When Taqwa Obaid and her husband Abdullah Habahbeh moved to Wisconsin, it didn’t take long for them to notice a void in the market. There was nowhere to find freshly baked taboun bread, the soft Palestinian flatbread named for the traditional clay ovens in which it was first baked. So Obaid decided to take matters into her own hands, learning to master the bread-making process and sharing the fruits of her labor with friends and neighbors.
Three years later, the husband and wife team, along with business partner Luran Allabadi, launched their very own bakery and restaurant, introducing the area to time-honored Palestinian and Jordanian recipes like manakish, fatayer, mosakhan and dawalee, as well as sweet treats like baklava, warbat and maamoul.
On this week’s podcast, we were honored to chat with Obaid about her journey to restaurant ownership, her desire to preserve traditional recipes and the rewards of sharing them with the larger community. Along the way, she shares what it feels like to see her dream of owning a restaurant fulfilled, her vision and plans for the future and her desire to give back to the community which has welcomed her with open arms.
Listen in!
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Lori is an avid cook whose accrual of condiments and spices is rivaled only by her cookbook collection. Her passion for the culinary industry was birthed while balancing A&W root beer mugs as a teenage carhop, fed by insatiable curiosity and fueled by the people whose stories entwine with each and every dish. She’s had the privilege of chronicling these tales via numerous media, including OnMilwaukee and in her book “Milwaukee Food.” Her work has garnered journalism awards from entities including the Milwaukee Press Club.
When she’s not eating, photographing food, writing or recording the FoodCrush podcast, you’ll find Lori seeking out adventures with her husband Paul, traveling, cooking, reading, learning, snuggling with her cats and looking for ways to make a difference.
