{"id":374573,"date":"2024-09-22T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-22T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=374573"},"modified":"2024-09-21T19:46:04","modified_gmt":"2024-09-21T22:46:04","slug":"the-arab-ice-cream-maker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/the-arab-ice-cream-maker\/","title":{"rendered":"The Arab ice cream maker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Alone and not speaking a word of Portuguese. That\u2019s how Arab-born Alaa Kaseem arrived in Brazil in 2013. Born in Syria, with Palestinian and Lebanese ancestry, he lived in Lebanon for a few years with his family, but it was after landing on Brazilian soil that he felt at home and was able to realize his plans. Kaseem became an entrepreneur and now has two Arab ice cream shops under the brand Al Kaseem Gelato<\/a> in the city of S\u00e3o Paulo. They were founded along with his wife, Luciana Tucci.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was always looking for a place that would welcome me, grant me citizenship, and allow me to open a business, and I only achieved all of this when I arrived in Brazil. Before, I was treated as a refugee\u2014now I am treated as a citizen, I can own property in my name, and I feel like a Brazilian,\u201d Kaseem told ANBA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The middle brother among five sisters, the 34-year-old Arab decided to open an ice cream shop in Brazil after meeting Tucci. \u201cShe was already working with ice cream when we met. We started talking, and I told her that I knew how to make Arab ice cream. I did some production tests where she worked and then started selling it to Arab restaurants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Arab
Arab flavors are featured in the ice creams at Al Kaseem<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Influenced by Italian-origin Tucci, the Arab ice cream<\/strong> received a flair of gelato, the famous Italian ice cream, and in 2019, it began to be sold in a physical store. The first unit of Al Kaseem Gelato<\/strong> was founded in the Moema neighborhood, in the southern region of S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for his marriage to Tucci, Kaseem says it happened organically. \u201cWe worked together for a few years, got along well, started dating, and then we got married.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very different from the ice cream sold in Brazil, the Arab ice cream needed some promotion to succeed. \u201cWe promoted our ice cream shop for a month, and by the second month, there was already a line of people wanting to buy the ice cream. Now, we have many customers, both Brazilians and Arabs, all of whom buy regardless of the weather.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Pistachio
Pistachio is one of the ingredients<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Kaseem explains why his ice cream is so successful. \u201cOur main distinction is that we make a natural product\u2014we use no chemical ingredients in the development of the ice cream. That\u2019s why it\u2019s common for our customers to say that our ice cream doesn\u2019t sit heavy in their stomachs, unlike what happens with industrialized products.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free of fats, colorings, or artificial flavorings\u2014that is how Alaa\u2019s Arab ice creams are made. Among the best-selling flavors are rosewater<\/strong> cream, orange blossom, pistachio<\/strong>, coffee with cardamom, date<\/strong>, and apricot<\/strong> with cashew and vanilla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As business grew, a second ice cream shop opened this year in the Jardins neighborhood, also in the southern region of S\u00e3o Paulo. The experience of crafting ice creams began during Kaseem\u2019s first job in Syria, at a candy shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was looking for a job when I arrived there. I started working washing dishes, but since the space was very large, I eventually got to the area where they made ice cream. Very curious to learn new things, one day I asked to be taught. I kept trying and learning until I was making Arab ice cream,\u201d Kaseem recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arab ice cream maker’s adaptation in Brazil<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite his experience in Arab cuisine, when he arrived in Brazil, Kaseem first worked selling water and coffee on Rua 25 de Mar\u00e7o, one of the most important commercial centers in S\u00e3o Paulo, as he didn\u2019t understand the language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the beginning, it was difficult\u2014I didn\u2019t understand any Portuguese. After a while, things began to change. I managed to work in some Arab restaurants, where I learned Portuguese and got to know more about the city. As I learned the language and got settled, I started to feel better, like I belonged here,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was in one of those restaurants that Kaseem met his soon-to-be wife. \u201cThe place where she worked, an ice cream shop, was a client of the owner of the restaurant where I worked. We talked about ice cream until I had the idea to produce Arab ice cream.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more:
<\/em>Syrian arrived as a refugee and got a doctorate from UFRJ<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Report by Rebecca Vettore, in collaboration with ANBA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supplied\/Al Kaseem Gelato<\/div>
Supplied<\/div>
Supplied<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Born in Syria and of Palestinian and Lebanese descent, Alaa Kaseem decided to move to Brazil about ten years ago and found in the country the support and conditions he needed to start a business. Knowledgeable about Arab ice creams and their flavors, he and his wife opened the ice cream shop Al Kaseem Gelato in S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2342,"featured_media":374660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3066],"tags":[11117,51012,51011,22644,9534,34485,4275,51013,16007,2267,48585,10647,14869,9611],"class_list":{"0":"post-374573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-al-kaseem-gelato","9":"tag-alaa-kaseem-2","10":"tag-arab-ice-cream","11":"tag-brasil-en-2","12":"tag-brazil-en","13":"tag-empreendedorismo-en","14":"tag-entrepreneurship","15":"tag-ice-cream-makers","16":"tag-imigracao-en-2","17":"tag-immigration","18":"tag-lebanon-2","19":"tag-libano-ar","20":"tag-siria-en-2","21":"tag-syria-en"},"wps_subtitle":"Born in Syria and of Palestinian and Lebanese descent, Alaa Kaseem decided to move to Brazil about ten years ago and found in the country the support and conditions he needed to start a business. Knowledgeable about Arab ice creams and their flavors, he and his wife opened the ice cream shop Al Kaseem Gelato in S\u00e3o Paulo.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}