For days, we have been busy preparing for the International Food Festival and yesterday was the BIG day. We arrived at the Masjid car park at 9.30 am to set the tables and chairs and by 11.00 am we were ready for our customers. Here's a snapshot of Dussti serving a customer. Unfortunately, my face was not visible on her left side, except a portion of my scarf. Here is a write-up by the Evansville Courier.


Festival offers taste of Middle East
By Gavin Lesnick (Contact)Monday, October 20, 2008
Wayne and Brenda Schonabaum went to the Islamic Society of Evansville's International Food Festival on Sunday to experience a different culture and try some foods they'd never had before.
After making their way down a long table of Middle Eastern cuisine offerings, the retired Evansville couple sat down to sample tandoori chicken, tabbouleh, pakora and grape leaves, among a plateful of other authentic Mideast dishes.




Go Takayama / Courier & Press Jeanna Costello, right, asks Dussti Abdulrahman of Evansville, second from left, for tabbouleh as she moves past more than 20 kinds of authentic Middle Eastern and Mediterranean foods at the seventh annual International Food Festival at the Islamic Center of Evansville at 1332 Lincoln Ave., on Sunday. "We missed last year, so we had to come this year," Costello said.
"We thought it'd be a good experience," Wayne Schonabaum said, adding he liked most everything he tried. "We're game to try. It's different — and that's important."
Introducing Islamic culture and cuisine to people like the Schonabaums was part of the goal of the annual food festival, which donates its proceeds to the Tri-State Food Bank. Long tables of food options stretched around the parking lot at the Islamic Center on Lincoln Avenue. Children got henna tattoos and learned Arabic calligraphy, and an outdoor bazaar sold jewelry, clothing and artwork.
Looking on as a steady stream of patrons made their way down the buffet, Mohammad K. Azarian, a member of the center and one of the festival's organizers, said the event brings the community together in a positive way.
"It is heartwarming to see that people are really enjoying diversity, appreciating diversity," he said. "They are trying to understand each other and trying to know each other."
Among them was Evansville resident Paul Hoehn. He stopped by the end of last year's festival and, after enjoying much of what he tried, decided to come back again.
He wasn't exactly sure what everything on his plate was Sunday afternoon — chicken, a rice-based dish and another with cheese — but he knew it was good.
"I never would have expected that," he said of how much he enjoyed it.
The festival's overall aim was to collect money for the food bank — an effort that last year raised more than $1,500.
This year's fundraising was boosted substantially by a donation presented at the festival's opening by Wal-Mart. The company gave $20,000 to the food bank's backpack program, which provides food for the weekend to children on the free-lunch program.