There's not a lot of warm fuzzy stories when you talk about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and even fewer ones about food. But here's one with both from the Wall Street Journal.
It tells of how in nearby Camp Pendleton, they just set up a shawarma stand in the base due to popular demand. That's right. A shawarma stand. It turns out “marines returning from Iraq and the Persian Gulf were pining for pita, according to focus-group surveys conducted on the base.”
As the article states, “in the Middle East, shared meals are often a key part of forming bonds and winning trust.”
So last month Ms. Denise Hazime, a Muslim woman, and her husband, a Marine veteran, opened the first Arabic food stand there.
The story has more than a few accounts of satisfied customers.
Best part of it is? Ms. Hazime is already a semi-celebrity with her YouTube cooking shows, in which she shares the secrets of making good toum, hummus and yes, even shawarma.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.