The Mehanna family sits down at a small table in Habib's Cuisine on Wednesday evening, August 10, 2011. The family frequents Habib's and knows most of the staff. (James Tensuan | Voices)

Gallery: Ramadan in Detroit

By Kay Nguyen
Voices

Breaking fast after sundown during Ramadan is a centuries-old religious observance, but being a modern, Muslim-American family calls for modern conveniences.

Habib’s Cuisine in Dearborn, a Detroit suburb, fills every seat during this holy month. The average wait for takeout: 30 minutes. Oftentimes, people without reservations are turned away.

The eatery, in the heart of Dearborn’s Arab-American community, offers a Ramadan buffet.

Ali Hammoud, a waiter at the restaurant, said it’s all hands on deck during Habib’s busiest time of the year.

“We have to serve a huge meal all at once, which makes for a difficult two hours,” Hammoud said. “But we all work as a team to get it done.”

The restaurant fills to capacity — about 250 people — each night during Ramadan. Leaving the cooking to someone else allows families to break bread around a table together.

“It’s convenient, and it’s good food, too,” Fay Jamil said.

Families begin filing in about 8:30 p.m. Those observing sawm, or fasting throughout the day, may break fast after official sundown. The exact time to break fast is up to the discretion of each person.

Eating a date, plates of which are at the beginning of the buffet line, is the preferred way of breaking fast.

“A date is soft, which is good for your stomach after a day of not eating or drinking anything, and it is also what our prophet did,” said Al Mehanna, a regular Habib’s customer. “Having water or a soup or salad first is also a good idea.”

The restaurant’s buffet includes salads, hummus, baba ghanouj, a meat dish, seafood and side dishes like rice and potatoes — plus dessert. Servers bring lentil soup to tables, set up banquet-style to accommodate large families.

Recently, the Beydoun family from Dearborn hosted a party of 30 at Habib’s Cuisine, a favorite among the family.

Aya, one of five children, said her mother, Wanda, usually cooks iftar, the meal that breaks the fast. But coming to a restaurant once during the month of Ramadan has become a family tradition.

Because of the amount of customers each night and large parties like the Beydouns, even the host and hostess must help in the kitchen. Co-owner and chef Habib Bazzi keeps an eye on the chafing dishes on the buffet table and relays what is needed back to his kitchen through a black security earpiece.

“This is more difficult to organize than a wedding,” Bazzi said.

Follow Kay Nguyen @kaynguyen.

The march of technology and the economic recession have changed the journalism industry for reporters, such as Elizabeth Jia.

Working as a one-man band

Multimedia journalist at WUSA-TV, Elizabeth Jia shares her story

By Wesley Cho
Voices
The march of technology and the economic recession have changed the TV news industry. Many stations already have or are beginning to move their news crews to “One-Person Crews.” These so-called, “One-Man Band” or “Multimedia Journalists” are not only responsible for reporting and writing, but also for shooting and editing. However, there have been many debates over the issue. Some TV journalists worry about the quality of news because not everyone can be skilled enough to do everything. Others say Multimedia Journalists will raise both the quantity of news and its quality as well. WUSA-TV, Channel 9 is based in Washington DC and it’s the first station in a major market to replace its crews with Multimedia Journalists. Here’s a Q& A with WUSA-TV’s Multimedia Journalist Elizabeth Jia:

Q. Can you tell me a bit about your background? What led you to become a multimedia journalist?

A. I was born in Shanghai, China and grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. I studied journalism not thinking I would become a multimedia journalist. In college, the word “multimedia” was not a popular word yet. Then, when I was accepted into the Talent Development Program at Gannett, I was trained as a multimedia journalist.

Q. How has the station been evaluating one-man band production? Are they satisfied with the changes they made a few years ago?

