Interview with Raffi Kradjian: Biggest Importer of Middle Eastern Food Products to the USA

0:16 brand Warehouse distribut Point of Sale Armenian super success story Los Angeles ra this is turkey and this is where my grandparents were born both sides my mom and father's side and unfortunately after the problems

0:46 they walked through the Syrian desert de resor all the way to Beirut I'm Rafi kajan Kian importing company welcome to my office uh it's El Shar uh we're happy we're proud that you are here and uh you know I would like to tell my story a little bit where I came from what I did and so on where I'm going to so I was born in Lebanon in Beirut uh and you know I I

1:20 was very happy we went uh to Armenian Evangelical College next to haian then I started my uh you know I graduated uh from the high schoool then I entered Au at the time because of the war two years all the graduates for two years they applied to Au so it was not possible uh to get into Au that was my first uh option but ta gazan took me as a business administrator Administration

1:53 uh uh it was good I was very sharp in accounting I liked accounting that's why I did business although my father Lebanese mentality says you got to be an engineer muhandis so to them muhandis was little bit uh better name rather than a CPA or business administration and so but uh deep inside I felt like I'm a mathematic and mathematical guy so I'm happy I did business because

2:25 Engineers I wouldn't have been here today if I did the engineering and anyways uh so during the war unfortunate that uh it made all the Lebanese travel I wish we stayed there because I miss Lebanon today I'll come later to that point uh I came to Los Angeles and uh in 1978 so I saw three years of unfortunate

2:55 Civil War and fighting killing each other and I regret that that happened happened I wish it never happened but you know politics so we cannot dictate or control the politics we are too small uh so 1978 I came to United States I believe still I remember the date November 27 I landed in LAX November 27th 1978 so uh I came I it was a little bit

3:27 relief because I felt I I was free I had the freedom when I saw the lights I saw the traffic the cars I said wow it's uh it's not dark like Beirut you know I was happy so uh of course I went to University to continue my education in Business Administration I went to California University uh University California Cal State

3:58 Northridge we call it State North rch I was an immigrant with no experience young so I wanted to go maybe UCLA or USC but the Immigrant it was the best and easiest way to get into uh Cal State northri very nice Business School uh you know so it was perfect for me so in

4:28 1980 uh only year and three months or four months after I arrived I will not try to show off myself but uh 1980 March I decided still in college I just finished junior year junior year I wanted to start the business and because my father was in the same kind of food business in Beirut Lebanon and it comes from my grandfather

4:59 where they start started u as a vegetable stand in 1930s 40s something you know as probably you know uh that my grandparents are survivors of the genocide and uh they came to Lebanon in 1920s and I'm very very uh very happy and I appreciate that the Lebanese government accepted us as refugees survivors of the genocide they gave us

5:30 home they gave us the most important Lebanese passports so we became Lebanese and uh I'm the third second generation let's say my father was born in Lebanon so I was born also in Beirut so I'm the second generation and we led the country basically we had the best time uh until I was late teenager but unfortunately the war

6:00 uh forced us to leave the country for safer place better education because we thought that fighting and we were not fighting against an enemy outside the country so Civil War it was killing you know Lebanese against Lebanese I don't want to get into politics because that's not my expertise so I left to come and continue my education but 1980 you know I started spending money

6:34 dollars Lebanese pound at the same time my father was changing the Lebanese Pound to Dollars and so on I felt bad that my father and my mother they were in Lebanon and we're spending dollars over here and I said I have to stop this I thought they were under risk to die any time so I didn't want to get any more money from beut or Lebanon so I thought I would start a business while I was a

7:04 teenager so uh I started registered Kagan importing company in 1980 March 1980 I called my father I told him look you have very big good relationship long relationship with cortas I said please go and send me a container of cortas well he went there of course my father used to distribute cortas in Beirut so he asked for a

7:35 container to ship it to his son I don't want to mention any name at the time uh they had an agent in Los Angeles by the name Phoenicia Imports Mr Michelle a I mean doesn't exist this is 1980 so the guy said uh we have an agent in Los Angeles we cannot sell to Los Angeles my father was very disappointed he called me the next day he went to

