"BEST-TEAS", A DEDICATION FROM EVAN KLEIMAN

“Best-Teas”, by Evan Kleiman,

Advisory Board, Miry’s List

The aroma of the brewing tea leaves, the feeling of that warm cup in your hand, that first tentative sip, it’s the mark of home and hospitality.

In my work as a chef, restaurateur and host to KCRW’s Good Food, I’ve spent basically my entire adult life trying to create connections between people through food.

On my show we talk a lot about making fabulous food for one another and getting the hard-to-get reservation at the hippest restaurants. But deep down, that’s really not what it’s about for me.

It’s really about creating hospitality in our lives. It is about welcoming people, however we’re able, in whatever space we’re in at any given time.

Several years ago, I had closed my restaurant and I was feeling a bit adrift. I had some friends who were opening a restaurant and they were looking for staff and having a hard time. I remembered I had read about an event that was happening in the backyard of somebody’s house in Los Angeles. An event to welcome newcomers into our community. It was called the New Arrival Supper Club (the very first one!) and for some unknown reason I felt compelled to go. I’m so glad I did. I brought my friends because I thought maybe they could meet a young person who needed a job. And in fact, they did! They ended up hiring a young man they met that day with whom they have had a long relationship.

That was the day I met Miry. And here’s what it’s like to meet Miry: It’s

like meeting a force of nature. She’s someone who has such belief and trust in all of us that we’re going to do the right thing for the right reasons.

I immediately began shopping the lists. I loved the idea that I could create a connection with no middle person. Such a profound and simple way of connecting. I knew that Syrian families who were coming to a new place would want to have the food of their home. And that would involve Kibbeh . And to make Kibbeh, you need a good meat grinder, for falafel, too…a meat grinder is a must.

I noticed on the lists that meat grinders were kind of expensive and nobody was really buying them. This called to me and I thought, I’m going to make this my mission. Whenever I’m able, I will go on a list and I’ll buy a meat grinder for somebody.

As time went on, I noticed I was even more drawn to the list whenever I personally felt alone or isolated. I would go onto the lists and read about the families and see what was left. This is just a miracle, such a wonderful thing. Who doesn’t love shopping for somebody else?

While I browse the lists, there’s a connection I feel to people I’ve never met. I can purchase something as simple as a tea kettle, for example, along with some cups

and silverware. And then a family is able to make tea, even if they don’t have furniture or all of their cooking equipment yet.

I really understand what tea means for many families. It’s not just a beverage. For millions of people across the globe, the aroma of the brewing tea leaves, the feeling of that warm cup in your hand, that first tentative sip, it’s the mark of home and hospitality.

As I press that little “purchase” button, I go off into a fantasy reverie, much like what happens when you buy a lottery ticket and you get to spend two or three minutes in your car dreaming about what you’ll do with the wealth that will come to you.

I dream about how boxes arrive to people who I’ve never met. How

they go to the door, or maybe the children go and open the door. And there waiting for them is a present from somebody they’ve never seen, from a state far away from them.

I imagine them opening the box, finding a tea kettle, rinsing it out, filling it up with fresh water, bringing it to boil, finding some tea leaves, and throwing it in a teapot then pouring the boiling water over the leaves. The aroma fills the air of a house that may not even be furnished yet. The opportunity to give somebody this moment of exhalation, that feeling like they’re at home…that’s everything.

Thank you for being here for new arrival families.