On a quiet weekday at the Palestinian restaurant Tanooreen in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood, book publisher Hannah Moushabeck and the restaurant’s Jumana Bishara are discussing a tasting menu.
Moushabeck and her sister recently took over the family business, Interlink Publishing in Northampton, Massachusetts, and earlier this year, the independent imprint published a new cookbook, "Tanoreen: Palestinian Home Cooking in Diaspora,” written by Bishara’s mother, Rawia Bishara.
Many of the dishes coming to the table are in the new book, and the meal began with what Bishara described as a "quintessential" hummus along with fattoush, a Middle Eastern chopped salad.
"You also have coming out musakhan, which is going to be a chicken flatbread, a user-friendly version of a very, very classic Palestinian dish," Bishara said.
Quite proudly she said, in New York, her mother, who is co-owner and chef, put Palestinian food on the map.
"She opened the door for many other chefs to come in, publish books, open restaurants, do food trucks," Bishara said. "Officially or unofficially in my world, she's the premier Palestinian chef in New York.“
The new cookbook is one of several written by Rawia Bishara, who opened her business almost 30 years ago.
A next generation partnership
The older generation of these two Palestinian families came to the U.S. from different locations around the Middle East. They happened to meet in New York in the 1980s, as their families grew.
So “Tanoreen” the cookbook, Bishara said, is a next -generation partnership that was meant to be.
"The fact that we're daughters, taking over our parents' business, that we're Palestinian Americans — it's a perfect collaboration," Bishara said.
Previous lives
After graduate school in Cairo, Bishara worked with Palestinian NGOs in Israel. Then, once back in New York, with no hospitality or restaurant training, she went into business with her mother who Bishara said taught her everything she knows about feeding a crowd of people.
"In our house, we were taught that the way to people's hearts was through their stomachs," Bishara said, adding "and I don’t know that I would have come out and spoken to all of the tables at the restaurant if my mother hadn't done it before me."
In Moushabeck's family, she said they were raised surrounded by books.
"It wasn't just my parents who were running Interlink Publishing, but both my aunt and uncle opened bookstores. So our house was always filled with visiting poets and philosophers and academics and even cookbook chefs," Moushabeck said.
Prior to taking over Interlink Publishing earlier this year, Moushabeck was out west, working at large publishing companies, marketing among other titles she said, Brittney Spear's memoir. She loved the business, but felt a pull toward her family.
Moushabeck's father, Michael Moushabeck, began Interlink in 1987, and he decided recently it was time to retire.
‘Too important to let it go’
“If one of us didn't take over the business,” Moushabeck said, he was going to sell it. I realized that it was too important to let it go.”
Even more important since, Israel’s siege of Gaza, in a war with Hamas, which began in October 2023 after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, infiltrating the border from Gaza and resulting in the deaths of approximately 1,200 people, according to NPR.
Since then, more than 59,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The count doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians. but more than half of the dead are reportedly women and children.
Israel is facing increasing international criticism for the starvation in Gaza and what U.N.-backed experts say is an unfolding famine, according to NPR.
For Moushabeck, working on a cookbook, she was constantly reminded of the lack of food access in Gaza.
"It can be really, really hard and really discouraging when so many people look away," she said.
'You can't be Palestinian in the U.S.' and not talk about it
Interlink publishes about 90 titles a year; works of literature in translation, children's books and books on art and history. In addition to “Tanoreen,” among their most recent books, is “Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation,” written by Jewish activist Sim Kern.
Many titles are political in nature, Moushabeck said but even their children’s books are perceived by some as political.
While Moushabeck wants people to know that Palestinian writing and food comes from an ancient people, because of the war, there appears to be an new interest in Palestinian culture.
At the restaurant it seems to have actually boosted business Bishara said, for better and for worse.
“It doesn't feel good when business is picked up because people want to support a Palestinian restaurant," she said, "but at the same time, we still are a business that our staff depend on, and we have people to feed and and pay."
While many restaurant patrons are younger Arabs, she said, a majority of guests are non-Arab. Many are locals who live in the diverse Brooklyn neighborhood.
Into the future
"I feel really proud that my mother and I are able to portray Palestinian women as we are," Bishara said. "We're hustlers. We're in New York City. We run a small business — a difficult small business to run."
Though she said with a laugh, she can't imagine working in the kitchen at 72-years-old, the age of her mother who is still cooking many nights a week.
Watching their parents, both women are well aware of what Moushabeck calls the “immigrant mentality.”
“It is very easy to be a workaholic and to work yourself to the bone," Moushabeck said.
They are dedicated to their businesses, making their own imprints going forward, but both said they’re seeking that elusive work-life balance.
Sitting down to a slow weekday lunch is a rarity.
Diners come in droves to Tanoreen for all sorts of beloved Palestinian dishes, including the knafeh, which Moushabeck said is a must.
The dessert made of shredded phyllo dough layered with cheese, baked, and then coated with rosewater and orange blossom syrup and pistachios, is known for its “cheese-pull,” Moushabeck said.
“It’s actually famous," she said. “People say it's the best knafeh in all of New York City."
