580. Baobab Fare – September 14, 2022 – Detroit, MI

Delicious Baobab Fare! The restaurant on Woodward Avenue in Detroit serves up flavorful East African fare in an artfully designed, welcoming setting.

Baobab Fare is owned by husband-and-wife duo Nadia Nijimbere and Hamissi Mamba, who originally hail from Burundi. According to Baobab Fare’s website, their intention is for the restaurant to “serve as a safe space for other immigrants and Detroiters alike, knowing that it is a meeting place where all are welcomed and embraced. Baobab will help to fill a gap as it relates to African fare and culture in the city.”

That’s a mission I can get behind – especially when it’s being so deliciously done! The meal I had last month at Baobab Fare, the Mhogo, was SO tasty. It’s a dish Baobab Fare only serves on Wednesdays. It consists of chicken that’s been pan-fried, shredded, and infused with a mustard-onion sauce, yuca root, and the choice of either yellow beans or peanut-stewed spinach (I opted for the latter). I ordered a side of plantains to accompany it (because plantains are EVERYTHING to me), and an African tea with oat milk.

I cannot stress how wonderful this meal was! The chicken and spinach were rich and flavorful; the yuca, buttery, starchy, comfort-food goodness. The spinach especially had me exclaiming. How could something as innately banal as spinach be transformed into such tastebud-thrilling fare??? I don’t know the answer to that question – but Baobab Fare does. The accoutrements to the meal – the spiced African black tea and plantains – were just as delicious.

Sitting in Baobab Fare’s beautiful dining room, chatting with a good friend whilst savoring this marvelous meal – on a workday Wednesday, no less – was such a treat. Here’s to new-place visits that elevate the everyday – especially when they’re visits to restaurants with purpose, heart, and a talented kitchen staff! Baobab Fare checks all the boxes there.

6568 Woodward Ave., Ste. 100

Detroit, MI 48202

www.baobabfare.com

579. Lebon Sweets – September 10, 2022 – Dearborn, MI

Sweet Lebon Sweets! The Dearborn-based bakery sells kanafa, which I sampled during a stop on the Yalla Eat! food tour offered by the Arab American National Museum. Lebon’s iteration of the sweet-cheese dessert was rich and creamy.

The locally-owned Lebanese bakery also sells bread and other baked goods, including multiple varieties of baklava and maamoul cookies filled with date, pistachio, or walnut paste. Its sesame-studded bread stuffed with kanafa cheese and drizzled with sugar syrup is exquisite! Get yourself down to Lebon’s to try some – or order it online and get it shipped to you.

13743 W. Warren Ave.

Dearborn, MI 48126

(With an additional location in Dearborn Heights)

www.lebonsweets.com

578. Hashems – September 10, 2022 – Dearborn, MI

Hashems is a delight for the senses! Neatly-ordered rows of fragrant coffee and spices and candy in every color of the rainbow greet guests entering this Dearborn-based shop.

I visited Hashems as part of a walking food tour offered by the Arab American National Museum. Hashems was the second of the tour’s three stops (to read about our first stop, click here!).

I debated including Hashems on the blog because it technically doesn’t fit 100 Places in the D criteria. It dictates that I highlight locally-owned businesses in the Metro-Detroit area (Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties) that don’t have locations outside of the state. I made this rule to keep myself from highlighting nationally-sprawling chains. Well, Hashems has three locations in Michigan (two in Dearborn and one in Dearborn Heights) – and another in Bint Jbeil, Lebanon! But it is a family-owned establishment, and it’s not a corporate chain. According to Hashems’ website, Bint Jbeil is where Hashems originated, when Abu Ali Sheik Theeb opened the first store there in 1959. It’s the source of the goodness! And having a store outside of the state certainly doesn’t make Hashems some cookie-cutter conglomerate. So I’m allowing myself to bend the rules here, because Hashems is worth some rule-bending.

The Warren Avenue shop is an emporium of deliciousness, indeed! With its wide selection of fresh-roasted coffee and nuts, dried fruit, tea, hand-prepared spice blends, and candy (SO much candy!), shopping at Hashems is a special experience. During my visit with the Yalla Eat! food tour, I tried its tasty coffee, chocolate-covered fruits and nuts, and Turkish delight. I’d never before had the jelly-like confection, of which Hashems sells numerous varieties. I liked it so much that I bought a Nutella-filled raspberry variety: slices of delight for the road!

