These refugees came to Milwaukee for a new life, now they're sharing their food with us at special events

As temperatures dipped below zero on a Sunday in January, a group of refugees from half a dozen countries gathered at Amilinda restaurant, 315 E. Wisconsin Ave.

Cooking was the topic of the day. It’s a way for them to earn money while spreading the word about the foods and culture of their homelands.

These are mothers, daughters and sisters. None work in professional kitchens. Many are still learning English. All came to Milwaukee for a new life.

Cooking connects us. It takes us across continents and through time. Cooking is conversation without words.

That’s the idea behind Tables Across Borders, a series of pop-up dinners that will be held at Amilinda, The Tandem and Tricklebee Cafe on select Mondays Feb. 25 through May 13.

Chefs and restaurant owners Gregory Leon of Amilinda, Caitlin Cullen of The Tandem, and Christie Melby-Gibbons of Tricklebee Cafe joined together to create the dinner series, which will be held in their restaurants but cooked by refugees who have settled in the Milwaukee area.

Inviting Milwaukeeans to enjoy traditional dishes from places they may not know well, they’re also presenting meals you often won’t even find in restaurants, such as Rohingya and Karen cuisines.

Sharing themselves through food

Cooking is a language that needs no interpretation. Good food is good food. But when someone cooks for you, they are sharing part of themselves, their history, and with these dinners, some of their hopes. That’s something Kai Gardner-Mishlove discovered while working with refugees in Milwaukee.

“During several hours of home visits during the week or weekend, I would have the opportunity to experience the food of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Syria, Burma, Iraq, Somalia, the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and the dishes of the Karen, Chin, Rohingya and many other stateless people,” said Gardner-Mishlove, who volunteers at Aurora Walker’s Point Community Clinic and sits on the board of SEA Literacy Project. 

“All I could think of is how privileged I was to experience all of this amazing food and how unfamiliar the general Milwaukee community was with the food of our new neighbors,” she added, explaining that several of the refugees started catering bimonthly lunches for the staff at the Aurora Walker’s Point clinic, 130 W. Bruce St.

While Gardner-Mishlove looked into the possibility of helping refugees set up a catering business or food truck, the realities of adjusting to life here take precedence for most refugees.

Priorities are learning English and how to cope with the challenges of daily life. That includes school, employment, health care, plus navigating new neighborhoods and transportation systems.

“Often, refugees are working in low-level temp jobs with challenging schedules that were necessary to pay their bills and provide for their families,” said Gardner-Mishlove. “Some of the women were unable to pursue jobs outside of the home due to being caretakers of very young children or disabled family members.”

Burmese the largest group

Refugees settling in Wisconsin in recent years have arrived from various countries affected by violence, conflict and religious or political persecution. They include Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), Afghanistan, Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan and Syria.

Out of the 444 refugees who settled in Wisconsin in 2018, 277 were Burmese refugees who ended up in Milwaukee, the latest data from the Department of Children and Families shows.

“Most recently, Burmese refugees have been largest in resettling in Wisconsin,” said the department’s communications director, Gina Paige, via email, noting that 303 Burmese refugees settled here in 2017. “The way that Burmese refugees are being processed overseas and resettled in the U.S. does not distinguish between different Burmese ethnic groups, so we have no way of knowing exactly how many Rohingya, Karen, Chin or other Burmese groups are here right now.”

Gardner-Mishlove’s interactions inspired her to keep looking for opportunities to help the new residents.

“I wanted to find a way to open up avenues of entrepreneurship and employment for them, while also raising awareness of the positive contributions of refugees in our community,” she said.

She kept coming back to the food. To test the waters, staff at Aurora Walker’s Point Community Clinic began those bimonthly staff lunches featuring dishes prepared by some of the refugees.

Building upon the success of those catered lunches, she talked with Saehee Chang, a cooking instructor and owner of Kosari Kimchi.

Through Chang, she connected with the three local restaurateurs who were willing to open their restaurants: Leon, Cullen and Melby-Gibbons. 

Proceeds go to the refugees

Teaming up “chefugees” from more than a half dozen countries with the professional chefs and restaurant owners, they created Tables Across Borders. The dinners feature refugee chefs cooking dishes from their native cuisine. All of the proceeds will go the refugee chefs doing the cooking. The restaurants are donating their space, time and ingredients.

Starting Feb. 25, the series launches with doro wat and other Ethiopian dishes cooked by Abebech Jima with Gregory Leon at Amilinda. Jima, who now lives in Wauwatosa, spent nearly 15 years in a refugee camp near Kenya before arriving in Milwaukee three years ago with her husband, Zerihun, and children, Ebenezer, 7, and Kalkidan, 5.

Leon, Cullen and Melby-Gibbons met the refugee chefs (and translators) for the first time at Amilinda on one of the coldest Sunday afternoons in January.

Getting everyone together was no easy feat, considering multiple schedules, different languages and people spread across the city.

Gardner-Mishlove pulled everything together, including translators and ensuring that everyone knew how to get to the restaurant and also showing refugees where to park and how to pay for it if needed.

