Photo Credit. Patrick Sullivan, Times-News Hendersonville.

Nestled in a small strip shopping center halfway between Flat Rock and downtown Hendersonville, Pita Express is an oasis of Middle Eastern culinary delights with a Mediterranean flair. Owned by Lina and Mohamid Abuadas, each dish is delivered with a smile and is accompanied by a side order of love that infuses every plate of food.

Lina and Mohamid are Palestinians by birth and lived as very young children in the West Bank near East Jerusalem. But their childhoods were suddenly and dramatically upended in June 1967 as a result of the Six-Day War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states. In the months following the war, nearly a quarter-million Palestinians fled eastward from the West Bank and Gaza Strip into Jordan. Among those refugees were Lina and Mohamid and she remembers walking to Jordan with her family. “I was just 6 years old. I remember the jets flying overhead and dropping bombs,” she recalls.

Eventually, both families settle in Amman, Jordan. Their lives had been completely upended and the families struggled to reestablish themselves in a new country. “After we moved to Jordan we started a life with next to nothing,” Lina explains. “We were living on a piece of bread and tea.”

Lina was the eldest daughter and by the time she was age 10, she assumed many of the cooking responsibilities for her family. She had five younger sisters and three brothers. One brother was married and his family lived with the household as well. As a result, Lina learned early how to prepare food for a small crowd of people every day. “I was unlucky in a way. And lucky that I Iearned to cook at a young age.”

Mohamid and Lina met in Jordan and were married in 1987 in their hometown suburb of Amman. He worked in construction, building roads for the government; she earned an associate's degree in journalism and was a translator of Arabic to English for a major Jordanian newspaper. She speaks Arabic, English, Hebrew, and some Spanish.

Lina and Mohamid celebrated the arrival of their son, Ahmad, in 1988 and it was then that the couple decided to make a radical change in their lives. “We decided to change our lives 180 degrees. I said enough with living in a war zone and we moved to Texas just forty days after he was born.” After less than a year in Texas, friends of Mohamid recommended western North Carolina as a place with weather and four seasons similar to their adopted home in Jordan. “We came for a visit and fell in love with this little Hendersonville,” says Lina. The Abuadases moved shortly thereafter and in 1989 their second child, daughter Dalia, was born at Pardee Hospital.

Mohamid initially got a job with the Subway restaurant chain in Henderson County. Eventually, however, the couple decided to capitalize on Mohamid’s foodservice experience and Lina’s many skills in the kitchen to open their own small restaurant in the Blue Ridge Mall. Later they leased space at Blue Ridge Community College where they owned and operated Lina’s Cafe for several years. Finally, in 2010 the couple opened Pita Express on Greenville Highway where they’ve been serving delicious Mediterranean/Middle Eastern Food ever since.

Lina credits the unique flavors and delicious diversity of her menu to the many cultural influences from her youth. “If you look at the map you will see that all these countries are bordering each other. Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Greece, Turkey. They all cook the same way with slight differences in the spices - and they all share the same Mediterranean Sea.” Lina and Mohamid are committed to using all-natural ingredients, fresh food, and preparing every meal by hand made when it is ordered. The result is delightful. “Each meal has its own personality,” Lina says with a smile

The secret ingredient in each dish at Pita Express is not the locally purchased honey, sage, mint, sumac or "real" olive oil, nor is it the imported spice blend za’atar. The secret, Lina explains, is love. “Food is love! Food is love, and we try to spread peace through that,” she says.

That love has to emanate from the skilled hands and compassionate heart of the person preparing the food. “Two cooks can use the exact same ingredients but the food will not be the same,” says Lina. “I believe the chemistry in my hands is the difference. When you have love in your heart it comes out in your food. So food is love. If I don’t cook with love it will not taste good.”

Mohamid and Lina during a cooking class at Pita Express.

That love is evident in everything Lina does. In addition to serving happy customers, she offers cooking classes, teaches belly dancing, and teaches Arabic and Hebrew. “I am a teacher,” she says. “We are on the Earth to pass on our knowledge and gifts. God created us not to stay to ourselves but to share our experiences.”

Lina and Mohamid are practicing Muslims and that informs the way they live. When asked about the current status of religion in politics in America, Lina readily says: “We all have the same goals and we all want to live in peace — let our family live in peace.”

Despite their cultural and religious differences from the majority of Henderson County residents, Lina and Mohamid feel welcomed and accepted. “People have been so wonderful and supportive. They have been extremely good to us during the pandemic.”

Lina is also quick to point out that, despite being successful business owners, their primary motivation in life is not to make money. “I want peace of mind. I want to go home to relax and just say, ‘Thank goodness for the loving people, and the environment, and the scenery’”. She smiles and reiterates her life’s philosophy. “We are after peace. I want peace. I want to love people. I want people to love me.”

It is that focus of peace and harmony that infuses both her food and her relationship with her customers. A few minutes in the restaurant make it clear that many if not most of her customers are also friends. “I hear so many ‘I love you's’ every day. This makes me so happy. I want to rub this on people. We all have to smile. Smiles are contagious.”

Today Lina and Mohamid are grandparents to grandson Nizar in Myrtle Beach. But Lina and Mohamid are not grandparents that show any signs of slowing down. “I want to keep busy. I want to stay sharp by staying active,” says Lina with a smile.

Seeing the smile in Lina’s eyes and tasting the love in every delicious bite of the food served at Pita Express, it’s hard not to believe that if everyone in could eat at Pita Express we really might discover world peace. At the very least, everyone would have a great meal and leave feeling like they had two new friends in Lina and Mohamid Abuadas.

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What: Pita Express
Where: 1034 Greenville Highway, Hendersonville
Hours: 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 4:30-7:30 p.m. Friday
Info: Call 828-696-9818

Parts of this story excerpted from a previous story in BlueRidgeNow.