IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
Palestinian-American Profiles
“A tool of mass cultural preservation”—that’s how Blanche Araj Shaheen describes her new cookbook. Feast in the Middle East (2020) features an array of dishes from across the Levant with detailed instructions and histories behind each recipe.
on February 24, 2020
Cuisine
Bay Area based Palestinian-Syrian chef Reem Assil shares a recipe for ma'amoul, traditional date filled cookies, ahead of the holidays.
on December 19, 2019
Cuisine
NPR's David Greene talks to food writer and human rights campaigner Yasmin Khan about her latest cookbook, and the travels that inspired a collection of Palestinian recipes.
on February 12, 2019
News Roundup
It was a food-world fairy tale come true. In 2013, Yasmin Khan decided to write a cookbook. She was 32 and burned out from her work as a London-based human-rights campaigner focused on the Middle East.
on February 11, 2019
Palestinian-American Profiles
Tanoreen’s owner, Rawia Bishara, was born in Nazareth and followed her husband to the United States in 1973. In 1998, after raising two children, she opened the place with only ten seats.
on July 13, 2018
Photo Essays
Ramadan is a sacred time of year for devout Muslims. The holy month began days after the Israeli military killed 62 protesters in Gaza’s Great Return March. Despite the sorrow over the killings, and despite the ongoing suffering Palestinians in Gaza experience due to the Israeli-imposed blockade, four hours daily of electricity, lack of drinking water, and chronic unemployment — families in Gaza still mark Ramadan with devotion, and with dignity.
on June 14, 2018
News Roundup
Anthony Bourdain brought cuisines from around the world to viewers who might never otherwise have contemplated them. But his shows were always about so much more than that.
on June 8, 2018
News Roundup
It was the year 2000 and the Second Intifada was underway. It was nearly impossible for people to cross short distances between cities and villages in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, let alone deliver beer. Yet Palestine’s Taybeh Brewery successfully transported 50-kilogram kegs of beer across military checkpoints on donkeys while an increasingly violent and repressive occupation escalated around them.
on May 9, 2018
News Roundup
Sometimes the way to really figure out who you are, what you’re supposed to be, where you go next, is to drop everything and find your way back home. With apologies to Mr. Wolfe: You can and should go home again—back to the beginning, to the place that made you and set you on your course. If you’re lucky, like Bay Area chef Reem Assil, it’s a journey that might even touch a place inside you that you couldn’t have reached on your own.
on January 2, 2018