13041 W. Warren Ave.

Dearborn, MI 48126

(With additional locations in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights)

www.hashems.com

577. Super Greenland Market – September 10, 2022 – Dearborn, MI

Grocery shopping is one of my favorite pastimes – especially when it culminates in a feast, as it did when I visited Super Greenland Market!

The Dearborn-based business is more than an Arabic grocery store with a halal meat counter, bakery, and array of fresh produce. It’s also a vendor of cell phones, hookah, and tea pots; a café that sells fresh-prepared foods; and more.

I was brought to Super Greenland Market via the Yalla Eat! walking tour offered by the Arab American National Museum of Dearborn. The guided tour had us sampling foods at three locally-owned Arabic businesses on Warren Avenue. Super Greenland was our first stop.

Our Yalla Eat! tour guide, Rafat, gave us a comprehensive tour of the market that highlighted staples of Arabic diets, including mloukhieh (a green commonly included in soups and stews), yogurt, tea, and lentils. We got to sample fresh dates, which surprised me with their tartness and how little they tasted like dried dates! But the real sampling came at the end of our visit, when we sat in Super Greenland’s café.

“Sampling” is an inaccurate word to describe the spread that awaited us. It was a veritable feast! We got to try eight of Super Greenland’s prepared foods, including its spinach pies, grape leaves, and falafel. All of them were excellent! My absolute favorite was a couscous dish richly flavored with cumin, bell pepper, and parsley. In contrast, the rice pudding infused with rose water and pistachio was subtle in flavor but just as delicious. Everything we tried at Super Greenland (and on the Yalla Eat! tour as a whole) was vegetarian.

To learn more about the Yalla Eat! walking tours, click here. And to learn more about Super Greenland Market, click the link to its Facebook page shown below. Or, better yet, plan an in-person visit!

12715 W. Warren Ave.

Dearborn, MI 48126

(With additional locations in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights)

www.facebook.com/supergreenland

576. Norwest Gallery of Art – August 27, 2022 – Detroit, MI

Experience beautiful, thought-provoking art at Norwest Gallery of Art!

The gallery based in the Rosedale Park neighborhood of Detroit features work by contemporary artists, many of them African and African-American. The exhibit on display the day of my visit was Pray for Us, a gorgeous collection of photos and video highlighting mothers and their connection to and influence on spirituality. Curated by Detroit-based artist Bre’Ann White, the exhibit included a reproduction of the living room of her mother, Edna, who recently died from cancer. What a poignant display of love and remembrance that was.

Norwest Gallery of Art is also the steward of Womxnhouse Detroit, an artists-residency program that supports BIPOC artists who identify as women or non-binary. The program’s artists display their work in an annual exhibit installed at Norwest owner Asia Hamilton’s childhood home. The second-annual Womxnhouse Detroit exhibit is on display through October 23; learn more about it and purchase tickets here. If it’s anything like last year’s exhibit, it’s sure to be a powerful experience. Do yourself a favor and go.

And do yourself a favor and visit Norwest Gallery of Art! The exhibit on display there as of the writing of this post, a collection by Jamar Lockhart titled In Living Color, appears to be full of beautiful, thought-provoking art, indeed.

19556 Grand River Ave.

Detroit, MI 48223

www.norwestgallery.com

575. Mugs Coffee & Grub – August 24, 2022 – White Lake, MI

Mugs Coffee & Grub makes a great coworking space! The White Lake-based coffee shop is clean and bright; the staff is pleasant; and it serves a mean cold brew.

I discovered all this during a visit in late August, when a friend and I spent the day working our fully-remote jobs together. Mid-morning, we took a break from her house and popped into Mugs for some sweet caffeine sipping and community mingling. I didn’t realize it then, but this was my first new-place visit in White Lake. Yes, White Lake is now represented on 100 Places in the D! [Cue the confetti!]

Mugs offers coffee- and tea-based drinks, smoothies, and milkshakes with names such as Oreoh! and Salted Caramel Pretzel. A photo on its website depicts the White Chocolate Strawberry milkshake with its drool-worthy layers of strawberry, mountain of whipped cream, and profusion of white chocolate chips.

Looking for food-based fuel to complement those shots of espresso you ordered? Mugs’ menu includes locally-made baked goods; breakfast items such as avocado toast and fruit-and-yogurt parfait; soups; and customized sandwiches that include your choice of bread, meat, cheese, and veggies (and the option of vegan turkey and cheddar for our plant-based friends).

With so much to love about this locally-owned coffee shop, Mugs is most definitely worth a visit!

330 Town Center Blvd., Unit D 102

White Lake, MI 48386

www.mugscoffeegrub.com