IN STEREO

This street is really for the Najajra [family]. The store is historic and it’s in our name, and the whole courtyard next to the oven is in our name. I mean, just ask about Mohammed’s oven. This oven is inherited [from] my grandfather, may he rest in peace, and my dad, may he rest in peace. [It’s an] old building, really old. One of the oldest. This oven is old, [from] about 150 – the Ottoman times, [under] the Turkish army. This oven is listed as heritage. Because it’s heritage, we stay working without stopping, you know? We’re traditional and original. I mean something that keeps its nature and origin as it is. I have five children, and one son I employ at the oven. To do a good successful job, you have to inherit it to a son.

We didn’t change anything. Beware of the hole. Left hand, this is fire. Fire, on one side. If you go inside to watch for a minute and go out, nothing will happen to you, haha. And this is on firewood. It’s stayed as it was: olive firewood; it hasn’t changed. And do you see the stone above? This is a special fire stone, big but heavy. Not like [others] that break. This stayed as it is; nobody played with it. I don’t let anyone play with it; they’ll damage it. They can’t make [anything] like it. I mean, it’s a bit bowed – the stone’s thickness melts with time. I mean, I could take a stone from its source and make it, but I’m afraid it wouldn’t work. This is a work of art, so any new thing you put in, it spits it out. It’s forbidden. – Abu Khader