While there are many national and international days dedicated to appreciating a certain food, a great initiative known as World Mankousheh Day was added to the World International Days, presented by Zaatar w Zeit.

Zaatar w Zeit, a well-known Lebanese food service with multiple chains internationally, chose November 2 to celebrate this day.

More than 100 bakeries in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights serve manakeesh, a popular Arab cuisine in the Middle East, also known as an authentic breakfast in Lebanon. Manakeesh come in various tastes, sizes and condiments; they are often referred to as pies. A meat mankousheh would be referred to as a meat pie. The most popular variant is the Zaatar pie, a bread pie with its generic name for a family of related Middle Eastern herbs: Genera Origanum, Calamintha, Thymus and Satureja.

The day is meant to celebrate the beloved mankousheh, just as there are days to celebrate other things like donuts.

Although this day is well known in the Middle East, to Dearborn Arab Americans it is unfamiliar and unheard of.

One woman told The AANews manakeesh are delicious and that she has tasted them before, yet she has never heard of a world day dedicated to celebrating them.

“I have had them before, but I have never known the name of the cuisine,” she said.

The mankousheh originated more than 5,000 years ago in Egypt, yet many other countries had different origins for the bread. It is popular across the Levant, especially in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan, as well as in centers of Levantine emigration.

Many people around the world celebrate World Mankousheh Day on November 2, but it is yet to become more emphasized in Dearborn and other highly concentrated Arab American cities.