PBS Spotlights Detroit's Middle Eastern Community First in New Series

posted on: Jun 24, 2018

SOURCE: DETROIT FREE PRESS

BY: SUSAN SELASKY

Metro Detroit’s Middle Eastern community is featured in the first episode of a new PBS series focusing on immigrant cultures in America.

Titled “No Passport Required,” the six-part series is hosted and executive produced by acclaimed chef and restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson. Ethiopian-born and raised in Sweden, Samuelsson focuses on learning about America’s immigrant communities by exploring culture, history and food. In each episode, he visits a different city, highlighting ways an immigrant community made its mark.

“I absolutely believe in the American dream,” Samuelsson said in a news release. “It’s inspired people from all over the world to come here. And what would America be without all the immigrants? Not as delicious! Not as tasty!”

In this first episode, he singles out metro Detroit as having one of the largest and most diverse Middle Eastern communities in America.

Samuelsson puts the spotlight primarily on the Dearborn, focusing on food and restaurants. Salwan Georges, a former Detroit Free Press photojournalist now with the Washington Post, leads Samuelsson to a favorite falafel place, takes him to Detroit’s Naba Brick Oven Bakery for a lesson on making samoon (a diamond-shaped Iraqi yeast bread) and connects him with a Syrian refugee family for a meal.

Other stops are Hashems Roastery & Market in Dearborn Heights (noted for its Turkish coffee), the Bottom Line for tea in Midtown, and Selden Standard, where Samuelsson cooks with Lebanese-American pastry chef Lena Sareini. Samuelsson also visits Byblos Banquet center, observing preparation for a 700-person wedding.

Samuelsson catches up with Sameer Eid, owner of Phoenicia Restaurant in Birmingham. At Phoenicia, Samuelsson samples the restaurant’s famous pork ribs, fattoush and hashwi.  Phoenicia was named the Detroit Free Press 2018 Restaurant of the Year Classic. (Tickets for the July 10 Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Top 10 Takeover at Phoenicia in Birmingham go on sale Friday.)

By email, Samuelsson said he’s a huge fan of Detroit and has been coming here for years.

“It’s a city with such rich history in terms of music, art and African-American culture. It was really exciting for me to explore a new side of Detroit that I wasn’t as familiar with. The Arab community in Detroit and Dearborn … it was really a blast getting to know that culture better,” Samuelsson wrote.

This six-part series was produced by Eater for PBS. It premieres 9-10 p.m. July 10 and runs every Tuesday through Aug. 14, when it will air 8-9 p.m.