NYC, Sydney & Paris: A Slice of Home Away From Home

Arab communities are one of the most prevalent immigrant populations around the world continues to successfully carve a life overseas while maintaining a strong attachment to home.

Whether it’s in the outskirts of New York City or the centre of Sydney, Arab communities have transported the essential feel of their native countries to keep the deep bond alive.

In this piece we delve into some historical background and bookmark some of the best spots for Arabic culture across the world, from Astoria’s Little Egypt to Lebanese cuisine in Lakemba, Australia.

Lakemba, Sydney

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Most people will be familiar with the rhythms and stomping dance moves of the frenetic Lebanese dabke, but few will have heard it in the contemporary, electronic setting that DJ Plead mixes it into.

Born to a Swiss father and Lebanese mother, DJ Plead – known to his parents as Jarred Beeler – is one of a new generation of Australians bringing a fresh voice to their Arab heritage. Over 230,000 people in the country identify as Lebanese Australians, among them author Michael Mohammed Ahmad, who grew up in the Lakemba suburb of Sydney. He distilled his experience of living there into a trilogy of novels: The Tribe, The Lebs, and The Other Half of You.

“They were my attempt to counteract the limited and simplistic representation that the Arab-Australian Muslim community of western Sydney has received to date, and to offer a humanising and intimate understanding. They were also an act of self- determination – a declaration of the right to reclaim and tell our own stories in our own way,” Michael says.

He describes how his family settled in Lakemba, a suburb which housed so many Arabs, they called it Leb-kemba. What he loves most about Lakemba is that over 100 languages can be heard. Michael says while people assume the term “Leb” is just used as shorthand for Lebanese, growing up in Lakemba, he encountered hundreds of young men and women from different backgrounds who called themselves “Lebs.” What’s more, they were all Australian-born.

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“This is because the term had become far more than just a literal connection to Lebanese heritage: it had become the label for a new Australian identity, which had emerged in response to negative media attention that reduced all Arab Australians and Muslim Australians in western Sydney to ‘Lebanese people,’” he says.

Michael’s favourite restaurant is Lakemba McDonald’s, which was the first Macca’s in Australia to provide halal options for the locals.

“But I’d only recommend this to people who grew up in a house where falafels were normal and hamburgers and fries were exotic,” he says. “For everyone else, I recommend El-Manara Lebanese Restaurant. It has terrific vegetarian, vegan, and halal options, and the staff will treat you like family. It’s the next best thing to eating at my grandmother’s house!”

Best place to eat:

• El-Manara Lebanese Restaurant for Lebanese food and a variety of vegetarian, vegan, and halal options

Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and Astoria, Queens - NYC

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This April, during Ramadan, a sound was heard for the first time on the streets of Astoria, a New York neighbourhood in Queens. It was the adhan, or call to prayer, broadcast from several small mosques in the area. Although the first mosque appeared here in 1980, 2023 was the first year the adhan could be heard outside, pulling in worshippers.

New York is often referred to as a melting pot of cultures although a mosaic of diversity is probably more accurate – with enclaves like Chinatown, Little Italy, and Little Caribbean. In the early 20th century, Little Syria, on and around Washington Street, became the first Arabic-speaking community in the US, though by the 1940s it had vanished, bulldozed to make way for the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. But waves of immigrants in the 1960s and 1970s were drawn towards new areas of New York.

Like many places, its diversity can be mapped out by its food culture, with the Syrian-owned Mamoun’s Falafel opening in 1971 in the East Village as the first place in town to sell falafel. Bay Ridge, in south-west Brooklyn, is now known as Little Palestine and Little Yemen, reflecting the origins of its inhabitants, with Arabic signs for spice shops, shawarma houses, halal markets, and restaurants such as the Palestinian-run Al Aqsa Bakery & Restaurant.

Over in Astoria, meanwhile, Steinway Street is known as Little Egypt, with culinary hotspots such as the tiny Kabab Cafe, run by the personable Ali Elsayed since 1989 and a favourite with roaming food explorers such as the renowned late chef Anthony Bourdain.

Best places to eat:

• Al Aqsa Bakery & Restaurant for shawarma, chicken wraps, and falafels
• Kabab Cafe for homemade koshary, Egyptian shakshuka, and lamb shanks

Paris

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At the heart of the Louvre is an undulating roof of glass and metal. To some it resembles a veil, to others a sand dune, and lying beneath it is a courtyard containing a huge collection of Islamic objects that include jewel-like daggers of Damascene steel, a tiled masterpiece depicting a Persian joust, and funerary steles from Makkah.

Paris has long been an important axis in the flow of ideas and trade between east and west – after all, France was the first European country to establish links with the Ottoman Empire. And the city has drawn in Arab travellers, thinkers, and émigrés for centuries. It's still clear today on the streets of Barbès- Rochechouart and Château Rouge, the city’s lively north African quarter, where stores selling Ghanaian fabrics rub shoulders with makeshift mosques and Tunisian cafés.

Those in search of Arab Paris might want to go to the square named after Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who described Paris as the place of his “true poetic birth.” There’s also the house of The Prophet author Gibran Khalil Gibran, who studied in Paris in the early 20th century. Towering above Place de la Concorde is the Luxor obelisk, sent to France by Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali in 1829.

The Institut du Monde Arabe on the banks of the Seine is something of a cultural beacon for Arabic speakers and organises weekly tours around the 5th arrondissement.

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“It’s one of my favourite places to go,” Olivia Snaije, a Paris-based journalist and translator, says. “Not only is the architecture by Jean Nouvel fabulous, but the view of the city from the rooftop terrace is always breathtaking. You’ll also find the restaurant up there too, which recently changed hands and is now run by the Franco-Moroccan actor Jamel Debbouze. I regularly go on Saturdays to listen to live interviews with Arabic-language authors, and there are always great exhibits, regular film screenings, and concerts, ranging from the more traditional and trip-hop to electronic music.”

While France’s colonial history means that most Arabs in Paris are from the Maghreb, and mostly from Algeria, when it comes to restaurants the Lebanese mainly write the menus. Olivia reels off a list of favourite foodie highlights, including Mardi and Babel restaurants, and Bältis for Lebanese ice cream.

Olivia has been following Lebanese chef Karim Haidar around for about 20 years. She says his most recent restaurant incarnation is Les mots et le ciel, a small table d’hôte, where he also gives cooking classes and sells high-quality products from the Middle East, including a unique organic zaa’tar.

“Karim is just embarking on a new Lebanese culinary adventure with a bistro called SAMA, in partnership with Loulouwa Al Rachid and Marwan Rizk. There’s always something new happening here,” she says.

Best places to eat:

• Bältis for Lebanese ice cream
• Les Mots et le Ciel for kibbeh, makanek, and organic zaa’tar