8:08 sentral to call at the time I told my father to go back to cortas and tell that you know they want to put their eggs in a in the basket of an older guy that he triples the price or they want to go with a young kid very energetic and he wants to definitely explode uh apparently that was the words were very important to convince the general manager of cortas at the time I

8:40 will give you the name Mr fadlo Ki we became very good friends we were so friendly that even he came to Los Angeles for my wedding you know so uh that was my start and uh since then 1980 it's 2024 of course we were very small player in the United States today we have at least 15

9:11 trademarks uh and approximately 25 exclusivities from all over the world of course Lebanon was our base but now definitely you know uh we are one of the largest importers of Mediterranean Middle East products in the United States probably we one or two top one or two I want to you know although some people think that they're bigger than Kum but that's okay I love them to dream

9:41 about it it's okay we don't talk we just perform because I always have this character that talking is cheap performance will give you the exclusivities you know uh good behavior good payments loyal and uh giving good results will keep your exclusivities for 40 years up to now cortas it's what 44 years now it still

10:12 we exclusive for the whole Western United States so many people they came with cash money they went to Beirut but they were refused because they said we are with kajian Imports that's it and this is happening with all my vendors in the in Europe Middle East because of our relationship most of these companies they don't give contracts but the word of Honor or the handshake is good enough

10:44 for us for 40 years we haven't lost any exclusivity we always added new exclusivities and today we ship to Canada all the way to Canada to Mexico to also Colombia you know not big business but our major business is in the United States it starts all the way from Boston to Florida from Washington State all the way to Mexican border in California we have a lot of customers

11:16 over 2,000 customers we have subd Distributors where the markets we cannot deliver to Florida for $600 because the cost of shipping is is not possible to ship so we sell subd Distributors all our exclusive products so they distribute to Little Mom and Pop grocery stores restaurants uh bakeries pastry shops so we're everywhere with our you know I'm proud to say that

11:46 1982 still a kid I registered trademark the brand name mid East and it came to my mind that I said I'm doing Middle Eastern products so I registered mid East in 1982 and since then of course it's our trademark then uh in 1990s I don't remember probably just after the war finished in '92 93 we visited with my wife to

12:18 Lebanon uh we they took us to jabel you know after the war you know they said look okay I saw uh we went to Old Town of Jael and I saw the ruins of jel I I looked at them you know when I left because of three years of war I was a very young kid you know so for me still I was too young to recognize full of lebanes I've been to South North you know balak and so on but I was a kid so

12:51 I didn't have that impression but 92 was excellent for me because uh when I saw the ruins and of of course they said I said uh this should be from Phoenicians they said yeah it used to be called biblos as soon as I returned to United States I registered the trademark or the name biblos and today biblos since 92 is one of the best selling Leb yogurt yogurt drinks you know all the dairy

13:23 products we made as biblos and you could see our biblos products all over the United States there is nobody that doesn't know the blue label biblo and it's we're very famous about this biblo brand of course we do a lot of different products we brought uh products from uh Bulgaria today like the m majuli musali and so on we all bring from a good friend kalasi Brothers in Bulgaria

13:56 you know again Lebanese and I'm proud to support them uh we started with kassi uh recently before that we were also bringing from Hungary again under biblo labels again Lebanese uh origin having factories uh uh in Hungary but uh we switched to kassi because of little issues with Hungary anyway so this is where we are today and I'm happy to say that you know

14:28 uh I'm adding like I said more and more exclusivities and the most recent one is Nar uh naar coffee is very famous in the United States we like I drink Nar coffee at home when I want to drink Lebanese coffee so that's the only brand we have it in our house for the last 20 years maybe of course we drink cappuccino espresso but always with after Lebanese food Nar coffee is is a must you know

15:00 espresso doesn't feel that uh pallet you know so last year I was in Beirut there was a change of that exclusive importer in the United States the company sold the business so Nazar company Carl Nazar and Alan Debo they were in Los Angeles last year they saw my facilities and of course they knew about the company and as like I said we're very uh well known in Lebanon Europe all over we got

