Enlarge Mato and Mirjana Lukic in front of their home in Plaza Midwood.

Posted: September 26th, 2009 Andria Krewson

By Aleigh Acerni

Photos by Deborah Triplett

Interviewed via interpreter Ines Pecanac Lukic




If you’ve driven through the Plaza Midwood neighborhood during the past several months, you may have noticed Mato Lukic sitting in his driveway on Matheson Avenue, behind a table loaded with vegetables, mostly tomatoes, for sale.

His wife, Mirjana, may have been nearby—tending to the flowerbeds in her front yard, or supervising from her front porch.

You may not have realized, if you didn’t stop to buy a tomato or two, that the Lukics aren’t your typical retired American couple. They don’t speak English. Only one of them, Mirjana, is an American citizen. Refugees from Bosnia, they have lived through two wars, been persecuted for their “mixed” marriage (they are from different religious backgrounds), and were forced to flee their homeland—mostly on foot—to survive.

“The life over there was hard,” Mirjana said, speaking through her daughter-in-law, Ines Pecanac Lukic, who served as interpreter. “We couldn’t find jobs. We walked miles and miles to get away.”

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Posted: September 25th, 2009 Ayofemi Kirby

The Crossroads Correspondents will be previewing restaurants for the Oct. 8 Taste of the World. For more info and to make a reservation, click here

Jerusalem

3145 N. Sharon Amity Road

Owner: Yahia Baghdadi

Chef: Abu Khaled

At merely 50 square miles wide, and found near the southernmost region of the Judean mountains, Jerusalem is the spiritual center to more than 15 billion people within the world’s most populous faiths.

With the richness found where cultures converge, Jerusalem offers a sampling of the region’s best traditions.

For those seeking a taste of the Middle Eastern city in Charlotte, its no surprise that they can find it at Jerusalem, Yahia Baghdadi’s restaurant off Sharon Amity.

He pays homage daily to his spiritual home – serving healthy, fresh food and offering genuine camaraderie to guests.

“Now, I’m bringing home back here,” Baghdadi said. “I have people who come here every day and if they don’t, they feel like something is missing."

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Posted: September 25th, 2009 Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman

The Crossroads Correspondents will be previewing restaurants for the Oct. 8 Taste of the World. For more info and to make a reservation, click here

TAQUERIA LINARES
4918 Central Ave.

Owner: Hector Trevino

Born in Chicago, Ill., Hector Trevino, grew up in a small town in northern Mexico called Linares. It's about 90 minutes from Monterrey and just about as close to Texas.

In the mid-1980s, Trevino (Tre-BE-neyo) decided to return to America. He started in Houston with a tacoria (taco stand). Within six months, though, several of his customer's vanished. When they returned, they told tales of inedible tortillas in Atlanta.

Trevino decided to find out for himself. He took 40 cases of what he calls table tortillas ("They puff when you cook them," he says. They're not like American chips) and sold them all within four hours.

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Posted: September 24th, 2009 James Willamor

A forgotten corner of South End’s warehouse district is alive with activity. A weedy plot of land adjacent to Friendship Trays has been reclaimed and turned into a community garden. Volunteers moved dirt, placed rocks, and built raised planting beds this weekend.

Collaboration between Friendship Trays, Slow Food Charlotte, and the Community Culinary School of Charlotte led to the creation of the Friendship Farms and Gardens in April of this year. The garden was built by volunteers using mostly donated supplies and tools.

FOR MORE PHOTOS, please click HERE

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