Rich and varied backgrounds bring energy and interest to our city. With 117 languages representing 70 countries in our schools, restaurants that no longer seem exotic and different sounds and faces in our community, Greensboro can almost feel international.
Walking the Market today you hear different languages, see different attire and faces among customers and vendors. You find different foods (prepared and not) and people willing to talk with you about them.
Zaytoon’s Middle Eastern foods are familiar to most Market customers. Annah and the late Masoud Awartani began Zaytoon at the Market fifteen short years ago. Masoud was an agricultural economist; Annah specialized in vocational education before Zaytoon became a full time job.
Now Annah and their children Layth, Nora and Adam combine traditional Palestinian, Greek and Syrian influences to produce wonderful foods. Layth, Nora and Adam joined the many that have grown up in the Market. Layth began at nine and his siblings came soon after. It can be tough to get up early for young folks but the reward of smiles and friends among vendor and customers smooth the day.
On any Saturday, at Tables 138 and 139 on Aisle F, Zaytoon offers baba ghanouj, spanakopita, hummus, pita bread, olive and mushroom flat breads, stuffed peppers, sesame cookies and on and on. You get the idea. Zaytoon offers a rich and varied selection of foods no longer new to Greensboro.
Layth talks about the relative simplicity of Mediterranean foods, he thinks of their foods as coming from recipes created in small villages many years ago. In a dry climate with rocky soils, villagers developed ways of stretching the protein in their diet deliciously. In Layth’s phrase, “simplicity is beautiful.” It’s also healthy.
In Annah’s words, “It brings us peace and happiness to share with Greensboro the food that our families have enjoyed for generations.” If you haven’t met Zaytoon, come by and partake of food, peace and happiness. If you have met Zaytoon, you understand.
The popularity of Zaytoon led to the establishment of a downtown restaurant serving lunchtime weekday patrons in the business district in Downtown Greensboro. After 9 years, at the end of 2015, Annah will close the doors of the restaurant which will open new opportunities including providing for time to develop a community teaching garden and classes that focus on “food as medicine.” In Annah’s words, “As Mother Teresa said, ‘I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples’— I will see you all at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market.”
Through Annah’s great generosity, much of the kitchen equipment and restaurant will be donated to establish a community kitchen at the Agricultural Center in Burlington, 3309 Burlington Road, as well as help establish the Harvest Learning Café in partnership with Greensboro Farmers Market, Inc.