15:34 probably 10 emails every month people want to start working with us as uh and they want us to Pro to introduce their products to the United States so uh we met with naar here and then in September I went to Lebanon and I wanted to continue our discussions after they saw our facilities in July of 2023 and everybody enjoys working with

16:04 us we tell them keep your feet in cold water don't worry about kajian and they do that anyway so uh they introduced the bites which is the Frozen line of Nar coffee of course uh they have the coffee they have Cita and they have the bites it was very interesting for me to start the Frozen line of course ner coffe is well known so it doesn't need

16:35 any more you know uh advertisement or something unless we want to uh increase the line which we are doing right now with them of course they had this idea of instant coffee like NES Cafe which is the most famous coffee in Lebanon n Cafe everybody wants to do n Cafe in the morning so they're increasing the lines and we are exchanging a lot of good ideas to just you know from the traditional Lebanese coffee to go into

17:06 Syrian flavor coffee Jordanian flavor coffee little bit lighter so that we can because you know Lebanese are not the majority in the United States I believe that as Arabs jordanians and Palestinians are the majority in the United States if I don't have uh concrete numbers but I believe that Palestinians and jordanians are the majority in this country especially in Chicago they are covered over there big in Los Angeles it's kind of mixed you

17:38 know in California let's say but uh anyway so what I'm saying is uh the coffee was there you know I just inherited from the other distributor that used to import for 20 25 years but after he sold the company it was uh my my chance to get it but uh they asked me to also you know buy the other products that naar owns Which is kikita

18:08 although I bring alamira for 12 years and I was very openly and transparent with uh naar that uh Amir has been in the market for 12 years we introduced from zero to very good number today uh they understood but they said we like you to also produce our second brand but of course the focus was on coffee Nar coffee and bites why I got interested very

18:40 interested in the bites because I see that this is excellent product to introduce it to the American markets so people at least they see our appetizers in the supermarkets American supermarkets first I introduce our products our food and they don't think that especially Americans who are not traveled well traveled they think Lebanon is a chaos they think that Lebanon is always

19:10 killing and kidnapping and whatever unfortunately well travel people they say the most beautiful country Beirut is Paris of Middle East Lebanon used to be the Switzerland of Middle East which still I hear this from a lot of Americans who are open openm minded but most of the Americans as you know they're kind of limited they think Lebanon because of the media you know they you know especially recently with what's going on in Middle East so that's

19:41 something that uh you know that has a bad uh reputation unfortunately uh that's the case but my purpose is to bring this product the Frozen products because those are like 12 or 13 SKS or different products and uh my goal is not only to sell to Middle Eastern people my goal is to take it to the mainstream and uh introduce this product in the American supermarkets so

20:14 for me I Ben there are few benefits of course I make uh good business number two Lebanese products are well known in remote country uh uh States not talking like Lebanon I mean Los Angeles or New York or Chicago the states where America we don't have too many ethnic people so Americans are not associated or they don't have any relationship with Middle Eastern or Lebanese people but when they

20:45 see our products they probably will Google and see who's what's Lebanon what is it and what do we have so this is kind of marketing for Lebanon itself and of course uh better economy for Lebanon you know to increase the Lebanese exports and better because you know Middle Eastern Market is saturated you know you can grow so much but we say that the American supermarkets

21:16 mainstream is the SKU the limit so this is where you can grow and uh my purpose is to take this uh to the next level and uh the important thing which I will say I'm proud of it and naar people they will uh you know agree that uh I stayed there like about uh we had three four meetings unfortunately or fortunately you know I didn't like the products at the time it was a little bit too

21:47 commercial you know to save money and so on practically I change all the recipes myself and I'm happy that they were listening to me and they Chang all the recipes exactly what I told them to do I like to work with people who listen and they say we support you I don't like people I don't want to work with uh companies who say no we're always right you don't know nothing they did change

22:20 the recipes and after the third meeting honestly I approved everything and you will see the product you will taste it and you will think that you don't need to go to Fresh bakeries anymore you could keep these products in your freezer when you have guests just take it out uh oven or microwave and you have 12 appetizers under the on the on the table so this is uh and the other product that I'm proud of to introduce

