On June 7th, we took a trip to Paterson, NJ, to visit different Middle Eastern shops. We started the day off at Fattal’s, which was a bakery and grocery store serving mostly Middle Eastern cuisine. We tried different kinds of pita there, including plain pita with sides of hummus and baba ganoush, and pita with za’atar. Both versions of pita were extremely good and perfect to start our day off. We then walked along the streets of the Middle Eastern neighborhoods with Ms. Homa Watts, who is originally from Iran. She took us into many different shops, including a jewelry one. At the jewelry store we saw many different pieces, including elaborate necklaces and bracelets. All of the gold was more authentic than many other pieces of gold at other jewlery stores. All of the pieces were above 14 karats of gold, with some pieces being 18 and 21 karats. Next, we went into Al Basha Sweets shop where we at knafeh (I did a review on this). We then traveled over to a halal food market where we got to browse the different produce. If you do not know, halal basically means that meat is cut in the most humane way when animals are being slaughtered. Much of the meat made in America are not halal, as many extra steps are taken when animals are killed. Lastly, we finsihed are day off at the Abu Rass restaurant, where we got large plates of meat that included chicken, lamb, and steak. On the sides we had many different toppings and sauces, rice, and pita bread. It was an amazing meal and extremely filling. I loved the family style way we had lunch and it was super fun to gather with another spring intensive for lunch.

If you notice in a lot of my pictures, the sky is orange. This is the day when the air quality was extremely bad due to the wildfires in Canada and we had to wear masks outside. For me, this was the first time I had to wear a mask since the end of last school year. I really took good, clean air for granted this day. Luckily the air is basically back to normal now.