As Leon, Cullen and Melby-Gibbons met the refugees who would be cooking in their kitchens, they broke into groups to plan.

“None of this is about us,” said Cullen, owner of The Tandem, 1848 W. Fond du Lac Ave. “To move to a new place, not necessarily by choice, has got to be a terrifying experience. I am hoping a dinner series like this will take the people coming to eat and show them a different perspective on what we hear in the news. These are real human beings and they live here among us. I also hope these women find comfort in being here and cooking.”

Cullen added, “The challenges of putting this dinner together have to be less than the challenges of what these women have been through.”

Melby-Gibbons notes that in addition to Tricklebee Cafe being primarily vegetarian and vegan, it is also a nonprofit, which sets it apart from the other participating restaurants.

“We’re a pay-whatever-you-can cafe every day. People literally pay what they can or volunteer in exchange for meals,” said Melby-Gibbons, a pastor in the Moravian church and the executive director of the cafe. While she was concerned that the cost of this dinner series might be out of reach for the cafe’s typical customer, she’s also hoping it can reach new audiences while supporting refugees in Milwaukee.

“What guides me as a pastor to do the work I do and include these women in our kitchen is the whole welcome-the-stranger concept Jesus taught,” she added. “We not only welcome them, but make them feel a friend.”

Years spent in camps

The refugees’ experiences span the globe and often decades. Some are new to Milwaukee, like Yosefina Chirezi Paul, 34, who arrived from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018 with her family of eight. She spent 20 years in a Tanzanian refugee camp, and her cooking before coming here was mostly with wood. She’s had to adjust to Milwaukee winters and to cooking on a stovetop.

“When we cook, we always think about people being hungry,” said Paul. “Food makes sure no one is hungry, and food is a way to tell people things. We have delicious traditional food.”

She'll be cooking with fellow Congo refugee Nyota Musimbwa.

Rohingya refugees Shahidah Hamid Hussein, 39, Sharifa Sayed Ambiah, 26, and Hasinah Begum Ashraf Mia, 26, will be cooking together, highlighting dishes from their region of Burma.

“There are a lot of problems in our country,” said Sayed Ambiah. “There is a lot of killing.”

From the same region of the world, the Paw sisters are Karen refugees. They specifically refer to their country of origin as Myanmar or Karen, not Burma. Oldest sister Wah Nay Paw, now 26, arrived in 2010. Younger sisters, Say Nay Paw, 22, and Hai Nay Paw, 19, followed later. Hai Nay is now a student at South Division High School. Wearing traditional Karen embroidered tops woven while in a refugee camp, the sisters explained their cooking.

“There is no recipe in Karen tradition,” said Wah Nay Paw. “We just cook. Here we go to the Asian markets and the Vietnamese markets. We eat similar foods, so it is easy to find ingredients.”

Natasa Torbica arrived from Yugoslavia two decades ago and, based on her experiences, now works on behalf of other refugees. She will share her Serbian recipes, including çevapi.

Two years ago, Tahani Ghaziyah knew no one when she and her family came to Milwaukee from Jordan. When you ask her last name, she has to refer to her driver’s license to verify the spelling, as there is no direct translation from Arabic.

There are eight children in her family, ranging in age from 18 to 18 months, and Ghaziyah’s husband works as a janitor at a school. When asked why she wanted to participate in this dinner, and what she hopes people learn, her answer reflected sentiments echoed by all the refugees:

“I want to help our family, and I want to make our food,” she said. “Through food I can portray some images about my culture. We are protected here, and we are grateful.”

IF YOU GO

Tables Across Borders is a series of pop-up dinners that will be held at Amilinda, The Tandem and Tricklebee Cafe on select Mondays Feb. 25 through May 13.

The dinner series begins with doro wat and other Ethiopian dishes cooked by Abebech Jima with Gregory Leon on Feb. 25 at Amilinda. It continues with Rohingya cuisine with Hasinah Begum Ashraf Mia, Shahidah Hamid Hussein and Sharifa Sayed Ambiah at The Tandem on March 11; Congolese cuisine by Yosefina Chirezi Paul and Nyota Musimbwa on March 25 at Tricklebee Cafe; Syrian cuisine by Tahani Ghaziyah on April 8 at Amilinda; Karen cuisine by the Paw sisters (Wah Nay, Say Nay and Hai Nay) on April 29 at Tricklebee Cafe; and Serbian cuisine by Natasa Torbica May 13 at The Tandem.

Tickets for each dinner cost $60. To order, go to amilinda.com or call (414) 369-3683.

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More refugee food

If you want to learn more, check out these recent cookbooks and resources featuring displaced people and their cooking.

Syrian refugee Mayada Anjari raises money for her family and other refugees living in the U.S. through cooking. She shares her recipes and stories in “The Bread and Salt Between Us: Recipes and Stories from a Syrian Refugee’s Kitchen” (September 2018). She also hosts a virtual potluck.

