- Here like if I want to come to your house, you have to have to call or text before and say- - Oh sure, yeah.

- When you are available so I can come stop by.

- Yeah.

- And in Egypt we don't have that.

I can like knock the door and open and just like make myself home.

My friend has a nice shirt, he just bought it.

I can just go borrow it from him and just use it for my date or something.

(lively music) - Hi, I'm Meg, Executive Producer at Nashville Public Television and on this series we talk about the little things that stood out to folks when they first moved to the region from another country.

Today I'm here with Ragab Rashwan.

Ragab now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, but is originally from Sohag, Egypt.

Ragab is a chef and business owner and in his free time you can find him reading, taking a walk, and even farming.

Today we're at his space, King Tut's, which is a food truck and patio.

And I thought I might start out by asking you about your experience bringing traditional Egyptian cuisine to Nashville.

What opportunities and challenges did you find?

- When we came to Nashville here, it was a challenge for us, even people warning me.

And that is because, no one is gonna know your food or even eat it.

So it was really hard to introduce people to falafel.

So it was like a challenge to tell them what this falafel is.

- [Meg] Yeah.

- [Ragab] And then my wife just suggest, like tell them it's a hush puppy.

- [Meg] Okay.

- [Ragab] It's Mediterranean Hush Puppy, - [Meg] Mediterranean Hush Puppy.

- [Ragab] So I mentioned it to the customer, "What is this falafel?"

Oh, it's Mediterranean Hush Puppy.

So they get it and they try.

- [Meg] They got it and they were like, "Okay."

- [Ragab] Oh yeah, let me try that.

- [Meg] Yeah.

- [Ragab] And it works.

It works.

- [Meg] And that's one of your most popular menu items, right?

- [Ragab] Yes.

One of our most popular items in the menu.

- Okay.

Can I try one of these Egyptian Hush Puppies?

- [Ragab] Please help yourself.

- [Meg] I've been looking at it.

It's been calling my name.

- Eat me, Meg.

- Oh, that's incredible.

- It's crunchy.

It's crunchy.

- And green.

- But it's got like the moisture inside.

I love it.

- I'm glad you enjoyed it.

- Thank you.

We'll dig into all this more later.

So I thought I might bring a little little Tennessee to our snack today and have brought some traditional southern sweet tea.

I imagine that tea in Egypt and the south is pretty different.

Is that fair to say?

- We heard tea from the British.

Since that we drink a lot of hot tea.

- Okay.

- No one knows anything, like growing up...

So I don't wanna drink iced tea or if anyone mention iced tea when I grow up, I think people will laugh on you or make fun of you.

- Really?

- What do you think you're joking with them?

- Yeah.

- So everyone drink really heavy black tea.

- Black tea, okay.

- Hot.

So I came here to the US and when I came with my wife to Nashville, they took me to some restaurants and what shocked me is like the amount of iced tea they drink.

- [Meg] Yeah.

- [Ragab] And every restaurant has like a big glass of water.

- [Meg] Oh yeah.

- [Ragab] On the table.

- Big ice water comes with your meal free.

- Also fruity iced tea.

That was something for me.

- Oh, the fruit, okay.

- For me it's like- - Like a peach sweet tea or something?

- Yes.

Like I can't tell anyone in Egypt like mix fruit with tea.

They're like, "What are you talking about?"

- Do you think it would be successful or just be weird?

- Mostly like, they drink tea with lemon when they feel like having a cold.

- Have a cold.

- But if you mention them like have it with peach or orange, or like all the fruits tea they use here, I don't think they will do it.

No, no.

- [Meg] Oh that's so funny.

- It's a big no.

- Well what time do people have meals in Egypt?

Is it about the same as here or different?

- Depends where.

Each region, so like the south, like small towns, they woke up early, they sleep early.

Like in the small villages, we will just like stay talking or visit or watch the TV until like maximum nine o'clock.

- Okay.

- And then everyone sleeps so they woke up five o'clock in the morning to start their day.

So these people, they eat their breakfast early?

- Yeah.

- And then, they eat lunch by like 11:30, 12.

- Oh.

It's kinda like here.

- And by four o'clock, they're done with their dinner or five o'clock.

And Cairo, big cities is different.

Cairo, you have your dinner after two o'clock in the morning.

- Two o'clock in the morning!

- That's exactly.

- For dinner?

- Yes, people stay late and- - That's the end of dinner or the beginning of dinner?

- No, the end of dinner.

- Oh, okay.

- Yeah.

So they eat their dinner between like midnight until 10 o'clock until like two or three o'clock in the morning.

- Wow.

- There's also another thing is different between here and Egypt.

In Egypt, when I took my kids to Cairo, they thought everyone is fighting in the restaurant.

