Detroit, MI

Saffron De Twah Brings Moroccan Cooking To Detroit

Published

5 months ago

August 15, 2024

Saffron De Twah Brings Moroccan Cooking To Detroit

Chef Omar Anani’s Moroccan restaurant in Detroit serves as his launching pad: expect two more ethnic … [+] eateries in the future.

Emily Crombez

Chef Omar Anani, who is involved in the James Beard Foundation’s Taste of America program, started with a food truck in Detroit, which led to his opening Saffron De Twah, a Moroccan restaurant in 2019. Indeed his restaurant was also a semi-finalist for the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2020. But why is it called De Twah and not Detroit?

Anani says De-twah is the French pronunciation of Detroit, which was acquired in the Louisiana purchase and Morocco was a French colony well into the 1900’s. Hence its name signifies Detroit’s history as well as the French influence on the Moroccan culture.

Anani, who was raised in Grand Rapids, Mich., and fell in love with cooking at a young age, graduated from the Art Institute for Culinary School, which brought him to Detroit, where he has been ensconced since.

To create food that was accessible for the masses, he launched a food truck, first called Qais and then rebranded as Twisted Mitten. It was one of the first Halal food trucks in Detroit and was financed by a loan from his parents, which helped buy the truck.

Farm to Street Approach

Anani calls it “farm to street” food because he’d buy local ingredients, and when he ran out of food, he’d run to the local farmer’s market to replenish it and devise new dishes spontaneously. Cooking on the run indeed.

Twisted Mitten flourished, which led him to owning several food trucks including Fat Panda Kitchen, Grill Billies BBQ, Un Poco Loco and a hot dog cart, though currently only Twisted Mitten is operating.

Catering Produces 50% of Revenue

When his parents loaned him money to buy the building to store his various food trucks, he turned it into Saffron De Twah. It accommodates 15 people inside, but has a patio space which seats around 75 people. Its revenue stems 50% from catering, covering many corporate events, board meetings, and graduation parties, 35% from the restaurant itself and 20% from take-out and delivery.

A Palestinian chef in Detroit is building a following with his Moroccan eatery that is leading to two new spin-offs.

He describes its menu as “Moroccan cuisine with African influences” so it’s more African than it is Mediterranean or Middle Eastern. Some of its specialties include the Moroccan chicken sandwich and Moroccan fish sandwich.

Moroccan Chicken Sandwich

Its Moroccan chicken sandwich almost led to its downfall. He describes it as a “massive jumbo whole thigh, brined in peppers, cilantro and seasonings, and then breaded with panko to make it crispy, then seasoned with berbere directly out of the fryer.” Then the Rising Stars Academy, a school for autistic and disable adults, make the challah bun.

Originally it charged $8 for this massive sandwich, but when the Popeyes crispy chicken sandwich craze started, customers, seeing its cut-rate price, were coming in droves to order 10 to 20 at a time. When they ran out of chicken early one day, they decided to retire the chicken sandwich, before it ran the restaurant out of business. Six-hundred people showed up at its retirement party.

Its Moroccan fish sandwich, now made with basa fish, and smothered in green chermoula sauce, is another best-seller.

And Anani is a chef on the rise. He’s developing two new restaurants, both in its existing neighborhood One will specialize in Palestinian cuisine, which will celebrate Anani’s roots, and the other will reflect its neighborhood, and will have subsidized housing in apartments above the restaurant for its employees.

The Taste for America program involves about 20 events in 2024 and 2025 includes walk-around tastings with food as well as 10 pop-up dinners. The events attract mostly foodies, food enthusiasts and fans of the chef, says a spokesperson for the James Beard Foundation

At the Taste of America event in New York City that Anani participated in, he served warbat, a cheesy bread pudding, which is how his family made it in Jerusalem. It included a crispy flakiness of its dough, a creamy filling, and preserved lemon for tartness.

“To be able to show case my people’s Palestinian food creates the ability for people to find commonalities and new experiences that enhances a richness in life,” Anani concludes.

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Detroit, MI

NFL less understanding of Jameson Williams than his Detroit Lions coach

Published

2 hours ago

December 28, 2024

Press Room

NFL less understanding of Jameson Williams than his Detroit Lions coach

Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams got a 15-yard penalty for taunting Chicago Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson for the second time this season on Sunday. The former Alabama All-American got the first during the Lions’ 23-20 victory over the Bears on Nov. 28, then picked up another in a 34-17 win on Sunday.

“He was great,” Detroit coach Dan Campbell said about his sideline talk with Williams after Sunday’s penalty. “Came over and it’s just, ‘Look, you can’t give them a free ride.’ He knew. It’s just, ‘Get it out of the way and get back on the field.’ And he was good.

“That’s what I love about him. He doesn’t get bent out of shape. He just said, ‘I got it.’ And he goes back in and it doesn’t affect the way he played the rest of the game. He was great. I love where he’s at right now. I really do.”

