Syrian Cookbook Builds Bridges

Bridges are good things, higher and longer than walls. Bridges bring journeys to mind; walls don’t.

“The Bread and Salt Between Us” by Mayada Anjari provides a true bridge experience, bringing the reader and cook into communion with not only authentic Syrian recipes, but also the Syrian family, Mayada and Ahmad Anjari, who abandoned their battle-ravaged home town in Syria, to walk with their children over countless nights through the desert to the safety of Jordan. 

Work was scarce. When a U.N. representative offered an interview screening process to travel to the United States, the family believed it to be a joke. It was not a joke. After many months of process and more screenings, the family boarded a plane for the first time, traveled to Germany and then on to the United States where they had been “adopted” as a refugee family by Rutgers Presbyterian Church in New York City. The harrowing story of being caught in the short-lived immigrant ban but released thanks to the federal court ruling is all part of  what led eventually to this marvelous cookbook.

Anjari spoke no English. Her most practical skill was good Syrian family cooking. Gathering for Friday night meals kept her family together in Syria and in their new home in the U.S.A., an apartment provided by the church and furnished with necessities. Anjari learned English by learning to name food.  An important cookbook with a story to tell has emerged in colorful hardcover. It has won awards and significant recognition in food circles.

The recipes are simple. All you need in the way of equipment for most of the recipes is a knife for chopping, spoon for stirring, a bowl to hold it all and people to enjoy it.  If you and your family don’t like group chopping of ingredients, for example, for the tabbouleh, you have permission to use a food processor.  

Thanks to the sponsor church, all recipes have been tried out in professional test kitchens, put into written form (she had nothing written down), tweaked as needed, and photographed beautifully. All services were donated, including the publishing, so all sales go directly to Anjari and her family. Their first goal is education. Anjari is studying toward her G.E.D.

The outcome of this developing story has been that Mayada has been invited to host Syrian meals for large gatherings in New York, and now she has expanded into a catering service where she is providing private homes with authentic Syrian meals that she prepares on the premises.

It’s been a voyage over a long bridge where one end was in the nighttime deserts of Syria and Jordan and the other end rests in the pages of an acclaimed cookbook. 

“The Bread and Salt Between Us” can be ordered locally through Oblong Books in Millerton, or Merritt Bookstore in Millbrook.  Or, copies can be obtained by emailing dmammen@rutgerschurch.org. The cost is $25.00.

The book is divided into three sections: everyday fare, Friday night suppers (family gathering time) and special occasions and sweets. The tabbouleh is in the category of everyday fare, but it sure is special.