Oh my god, I cannot wait to go tell my Christian friends. Is it? Wait a minute, Christian? I said no. But since we're talking about religions, I'm a Muslim. And you have a lot of Muslims in your district that you don't honor the religions. And that gives them a complex whether self esteem, why don't you cut all that budget and just let's just recognize the Muslim holidays so the Muslim kids can feel good. So we put Islam, Islamic calendar, houses on the calendar as well. That was a great project, I felt a 16 chance in the school district. That was in the 90s.

I can imagine work and today it's so different. I mean, we get a lot of discussion because a lot of the Jewish holidays aren't even being recognized anymore. I mean, in Frederick, where I live, we have the Frederick fair and they always close school for a day for fair day and one of the days they cut out this year, I think was one of the Jewish holiday so the uproar of like, you're going to close schools so that kids can go to a fair but you're not going to close school so we can observe our holidays and I think the response was, well anyone who read you know celebrates those holidays can take them off and it won't be held against them. But is that enough? You know, why are we on the same? Why are we giving kids a day off to go to a fair does he farm animals and ride amusement rides, but the people who are celebrating their religious holidays aren't given off? It's it's a very touchy subject and very hard and I'm glad I'm not the one who has to make those decisions. You know, you can we voted, you know, I think they emailed everyone saying which days do you think are most important to be off? But other than that, you know, I don't think there was like a hearing or anything on it.

I you know, for me, I feel that's disrespectful. I tell you, if they don't celebrate any holidays or any like, if they just cut all that out, he treat people equally. I'm happy with that. But when I went back, my kids are going to the San Juan Valley School District. They were celebrated at every holiday except like Christmas, ironically, around Christmas, and of course, I had no clue about Muslim holidays. And so I'm like, What the heck last time I looked, America was predominantly Christian. And then my Jewish friends are, you know, neighbors, I told them the story. So they live with me too. And we started celebrating each other, like, I would make a basket of goods for whoever holidays and the neighbors and the kids would go wish them a happy holiday, whatever holiday it is. So they started learning about ours. And they started doing the same. So we had this commonality of friendship in the new in the cul de sac, and it became the neighborhood then it became the school. So for the kids, like for the Jewish holidays, when you tell these kids we can celebrate yours because it's a Jewish holiday. It's kind of like disrespectful and I don't agree with that. I think they should take like they should see like how many kids we have. Do they really don't have any Jewish kids in the school. I doubt that But it shouldn't be like you telling these five year old or six year old that listen Christmas and and Kwanzaa and I don't know what else is Chinese New Year is more important than yours that creates a context with people that kind of like, you know bullying them into the start thinking that they are something less than others. And I don't agree with that I think we should raise our kids to be worldly, and we should raise them to be diverse and we should raise them to understand and know and and one and know the other person because it's going to make them a much better people than they are. Imagine someone who was sheltered and never tried like food from other places or never met someone who's darker than them or speaks different than them. You know, the world would be so boring. We have something it says in our Quran. In our book, it says that, you know, God speaks that he could have created us the same, same color, same tongue, same language, same feelings with dress The same we worship the same way the same. Imagine how boring but he chose not to, he chose to create us from different tribes. Why? So we can get to know each other, and like each other. So people need to know that I have an invitation on this earth from the same God as much as you do. So we need to get along, learn to get to know each other in a nice way not to be kind. And know that nobody's above anybody. When we die, our bones look the same as the King and the servants. The bonds in the in the grave look the same. And that's what people need to know.

I love the idea of using food to bring people together. And I really think that's a fantastic way to come at it because I do think that gives you a great opportunity to get people in the same room and start having these conversations. So I'm very excited about this project. I'm also interested to learn a little more about what are some great resources If people wanted to learn about Palestinian cooking, what are your favorite cookbooks, websites, anything that someone could just go to today and start learning?