22:51 it Nespresso today is world famous but I don't want to be world famous but the rqua hopefully you know we uh they were in the market for what 20 years you know we want to start like a baby steps I want to in we also brought rqua which is something honestly I'm very impressed the way it works espresso is easy but Raca the way the it works the machine inside it has a Raa inside it's not like

23:24 a capsule you press it it's you know of course I'm going to show you right now how it works it has actual Raa then it goes in the water the coffee it mixes it takes a minute and a half to prepare the coffee it's not instant so all this thing that you want to do it at home it's done by the machine just you have to wait a minute or so then you have the best Lebanese coffee okay so this is uh

23:55 our new lines that uh we uh we got on board and uh my purpose is really to help naar we will help each other to grow this business and make this Lebanese products well known in the United States Leon

24:32 an amazing prodct J sparkling water from Armenia I love it I personally adore it we started very small in 1980s 1980 March that was my business license but my first container arrived in June of

25:04 1980 and I didn't have any employees I had a small Warehouse one uh truck and that was it uh today uh as I said we have after 44 years we have approximately 15 trademarks all registered for cran importing company some of the trademarks are like I said mid East be blow then we have Romeo for Italian products we have Ararat for Armenian products we

25:35 have also uh pindos I used to do the pasas halumi you know the best halumi used to be in Lebanon so I took the exclusivity in 1984 until they went bankrupt in 2017 so we lost pasas but immediately I made my own private label called pindos instead of pasas and a lot for the first six months it kind of you know uh uh people thought pindos and pasas they're the same because everybody love petas

26:07 but uh it was my right because they went bankrupt I didn't do anything bad to them they did bad to me because I was in Trader Joe's under Trader Joe's label with p's products under private label so it was very bad for me to stop Trader Joe's because they could not they went bankrupt you know they close the doors so pindos is a trademark as well we have Mediterranean Shepherds also registered trademark for cian pendos is for ethnic markets for

26:41 it's written in Arabic English but Mediterranean Shepherds is completely for the supermarket all English label because Americans they don't like to see Arabic writing for one reason or another I don't get to that point I don't have to but that's why I created a Mediterranean shepherd with a different packaging with seven recipes in the back so people who don't know what halumi is they will go back and open the sleeve

27:11 and read the how to use the halumi seven recipes and this was done in 2000 in fact I was the first to import halumi cheese to this country in 1984 1984 to introduce halumi at the time honestly except the Lebanese and not even Greeks and cypriots nobody knew but halumi cheese today halumi became a staple item in the supermarkets I mean I'm not saying that I made it but

27:42 apparently uh when Cyprus joined the EU in uh 19 when was it I don't remember exactly 1997 I guess so we had a lot of advertisement money uh to introduced halumi to the United States EU supported Cyprus because of that's halumi and they have a drink I forgot the name those are the two best exports from Cyprus so we spent bonati magazines we heard chefs to

28:14 introduce halumi and I was doing this with the help of Cypress trade office in New York so I would say that I am a Pioneer to introduce halumi to this country to the Americans but now now you know uh once the train leaves the tracks that's it you cannot stop it so but I think I I had the stepstone for this halumi business hos of course when we imported nobody knew but hamus I mean uh still we

28:48 carry hamus the cortas brand which is 99 Cents for 13 O but apparently Americans they have this passion to take a product when you introduce the product and they see that it's health benefits in case of homos a lot of protein you know somehow it was advertised like the Greek yogurt okay protein and Americans believe in

29:18 protein instead of having chicken because you know American Products I'm sorry to say that it's all uh uh it's not natural hormones they inject hormones uh the beef or the chicken and so on so people love to have to stay away from those if possible and they need the protein so they're looking into the vegetables and hamus that was the reason that it suddenly exploded business-wise it did very well the same

29:49 with yogurt Greek yogurt because they advertised as uh you know less fat or more protein Okay so so uh definitely today uh homos became a national item everywhere we used to go like 20 or 10 years ago uh for school parties or something they had guacamoli they had salsa they had all these things right now the first thing I

