Itโs easy to cook meals like mom used to make when mom is cooking right alongside you.
Just ask Hiba Saab, co-owner of the new food trailer, Homemade Freshly Mediterranean.
A little more than a month ago, after a year of delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Saab opened her business, specializing in Lebanese cuisine, with her mother, Laila Saab.
The two set up on the northwest corner of South Pantano Road and East 22nd Street, amid the remnants of an old gas station where the popular local chain Serial Grillers got its start.
Saab, 39, said her mom has been teaching her the the proper methods of making Lebanese food since she was a child living in Beirut.
โI used to interfere with her cooking, but I got more serious about it when I was 11 or 12 years old,โ Saab said. โI got good at it eventually. She showed me the basics.โ
Hiba Saab, left, and her mother, Laila, work in close quarters filling orders as the owners of Homemade Freshly Mediterranean.
Those years of lessons are reflected in the expansive menu that Homemade Freshly posts outside of its trailer during its open hours every Tuesday through Saturday.
Offerings include falafel, and sweet baklava, a kofta plate, a grilled chicken tawook wrap and both beef and chicken shawarma dishes.
Saab said shawarma, slices of thin meat that are roasted on a vertical rotisserie, was her favorite food growing up.
โIt used to be all over the streets in Beirut,โ Saab said. โEvery time I saw a shawarma machine, I was pointing my finger at it.โ
This is the Saabsโ first food trailer. They moved to the United States when Hiba was 17 years old. Hibaโs work background is primarily as a medical assistant and a waitress.
The family moved to Tucson from Boston nearly two years ago.
โThe weather brought us out,โ Hiba Saab said. โIโve always liked Arizona in the movies. I fell in love with it.โ
Saab said a lot of people werenโt supportive when she said she wanted to open a food trailer.
โThey told me that I didnโt know anything about the business, that I didnโt have the experience,โ Saab said.
Her 72-year-old mom felt otherwise.
โShe was the one who gave me confidence,โ Saab said. โShe supports me a lot. I listened to her and I listened to myself.โ
Saab said she still has a lot to learn about running the trailer, but in the short time she has been open, she has seen a lot of repeat business.
โPeople are coming back,โ Saab said. โThat makes me happy.โ
Homemade Freshly Mediterranean is open from 1:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays, 12:30 p.m.-9 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays and 1 to 11 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, visit facebook.com/lailaandhiba.homemade