A. Every reporter is expected to know multimedia skills in the newsroom. I think the newsroom knows that certain stories require more than one person to cover it effectively. So, it’s based upon editorial judgment (for example, some stories are less safe when done with one person such as traffic or weather stories)

Q. What are some of the advantages of being a “one-person crew?”

A. I have better access to different locations since the camera is smaller, and I don’t have a crew accompanying me. This gives me a chance to cover more in-depth stories.

Q. What kind of stories inspire you?

A. Human-interest stories or personal stories always inspire me.

Q. Do you see any changes in the future of journalism?

A. I think the future of journalism belongs to people who know how to effectively tell their stories online, print and in broadcast. The quality of journalism will improve as the online audience increasingly demands better and more thorough reporting.

Q. How much longer do you think you’ll be doing the job you’re doing now?

A. I am happy with where I am now. Right now, I am looking forward to earning my Master’s in Journalism at Georgetown University.

Photo courtesy of Ben-Fong-Torres

By Derek Lieu
Voices

Ben Fong-Torres doesn’t willfully keep things from his mother anymore, but she still has never read the eight books he’s had published. Nor the hundreds of articles he’s written over the years for Rolling Stone, GQ and Parade. And, she certainly doesn’t follow his blogs.

The son of two Chinese immigrants, Fong-Torres, 65, attended San Francisco State University in the late 1960s and became music editor at Rolling Stone during the publication’s golden years – a time when few Asian Americans worked in mainstream media, much less covering rock ‘n’ roll. Trailblazers have a hard time keeping their parents happy, it seems.

AAJA Voices spoke to the pioneer before the convention over the phone from San Francisco.

When you first started writing, did the fact that you were going against your parents’ wishes factor into the decision?

Being young means rebelling, basically, and that was kind of a natural thing. Once I learned that this was something I really, really wanted to do, there was just no turning back. There was just no way to say, “Oh, I love this whole writing and music and radio and media and all this stuff, but gee, maybe I should go to law school for six years, just to be sure.”

Would you have benefited from an AAJA-type organization in the 1970’s?

I was always up for learning about and reaching out to fellow Asians in media. The sad thing was that there just weren’t any. Nothing on television, just one or two bylines here and there. Bill Wong, of course, came along pretty early on over at the Tribune in Oakland. It was always good to see those names, and hear the occasional voice come on the radio, and identify it as an Asian. So yeah, the idea of AAJA, any kind of brother- or sisterhood of like-minded Asian Americans, would have been great to be a part of and get support from.

You’ve written about how free-form Rolling Stone was in the 70’s. Have we entered the age of corporate journalism?

[Rolling Stone] was much more free-form, but those were the times. … Now of course it’s all strategic from public relations people, or record labels, or movie studios, or network or whatever it is, who decides that it’s time for a story on so-and-so, and they’ll choose a couple of magazines and late-night shows through which they will begin to market that person.

Thirty years ago, obviously it was a different world, and so yes an editor could sit there and say, “Ray Charles! Why not?” That’s it, “OK, off you go!” And then you spend on and off, several weeks getting the story. Now you’re going backstage somewhere, given 30-45 minutes with a subject, and then you’re done … but there’s no point really complaining about how things are today. If you’re enterprising, good enough, passionate enough, you can get that story no matter what your circumstances.

You published your biography in 1995, and in it you mentioned that your parents still weren’t entirely satisfied with your career choices. Has that changed since then?

Three years after “The Rice Room” came out is when I started doing the Chinese New Year’s parade here on Fox 2 in San Francisco, and that’s when I think things improved decidedly for my mom. My dad was gone by that time. For her to be able to say her son was doing the Chinese New Year’s parade, that was a whole different level. These are the things that are important to parents. I’m just glad I finally found a job that pleased her, one day a year.

If you go

What: Opening Reception
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
Where: The Highlands, Fourth Floor
Highlights: Among the AAJA founders scheduled to attend are Tritia Toyota and Frank Kwan, both formerly with KNBC-TV News; and Bill Sing, Nancy Yoshihara, and David Kishiyama, all formerly with The Los Angeles Times.