30:20 see is the humus on uh parties whether it's private parties School parties or corporate parties h is there the benefit to us was our tahini business uh grew five-fold and uh we are big today we are a good big importer of tahini we import from Lebanon uh canat brand and cortas brand and also I import from Mexico because

30:50 you know of the duty and uh because of economical reasons I bring from Mexico because it's much cheaper but of course Mexican tahini is not good but they made it after 15 times going back and forth we created a product very similar to lebanes tahini very close so today we're doing very well with the Mexican tahani because they picked the Sesame from a region that gives the same flavor of Lebanese tah 90% not 100% and

31:25 that Sesame is brought strictly for Kian and I approved the uh recipe so um we sell like I said all over the United States we have about 2,000 products uh most of our business is Europe from Europe you know because European products are consumed by Middle Eastern people and everybody else today you know we started with Lebanese then

31:57 the Middle Eastern population Middle Eastern markets but then Iranians became very uh important customer base for us afteri most of the Iranians came to Los Angeles today in California we count almost 1 million Iranians so I added products that Iranians they like so that was additional business for me then 1990 91 Armenians came from Soviet Armenia

32:29 when the Soviet Union collapsed and we have today about 500,000 Armenians in Greater Los Angeles area it's a good number five half a million Armenians and you know Armenians Iranians they eat well like Lebanese appetizers uh they're hospitable and so on so then we had also the Russians ukrainians Eastern Europeans uh you know we had plenty of immigrants

33:02 so we started catering to even Eastern Europeans so we're not only an Arabic distributor we are very International you take I always explain my business you cross you you draw a line from Italy anything from Italy to East to Afghanistan all these communities we serve all over the United States so it's not only Arabic you know probably also my culture uh I know about the European

33:34 culture and I learned from the Soviet Armenians that what Russians eat so we started bringing East European products from Romania Bulgaria Poland and uh you know all these products I learned the names ikra and Aika and all these products you know uh so we learned that today we have a brand name called Galina which is our registered trademark as well the reason I chose Galina because it's a famous I think woman's name Russian name and it's a beautiful easy

34:07 way to so I registered Galina as Kian trademark you know I went to Bulgaria uh for example in 2000 uh I bring big numbers of Bulgarian feta cheese and uh I was traveling from Factory to factory to bring the kashkaval and the feta cheese I saw uh a big mountain mountain chain and when we were traveling I asked my uh guide I said or the vendor you know I said what

34:38 is this mountain he says this mountain divides Northern Bulgaria vers from s Southern Bulgaria it's just the middle and it's a very long chain mountain chain I said what's the name he says it's called rodopa mountains I came back like biblos I registered rodopa brand today rodopa is one of the best selling Bulgarian cheeses in the country so ropa is our brand also then uh you know uh

35:11 like I said we have another product right now I'm very very proud that today there is a cheese called picnic probably all over the ethnic markets in the United States when you say picnic cheese they know exactly what it is it's from Austria it's white feta cheese that we started in 2002 2002 we brought in

35:41 half a container as a trial it comes in cylinders it's a ram cheese feta cheese I like the product so much that I said I'm going to make this a winner and I think that in the ethnic markets from the Russians to Iranians to uh Arabs to all the communities picnic cheese became Turkish people also it became the bestselling feta

36:13 cheese in the United States in the ethnic Market what is picnic what does picnic mean and we created this name I create well cran created let me not take personal credit the company although I was the one that came up with the idea it comes in a cylinder with a cap easy open and I thought this was like at the time probably up to now tennis tennis balls it comes in a cylinder okay this

36:44 looks like a cylinder first time I see feta cheese in a cylinder in the brain I said this is good to take to picnics you know you take it safe you open it and you put the lead on and it stays fresh so I called it picnic cheese although the factory who makes this product is called nordex from Denmark uh today picnic cheese became the leading feta cheese uh sales in the

