Palm Market Brings New Friends

The Palm Market in Erie, PA

Today was pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

I went with my friend Katie to the Palm Market today to get pictures and audio for a class project.  I expected this to last a couple hours -- six hours later I returned to school with quite the adventure.

The Palm is a local international food store and restaurant that specializes in Middle Eastern cuisine.

I arrive at the market and I had free reign to take pictures of them working in the restaurant.  During this, two hour process I had the opportunity to make bread and sample many different foods.

To make the bread, I learned how to flatten the dough and stick it to the side of the mud kiln.  Let me note that this is a fast process. They stick the bread onto the sides of this kiln for it to cook, which is a lot hotter than they make it look.  The woman I was working with could easily stick her hand in and grab the bread out.  I am very impressed by her.

After we were done at the Palm Market, Katie and I went to our friend Dhia's house where he was making us lunch.  We committed to this lunch true Arab style.

It was an incredible experience.  Lunch consisted of tilapia (and I don't mean that prepackaged stuff. I saw the fresh fish and he stared at me as I ate him), a large mixture of rice and vermicelli, and a bowl of tomatoes and onions soaked in lemon juice. We topped it off by drinking Alwazah Tea.

Preparing to slap the dough on the side of the kiln.

We sat on the floor, shared the same plates and ate with our fingers.  I scooped up rice and tore apart the fish. I have never been such a messy eater in my life!

Dough falling off is mine - I chickened
out because it was so hot in the kiln!

Dhia also gave us incense and currency from different Middle Eastern countries when  we were there.

The people I met are some of the kindest people I have ever met.  They encouraged me to come down and practice Arabic with them and told me other dishes they want me to try sometime.  I definitely plan on visiting these new friends of mine more often.