Al-Quds Mediterranean Grill & Grocery and Casa Blanca Market are two minutes away from each other by foot, separated by an oddly bustling Red Lobster. One of the two brothers who work the register at Al-Quds says about the owners of Casa Blanca, laughing, “We’re both from Ramallah. From two different neighborhoods that are just two minutes away from each other.”
Casa Blanca as a name feels like Andalusi romance, Mozarabic, invoking a Hispanic Middle East, one more familiar to Westerners, one that features classic films, not exclusionary practices. As hyper-marginalized people tend to, I thought this was just another way to hide and bend our identities, but I was wrong.
The owners answer in Arabic when I ask if they have Iraqi bread. They speak Spanish among themselves and other customers. They also speak English. “And I speak Hebreo,” says one owner.
“My mom took me back for a few years when I was a child to learn Arabic. Ramallah was under Israeli governance at the time, so I learned in school. Now it’s Palestinian.” They’re Palestinians via South America. “Try one of these cookies first,” he adds, handing me a date cookie, giving me the box for free.
I buy za’atar to send to my brother in Japan; he can’t find any there. I buy Puck cheese, a Danish cream cheese in a glass that I ate throughout my childhood in Kuwait. Halloumi. Black tea. I like the advertisement for Vimto; Ramadan is close. I forget the green olives. I get a can of foul (fava beans) for breakfast. Tamarind for my favorite Kuwaiti fish stew with cilantro.
Tamarind etymology: The name derives from Arabic: تمر هندي, romanized as tamar hindi, meaning Indian date. Medieval herbalists and physicians in Europe wrote tamar indi, which over time became tamarind.
At Al-Quds (the Arabic name for Jerusalem), I admire their cigarette stand and water pipes while ordering fresh mutabbal, mashed eggplant from the Sham countries. I wonder who in the family makes it. There’s a long line of red booths behind glass separating the grocery store from the café where they serve food, but “not on Sundays.” As I make my way out, I hear one of the brothers ask the woman behind me, “Hey, how’s your family?”
I like being in both places. The different languages on products, the sense of familiarity, and the bustling warmth of Arabs. Speaking Arabic, Spanish, English, Hebrew, French, all of us holding on within our displacements.
Al-Quds Mediterranean Grill & Grocery and Casa Blanca Market are located in a strip mall at 5555 Montgomery NE, Albuquerque.
Zahra Marwan
Working as a traditional artist with watercolor and ink, Zahra Marwan enjoys creating small narrative illustrations and magical realism. She is fond of her cultural roots in Kuwait as well as the liberal education she has received throughout her life in New Mexico. She works out of her studio at the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque.