37:15 United States in the ethnic markets not the supermarkets but ethnic markets Costco today buys this picnic cheese and instead of the ordering like nordex Feta cheese they order as picnic cheese so picnic became the description of this product and it we started in 2002 and I will tell you that all my competitors and my customers they love to have this cheese to buy from us

37:48 because this is a door opener and uh you can check in the market when you travel to the United States all over East Coast West Coast Midwest you ask about this picnic cheese they will tell you I said enough it's enough you know but uh Costco they have this product uh we are in all supermarkets as far as ethic markets big supermarkets also some of the American markets we are getting into the shoppr right in New York shoppr

38:19 right with this picnic cheese and the halumi she Mediterranean Shepherds because we're pushing our own products uh we as I said we have 2,000 accounts approximately we have many subd Distributors all over the country we had about 10 12 subd distributors in New York New Jersey whether they Greeks Arabs Iranians Turkish you know they buy from us we have a warehouse also in New York uh in uh Queens New York a public

38:51 Warehouse we Supply our exclusive products from there because we don't want to Port product to Los Angeles and ship it back to East Coast so from Europe all the exclusive products we storage in a public Warehouse in in Queens New York uh you know my all this little grocery stores as I said we cover from Washington to Mexican border in California up to Texas but uh in Chicago

39:24 Detroit uh Florida New York New Jersey Boston we have Distributors subd Distributors they're wholesalers they're also are importers but probably a little bit uh a smaller size of importers and all our products like biblo Leb picnic cheese Mediterranean Shepherds or pindo salumi and plus 20 items or 25 items more that are very well known they buy from us we have very good relationship

39:55 with our good friends uh as I said cortas now we have very strong relationship with abun family from Lebanon with their canah Andi of course I said Amir anuts this is the Lebanese companies I'm telling because I'm proud to represent them in the United States we have also Adon spices Adon spices we import exclusively for the West Coast we have Al waser olive oil Al waser you know we started

40:29 with alwazir in 1983 so up to now without the contract where there exclusive importers for the whole United States you know we sell we have also products as I said naar and we just started like basadi rice from kinor kinor is the biggest and the most famous brand in India although it's not well known here yet but hopefully within 5 years we make it the best selling

41:01 basmati rice called kinor then we have Lila we have also Greek feta colos you know colos with their Greek you know I have not only Arabic products it's all over basically my middle eastern business is only 20% of my total business but the 80% they're the European products uh but you know Lebanon is probably 10% which is big for a small country of Lebanon it's good enough I don't want to mention numbers

41:32 but uh whatever 100 th thousands of dollars or Millions that's something uh confidential for the company but probably we're one of the biggest importers of food products from Lebanon in this country you know uh we import also from Egypt uh we have a very good brand oh by the way I forgot to say today we have a brand name called atina atina I made the name atina rather than Greek name rather than Middle Eastern

42:03 because I thought we import stuffed grape leaves uh and I said Greeks Turks and Greeks they like this atina brand because uh it's it I made it more European I didn't want to call it mid East because I wanted to spread to the general Greek markets American markets and uh you know that's why atina is also Al registered trademark for kajian and today my products you could see in Jetro which is Restaurant Depot

42:35 all these smaller restaurants you know when uh they go to Jetro they have Midwest West Coast and east coast and we sell big numbers of grilled de plant for Baba Gano uh we have tahini there we have the atina eggplant and they all come from Egypt now you say why Egypt because of the labor but the producers are Greeks they opened a a factory in Egypt they're making the dolma which is

43:05 stuff grap Le and the grilled eggplant and arti chok of course in Egypt because of the you know uh the labor cost because in Greece is too expensive and besides from Greece we pay duties but from Egypt there is no Duty because of whatever they have agreement with the United States so basically this is it I mean also familiar Brands probably you know Sam Zahra flower G we import CLA

43:37 sem we import from Holland and we are very International very mix we have also uh sunflower seeds from Germany called tadim which is a very big item also you know we bring from Spain some cookies uh Maria cookies and digestive cookies so those are also good numbers so we're not only specialized in Lebanese products olive oil olives or something but we are