Oh my God with social media now it's amazing. You don't have to actually go to the library or go to someone, but you could easily Google Palestinian food and so many things come out on Instagram. There's so many upcoming chefs it differs because if you want like something ethnic or something that's fast, you know, I followed my mother recipes. That's what I do. What's your favorite thing to make? Oh my god. Well, other than these more cookies that I've been making the Dave cookie shots and your picture, I'll show you some actually. I love making that I love making. I love making the sugar which is the highlight. Don't do it. I would be I love making them a clue but my traditional dishes mentor, which is an all of our food is done. massive amounts, like you can have people come to lunch and say there's, you know, come to lunch for you and ask people how many that's true in our constructor as well how many people are coming, and like 1520 people show up at the same dinner and you have enough you will have enough always so we cook a lot we cook for community, our food is served on a table, you know, family style, as well. And so we cook a lot I love making them a clue but they're upside down. That's really an amazing dish the men serve is the buttermilk with the lamb and the naan bread and oh my god is just divine. My desert I love deserts. There's the Connect, which is the Palestinian Kanaka exposed novel seek in Africa because it was created in a town called novelist because of the cheese. And that's like, the shredded Philo with cheese inside it and you die. The cobbler layer with organic dye into orange and then you do the syrup. Oh my god, that homemade syrup. Just sugar and what ends watering, it is just amazing. It was actually a hit the James Beard that syrup because they would do their mocktails. And they wanted. They wanted something sugary. So I said to them, I'll make you my syrup. My other as I was making it every night last year, the James Beard. Another thing is the Philo stuffed with cheese. I love making that and I have one grandson here and Zane loves it all the time. So I'm trying the same thing to is I'm trying to teach my grandkids the Arabic terminology and get their tongue used to the language by if they fall in love with a dish. They're gonna keep saying it till they get it and then I'm like, Okay, good. They're gonna pass that on and carry that and know that they're Palestinian. Yeah, there's so many things just I think would be cool. Just Google, Palestinian food and everybody has their version, but it's all amazing. A lot of books that are out there. I can send you some stuff when it comes to mind. They're always welcome to Tech. Me email me, I am willing to teach anyone who wants to learn by FaceTime by zoom by sending the recipe I'm more than happy to serve. Right. It pleases me

to put together pretty comprehensive show notes. So when this goes out, I'll put links to all of your social media and pages and then fo and people who are interested can get in contact with you.

I would love it that it makes me happy when I'm cooking my food and sharing it with others especially people who've never heard of something about Palestine it gives me such pleasure to sit there and explain the dish where it came from. And I go through the politics that religion comes in one dish a rub rounded with this, but yes,

you're making me really hungry. I wish I had some of this food right now.

I'm gonna ship you cookies. That's good. That sounds fantastic. Yeah, you can get some cookies.

Do you have anything you want to add before we leave here today?

No, just hoping that we can do more of these. Like you said, bringing people together to one table to break bread. To bring the story of the people, the immigrants, how important we are and how much contribution we've brought to this country. As much as we appreciate this country as immigrants, and we came to this country, and we appreciated that it's open its doors for us and welcomed us. We ask this country to always be welcoming and be what it is, after all, you know, the Statue of Liberty says to everybody to be welcome and to come to, you know, live the American dream. And that's why we all came in, bring a piece of us from our countries to share and live our American dream for our children. And I hope that we can all in one day have these common tables run, like I said, in my FedEx stuff, went through meadows and run through towns and hills and land of different countries, bringing people together, no walls, no barriers, no animosity. None of that life is too short, as Corona is telling us right now. And there's no place for racism or hates us right now. We really need to apply kindness and sharing and togetherness That's my hope.

I just love what you're doing. And I look forward to having you come here, hopefully meeting you in person and cooking with you firsthand. It would be my honor. I cannot wait. We all pray that this is a temporary situation. And this will pass and we're all gonna actually the whole world is gonna emerge of this stronger. Thanks again for coming on. Transcribed by https://otter.ai