Shawarma Restaurant in Cairo Brings Taste of Home for Displaced Palestinians

General view of buildings by the Nile River in Cairo, Egypt. Reuters file photo
General view of buildings by the Nile River in Cairo, Egypt. Reuters file photo
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Shawarma Restaurant in Cairo Brings Taste of Home for Displaced Palestinians

General view of buildings by the Nile River in Cairo, Egypt. Reuters file photo
General view of buildings by the Nile River in Cairo, Egypt. Reuters file photo

A Palestinian businessman displaced by the war in Gaza is bringing a taste of home for fellow refugees with a Shawarma restaurant he has opened in Cairo, Reuters reported.
"The Restaurant of Rimal Neighborhood" offers Shawarma, a Middle Eastern dish of thinly-sliced meat, and other Palestinian and Arab dishes.
"The name comes to eternalize Rimal, my neighborhood, and to eternalize my homeland too," said Basem Abu Al-Awn.
"It is also to replace the restaurant I once had in Gaza. Two restaurants of mine, in addition to my house and the houses of my relatives, were destroyed," he said.
Abu Al-Awn hopes his time outside Gaza will be temporary and he is determined to return to the enclave once the war between Israel and Hamas is over.
"I will return, even if I have to set up a tent near the rubble of my house. We are going back to Gaza and we will rebuild it," he told Reuters.
Rimal was Gaza City's busiest shopping center, with large malls and main bank offices before Israeli forces reduced most of it to rubble. It was also home to Gaza's most famous Shawarma places.
"The taste is the same, people tell us it tastes as if they are eating it in Gaza," said Ahmed Awad, the new restaurant's manager.
"The Egyptians who get to try our place keep coming back. They tell us the taste is nice and is different from the Shawarma they usually get," Awad said.
Gaza Shawarma spices are unique and scarce in Cairo, so credit goes to Awad's father, who mixes those available to give the dish a special Palestinian taste.
Many thousands of Palestinians have arrived in Gaza since the war began last October.

Awad, his wife, and four children arrived in Cairo three months ago. In Gaza, he used to work in restaurants specializing in oriental and Western dishes.
With an end to the war looking like a distant prospect, Awad urged Palestinians not to give up.
"I advise them to work, and take care of their lives, their houses and everything may have gone but no problem, it will come back again," he said. "Once things are resolved we will return home, work there, and rebuild our country."
Palestinians now stranded in Cairo include businessmen, students and ordinary families who say they seek some kind of temporary legal residency to pursue investment and study plans until a ceasefire is in place.
Palestinian and Egyptian leaders reject the permanent settlement of Palestinians outside their land.
Om Moaz, from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, had been struggling to pay for a rented house and treatment for her husband and daughter in Cairo. She began working from home, offering Palestinian food through social media.
She found there was a strong demand from both Egyptians and Palestinians.
"Some were in the war and came to Egypt. So they started ordering my food. And thank God, it's a successful business and hopefully, it continues," she said.



Letter Written Onboard the Titanic before It Sank Sells for Almost $400,000 at Auction

 This undated handout picture provided by the auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son, England, shows a lettercard, penned by one of the Titanic's most well-known survivors from onboard the ship days before it sank, which has sold for 300,000 pounds ($399,000) at auction. (Henry Aldridge & Son via AP)
This undated handout picture provided by the auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son, England, shows a lettercard, penned by one of the Titanic's most well-known survivors from onboard the ship days before it sank, which has sold for 300,000 pounds ($399,000) at auction. (Henry Aldridge & Son via AP)
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Letter Written Onboard the Titanic before It Sank Sells for Almost $400,000 at Auction

 This undated handout picture provided by the auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son, England, shows a lettercard, penned by one of the Titanic's most well-known survivors from onboard the ship days before it sank, which has sold for 300,000 pounds ($399,000) at auction. (Henry Aldridge & Son via AP)
This undated handout picture provided by the auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son, England, shows a lettercard, penned by one of the Titanic's most well-known survivors from onboard the ship days before it sank, which has sold for 300,000 pounds ($399,000) at auction. (Henry Aldridge & Son via AP)

A lettercard penned by one of the Titanic's most well-known survivors from onboard the ship, days before it sank, has sold for 300,000 pounds ($399,000) at auction.

In the note, written to the seller's great-uncle on April 10, 1912, first-class passenger Archibald Gracie wrote of the ill-fated steamship: “It is a fine ship but I shall await my journeys end before I pass judgment on her.”

The letter was sold to a private collector from the United States on Saturday, according to auction house Henry Aldridge & Son in Wiltshire, England. The hammer price far exceeded the initial estimate price of 60,000 pounds.

The letter is believed to be the sole example in existence from Gracie from onboard the Titanic, which sank off Newfoundland after hitting an iceberg, killing about 1,500 people on its maiden voyage.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge described it as an “exceptional museum grade piece.”

Gracie, who jumped from the ship and managed to scramble onto an overturned collapsible boat, was rescued by other passengers onboard a lifeboat and was taken to the R.M.S. Carpathia. He went on to write “The Truth about the Titanic,” an account of his experiences, when he returned to New York City.

Gracie boarded the Titanic in Southampton on April 10, 1912, and was assigned first-class cabin C51. His book is seen as one of the most detailed accounts of the events of the night the ship sank, Aldridge said.

Gracie did not fully recover from the hypothermia he suffered, and died of complications from diabetes in late 1912.