44:08 oh by the way we bring good numbers of uh olive oil and olives from Kura that's a big number we have couple of uh vendors in Kura and our brand on midi label the olive oil is very well known the olives are very well known and we choose the best and we work with the people that we believe that they will not cheat us we try them we make sure that they work very honest with us

44:36 because we are honest and two honest people can work forever if one of them is not doing well then the relationship will be terminated very very in a very short time so we choose the best fact uh vendors uh to to work with loyal honest and whatever they show us they have to ship the same product they cannot uh change the you know the the quality let's say that's very important to

45:07 succeed in a business people know that cran products on the shelves they call I've heard from hundreds of people they say Kian products they have baraki they fly off the shelves other brands they stay bizor they want to push it cheap B products bi products there is Allah from God Barak and know they go

45:37 it's not by Chance the quality people like it that's it you know that's that's very important for me I could be a little bit more expensive but we're selling quality warehous Ware Ware

46:13 warehous unfortunately not wow for Market [Music] [Music]

47:23 the double for perfect

48:01 so this is the lion that we talked about bites Frozen uh Lebanese appetizers very authentic very homemade style and this is like a teamwork between naar and kajan we did uh improve the recipes while I was in Lebanon and uh together we came up 98% home homemade style food homemade style so easy for the host at home if

48:34 they are doing any parties uh finger foods easy to uh either microwave or in the oven I prefer the oven because it gives you more natural and uh tasty uh instead of the microwave so uh these are brand new I don't think there's any Lebanese appetizer in the United States with this level and with this variety maybe you could see few of them to start with uh

49:05 some products here this is mini manushi z uh they use Lebanese z uh with a dough and uh it's like a what do I say it's it's a approximately 2 cm in diameter easy to it's a two by thing uh it's not we say bite but uh you can't have the whole thing at once so this is manushi the second item cheese

49:37 rolls uh these are beautiful product and the cheese that we use is mozzarella cheese with akawi akawi cheese or halumi akawi and halumi we added to the mozzarella or the cream cream cheese to give the uh the taste of the cheese because they are stronger cheeses and this is what we improved in Lebanon these are spring rolls uh

50:09 Chinese style or uh Asian style spring rolls with vegetables and uh if somebody feels like having Chinese food without leaving the house this is a good reason to cook it or to warm it up and eat it uh well this is the same spring rolls this is cheese sambus uh I mean it's self-explanatory you could tell that uh

50:39 it's a cheese uh it's only cheese inside and uh basically again the cheese we mixed it with uh uh mozzarella cheese with a little bit of halumi to give the uh the flavor this one is uh as you can see fat Z it's uh definitely uh uh it's a beautiful product and honestly I love it so much it's really really like

51:10 homemade I mean they they use the best ingredients and uh you know this is excellent product for if somebody wants the fat uh then we have potato k of course we cannot bring to the United States which is with uh because it's a USDA uh regulations I mean the companies they have to be USDA approved when they sell

51:42 uh meat so what we did is uh with potato and vegetables uh we call it potato K but has vegetables inside it's the closest to be that we love it all uh this is fataya spinach uh this is again instead of zatter it's a spinach it's a very good ingredients very nicely uh chopped and

52:13 used uh and this one is cheese manushi uh without Z it's only cheese uh two kinds of cheeses mixed together I'm giving the formula but malishi it's a it's it's a mozzarella cheese and either like I said akawi or halumi that to give that extra flavor so that we are a little bit different than the Italians because we want to be true Lebanese then uh my favorite to be

52:46 honest with you it's one of my favorites it's the kny honestly when you go to any uh pastry shop or Bakery to get knfe you don't have to after you eat bite then you have to eliminate that trip to the bakery this is like homemade it comes with the syrup inside just put in the oven uh heat it up and use the syrup and

53:16 honestly it feels like uh it's it's uh right off of the oven from a pastry shop then we have uh the dough basically this is ready dough to make the Samosa pastries uh we sell this also Frozen easy for you if you want to do your own recipe and the last one we have the uh spring roll pastry similar to these if you want to

53:46 make your own uh uh recipe it's ready frozen ready to go