- [Meg] Oh why?

- [Ragab] She say, "Why they're fighting?"

I told her, "No honey, they're just talking."

Because they're loud.

- [Meg] Yeah.

- [Ragab] Like when you are talking over in a coffee house talking about politics or sports team competition, "My team.

My team."

So you think like if you are walking in the street, you think these people are in fight.

- [Meg] That's just the speaking level.

- [Ragab] Yeah, the speaking level of the volume is really high.

- [Meg] Huh?

- Here it's too quiet.

- [Meg] Too quiet, - Too quiet.

- Like I'm not in the library.

What is going on here?

- Exactly.

It sounds like a library in the restaurant.

- That's funny.

- Especially when you go to like a fine dining restaurant, it's so quiet and just like I felt like I'm feeling asleep.

- Okay, that's such an interesting difference.

So food's one way that people connect.

But I just wonder are there other differences related to the way that people connect or hang out or even greetings that you notice?

- Yeah, like in Egypt, if you are in a restaurant or a coffee house, you can talk, you easily get to to know who's next to you at the table next to you and you might become friends, and you might end up, you are not paying for your food, they might offer you the food.

- That's very nice.

- [Ragab] They're really into each other.

When I was teenager, like me and my friends, we like take the transportation, the public transportation.

My friends can sit in my lap, I sit in their lap like (indistinct) fingers together, walk in the street holding hands or just- - That's just like a traditional way to be walking like that.

- Like when I first came to New York and I was coming out of the subway from Penn Station in Seventh Avenue and a guy walking next to me like at the opposite direction for this like escalator and I was smiling and he turned back and he told me, "Hey, I'm not gay."

- And you're like, "What?

Me neither."

- What?

Me neither.

So what's problem with the smiling to each other?

So there's one thing here in the US- - Different cues that people may- - And for man from a different culture, it is easy to have a girlfriends than having guy friends.

- Oh.

- It's really... You have to get to know the person really well before they can open up.

- You thought it was a little bit harder to make guy friends?

People are a little bit less open to making new friends?

- It's a lot of work.

- [Meg] Interesting.

- It's a lot of work.

- What other little differences have you noticed related to maybe customs or just the way you hang out with friends or families?

Is there anything else?

- Yeah, there's a few differences between here and there.

Here like if I want to come to your house or to my family, like in general, like a family house, you have to have to call or text before and say- - Oh sure.

- When you are available so I can come stop by.

- Yeah.

- And in Egypt, we don't have that.

I can like knock the door and open and just like make myself home.

But not with the strangers.

Like people you know like part of your family or- - Friends too, though?

Friends as well?

- Friends as well.

I can come to your house and just like open the fridge and- - [Meg] Yeah.

- Whatever's there I can eat.

When I was growing up with my friends, like my friend has a nice shirt, he just bought it.

I can just go borrow it from him and just use it for my date or something.

- Yeah, that's really making yourself at home- - And my shoes, the same thing.

I don't have money and he's asleep, I can just like try to wake him up if he's not, I just like check his wallet and get whatever I want and I can tell him that, "Oh I took Egyptian Pound 20 for my going out today."

- Sounds like people are really just generous.

- Then we call every mom as our mom.

So my friend's mom is my mom.

So we have really good open relationship for like being a family altogether.

- Yeah, your friends sound like family then .

- Yes.

- I wanted to ask you so, say that it's Monday your day off, what do you like to do just here in Nashville or in Tennessee in general for your free time?

- [Ragab] Walking outdoor or hiking or gardening, farming, it's really my favorite.

Nashville, Tennessee has in general good places to go visit.

So like Sewanee and Rock Island.

In Nashville here there's like Percy Warner.

Yeah, that is a nice place too.

I like going there because also it's like, I can spot owls and deer.

- Oh yeah, we do have a lot of deer in Tennessee.

- I saw a deer, like these things I saw in the zoo in Egypt.

I never saw something- - Oh, and now they're just, yeah quite a bit.

- Running around a wild turkey like running around here.

- Wild turkey.

- Remember I came from the desert, so we don't have any trees.

- Yeah.

- We have have a plum trees.

- Very different from here.

- That's the only one we have or farm.

But here for me, it's like a forest.

Something is really good to enjoy.

- We'll have to check out your recommended spots.

I want to hike too.

And I feel like we really need to dig into this.

So we should wrap up our- - [Ragab] Please help yourself.

- [Meg] Thank you so much for allowing us to be here and cooking this amazing food.

Excited to dig in and just appreciate you all joining us for this conversation.

If you liked it, please give us a thumbs up and subscribe to watch more videos in this series.

Until next time.

- [Both] Bye.

- [Narrator] "Nextdoor Neighbors" is made possible by the support of the Nissan Foundation.