She told me the owner, Deen Haleem, is Palestinian and often features Palestinian food on the menu. There are about five million Palestinian refugees worldwide, people or descendents of people who lost their homes in 1948, when Israel was formed. I talked to Haleem in the late afternoon of a sunny winter day in Maine, in the polished setting of his restaurant, Tiqa. Outside, the streets were busy despite the cold: Zagat has called Portland one of the liveliest dining scenes in the country. A member of a British paramilitary force, Haleem’s father left Palestine in 1948, taking his wife and children to Jordan.

Source: Forbes January 28, 2017 13:27 UTC