The NFL was not as understanding. Williams was fined $11,255 for the infraction, the league announced on Saturday. The NFL did not fine Williams for his taunting penalty on Nov. 28.

JAMESON WILLIAMS SCORES LONG-DISTANCE TOUCHDOWN AGAINST CHICAGO BEARS

Williams wasn’t the only former Alabama standout fined by the NFL for taunting during a Week 16 game. Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey, a former Hoover High School star, also was fined $11,255 for taunting. Humphrey was not penalized during the game for the transgression, but the NFL still imposed the fine after the cornerback held out the football behind him toward his pursuers as he returned an interception for a touchdown in a 34-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday.

MARLON HUMPHREY SCORES MILESTONE NFL TOUCHDOWN FOR ALABAMA

Two other players from Alabama high schools and colleges were among the 22 fined by the NFL for Week 16.

Pittsburgh Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (Alabama) got an $11,255 penalty for a face-mask penalty.

Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Colby Wooden (Auburn) got a $6,150 fine for an unnecessary-roughness penalty.

The NFL uses a collectively bargained schedule of fines to determine the amount of monetary punishment. The NFL’s Schedule of Fines also comes with a list of aggravating and mitigating factors that can affect the size of a fine.

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.

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Detroit, MI

Four Detroit Tigers Prospects Most Likely to Earn a Call-Up in 2025

Published

10 hours ago

December 28, 2024

Press Room

Four Detroit Tigers Prospects Most Likely to Earn a Call-Up in 2025

The Detroit Tigers saw an influx of young players push the team into a surprise postseason push. Next year could have even more prospects make their debut,

So far this offseason, the Tigers finally made a signing to address the offense in Gleyber Torres and have added Alex Cobb to the pitching staff.

Signing Alex Bregman is the last major move left to make before season that Detroit is projected to be involved in. After that, it looks like it will be on the farm system to provide any additional upgrades.

Luckily, there are a couple of top prospects that look near ready to make their debuts.

Lee is the highest-rated prospect on this list, as all of his peers above him in the farm are either already in MLB or are further away.

He spent all of 2024 in Double-A and posted a .298/.363/.488 slash line with 12 home runs and 16 RBI in 87 games. There could be a path to playing time for him at shortstop given how poor they have played there in the past. He could also just be a utility infielder at the next level.

Melton mostly lives on his mid-90s fastball. He had a breakout 2023 that saw him post a 2.74 ERA. That number ballooned to 5.10 last year.

He has great control of his pitchers, rarely walking batters, but still needs to generate more misses. He could be a call up to help out in the backend of the rotation at some point, where he can eat some innings if need be.

Bigbie was a 19th-round selection in the 2021 draft and spent all of last year at the Triple-A level.

Like Melton, he had a great 2023 but struggled in 2024. Two seasons ago, Bigbie posted .343/.405/.537 slash line with 19 home runs. Last year, though, his OPS dropped to just .667.

If he can find his swing again, he could become a corner or depth outfielder. His glove isn’t good enough to carry him alone.

Silva was acquired at the last trade deadline in a deal that sent Mark Canha to the San Francisco Giants.

He looks more like a bullpen guy than anything, making his money with breaking balls. He pitches well against both righties and lefties and is coming off of a month that saw batters post just a .120/.185/.120 slash line against him.

The 22-year-old won’t start the year in the Majors, but is a prime mid-season call-up candidate if he can find a bit of consistency.

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Detroit, MI

Comedian says viral video claiming lions loose in Detroit was a joke:

Published

18 hours ago

December 28, 2024

Press Room

Comedian says viral video claiming lions loose in Detroit was a joke:

Fake video claiming lions running loose in Detroit causes social media uproar

02:14

(CBS DETROIT) – Detroit comedian Jay Cotton says he started a bit of an uproar on social media, but he didn’t mean to.

In the video he found online, he claims 13 lions are roaming the city of Detroit. Cotton says the video has nearly half a million views since it was initially posted, with many people thinking it was really filmed in the Motor City.

He says he thought it was pretty clear that the video was posted as a joke.

“It was just me being funny, y’all,” he said. “Like, I love the city of Detroit. This is my city. I love y’all.”

Within days, social media users across platforms started reacting to it in an unusual way.

“Not enough people are talking about what’s going on in Detroit right now,” one user says. “Please someone explain to me how 13 lions are walking down the street in Detroit,” another user said.

Now, the chef and comedian behind the post says he’s sorry for anyone he may have scared, but he hopes this serves as a reminder not to believe everything you see online.

“At the end of the day, yeah, it was a joke, but people don’t really use their brains. If the news not talking about it, that’s how you know it’s not true … just go look it up,” Cotton said.

Terrance Friday

Terrance Friday joins CBS News Detroit from KDFW FOX 4 in Dallas, Texas. During his time in the Dallas Fort Worth area, Terrance worked as a weekend morning anchor and reporter for the FOX-owned and operated television station.

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