A: The most amazing Lebanese food outside of Lebanon. We ate at La Pita in West Dearborn last night and it's every bit as delicious as our favorite restaurant in Monterrey. Mmmm...
Monterrey, Mexico has a huge Lebanese immigrant community. We loved living there. And Dearborn has an even bigger Lebanese immigrant community. In fact, about 40% of Dearborn's population is Arab American. Dearborn has the second highest concentration of Arabs anywhere in the world outside of the middle east (Paris has the first). Who knew? Every Arab nationality and religious sect can be found here, and recently, there has been an influx of refugees from Iraq. The large influx of immigrants began in 1913 when Henry Ford began offering his generous $5 daily wage and it has continued to grow since then. If you're a nerd like me and want to read more, click here.
As a side story, I also knew there must be a large population of immigrants from Iran, when I overheard some punk teens at the mall cursing in Farsi. The only Farsi words I know were picked up while teaching at Beverly Hills High School and are highly offensive :)
One of the first things Tim and I noticed when we drove into town was a large beautiful Mosque.
It's acutally the Islamic Center of America, the largest mosque in North America, and has a mostly Shi'a Muslim congregation.
The Dearborn Mosque is a much older mosque built in the 1930's and has Sunni congregation.
So even though I was disappointed that Tim's summer internship meant a temporary end to our international adventures, it turns out our adventure continues...and I love it.
P.S. Heba, there is apparently the best Arab bakery in the world here, so I'll be bringing some of the deliciousness to DC for you next weekend.
4 comments:
Do you ever commit Hummous-ide when you eat middle-eastern food?
Breena, Nancy & I are putting together a special post of pictures & memories for you. We just want to remind you that even though you have visited the entire globe, and you are the only one who has gone back to Europe with your hubby (we are not jealous or anything :); we know that you have never experienced anything as exciting as the trip of '94. (I still have to pry the pics off my sticky scrapbook pages, dust them off, scan them, (Did they have digital cameras back then?)and then I will post them.:) You're the best! Love, Peej
Ah the famous Jenson humour strikes again!! Miss you two! We need to develop the concept of virtual hearts!
Please don't encourage him, Louise. I beg him not to say things like this in a public forum, but it continues :)
And Peej...excited to see the pics and slightly scared to have to look at my early 90s self again. Viva la Perm!
Post a Comment