Refugee Transitions, based in San Francisco, created “Between Meals” (2016) a cookbook featuring recipes and stories of refugees and dishes from Somalia, Karen and Nepal, written by Lauren Markham and Dani Fisher. Refugee Transitions' mission is to assist families in becoming self-sufficient in the United States. Available from Refugee Transitions, books are $29.95, order at reftrans.org.  

“Recipes Welcome,” published in November 2018, was originally the idea of a volunteer who spent time in Eleonas camp in Greece, moved by how the act of sharing food became a way to communicate across language and cultural boundaries. Members of Project Elea created a poster and displayed it around camp, inviting anyone who wanted to participate. In total, 36 different cooks representing countries across Africa and the Middle East participated.

The book is available at amazon.com. All proceeds for the book go toward the work of Project Elea to provide language classes, activities for children and other psycho-social support for the Eleonas community. To learn more, follow on Instagram. 

“Bake for Syria Recipe Book” by Lili Vanilli includes recipes and stories. Published in June 2018, this is the most recent addition to the #CookForSyria campaign, to raise awareness of humanitarian issues. All profits go to UNICEF’s Syria Relief Fund. This is a follow-up to “Cook for Syria Recipe Book.” 

“Flavors from Home: Refugees In Kentucky Share Their Stories and Comfort Foods” (University of Kentucky Press, 2017) by Aimee Zaring, an ESOL teacher who gathered stories and recipes.

RECIPES

Natasa Torbica came to the United States as a refugee following the war in former Yugoslavia, and she made Milwaukee her home. “It is important that people understand that refugees come here not by choice, but out of a desperate need to rebuild their lives,” she said, explaining why she’s a part of the Tables Across Borders dinners. “We hope that this event will show many that refugees are contributing members of our community, and they are our neighbors.”

She will be preparing cevapi, a traditional grilled meat and one of the national dishes of Serbia. Traditionally, cevapi are served with flatbread (lepinja) and lots of chopped onions and ajvar, a pepper-based condiment.

Ćevapi

Makes about 30 sausages

• 3 pounds ground beef (or a mix of 2 pounds beef and 1 pound lamb meat)
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons Zacin C or Vegeta (dry vegetable seasoning; see note)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Dash of garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda

In a bowl, mix together all ingredients; if mixture is too dry, add a splash of warm water. On a separate, clean space, form small sausages, finger length or so, then grill on medium-high heat until cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Note: Zacin C or Vegeta may be found at Middle Eastern stores, Cermak, D&S Deli or Family Grocery Store on Forest Home Ave. and Parthenon Foods on Greenfield Ave.

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This recipe is from Naw Htoo, a Karen refugee chef from the San Francisco Bay area. She learned the recipe from her mother.

The recipe (and Naw Htoo’s story) was included in “Between Meals,” an innovative narrative cookbook written by Lauren Markham and Dani Fisher, and produced by Refugee Transitions in San Francisco. Refugee Transitions’ mission is to help newcomer families become self-sufficient in the United States by learning English as well as life, job and academic skills.

The Between Meals project was made possible with support from California Humanities.

Kaw Swep Yo (Karen Coconut Chicken Soup)

Makes 6 servings

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (divided)
• ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into very small pieces
• 1 onion, cut into 8 pieces
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ½ tablespoon powdered chicken broth (bouillon) plus 1 ½ quarts water, or 1 ½ quarts fresh chicken broth
• 1 can (14 ounces)  coconut milk
• 14 ounces packaged dried yellow mung beans, rinsed 3 times in cold water
• 10 garlic cloves
• 1 package yellow Chinese noodles (spaghetti-like wheat noodles with turmeric added for color)

Toppings:

• 2 ½ cups vegetable oil
• 1 package (3.5 ounces) dried shahe rice noodles (can substitute any wide rice noodle)
• 2 limes, cut into 8 pieces for squeezing
• 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
• 1 cup chopped cilantro leaves
• 3 small red onions, sliced into paper-thin slivers
• 6 eggs, hard-cooked, peeled and left whole

To make sauce: Heat 1 tablespoon oil, the turmeric and salt over medium-high heat. Add chicken and stir-fry until cooked through.

In a separate pan, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat, add onion and paprika, and fry until onion is soft and translucent.

In a large pot, combine chicken broth (or water mixed with chicken broth powder) with the stir-fried chicken, coconut milk, mung beans, garlic and stir-fried onions. Bring to a boil over high heat. Lower to medium heat and cook about 30 minutes, or until mung beans are soft and begin to lose their shape. 

In a separate pot filled with 4 quarts water, boil the yellow Chinese noodles until al dente, then drain. 

To prepare toppings: Place oil in a wok or deep pan and heat over high heat. Drop in dried rice noodles by the handful. (Test first with a sample noodle; noodle should splatter oil.) Stir noodles constantly until crisp and beginning to brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and repeat until all have been fried. Drain on a paper towel.

Place both types of noodles, the sauce, limes, pepper flakes, cilantro, slivered onions and whole eggs in separate serving bowls. Serve by placing sauce over the boiled noodles and letting diners add toppings according to personal preference. Eggs go in whole.