To be a member
of this club,
you have to be Lebanese.
And this is Brazil.
I've just arrived in Brazil,
home of millions
and millions of Lebanese.
We have more Lebanese here
than in Lebanon. Definitely.
Today
there are up to
12 million Lebanese
living in Brazil,
which is especially crazy
considering Lebanon itself
has less than 5 million
citizens.
Brazil is like Lebanon,
and we feel home here.
Most restaurants
even have a sandwich
named after Lebanon's capital
city, and Brazil
even had a president
of Lebanese descent.
My parents
wanted me to get married
to a Lebanese.
I had no choice.
I'm going inside
a private country
club, a new ice cream shop,
and tons of restaurants
and markets to understand
how did this country
become a hub
for people from the small
Arab nation halfway
around the world.
My grandpa came at
14 years old.
He couldn't read and write,
and he didn't know where
he was landing.
He was supposed
to go to America
and the ship
just brought him to Brazil.
So he landed in Brazil,
not knowing anyone
at 14 years old
and making a life out of it.
And he did make a life
out of it.
Four generations
later, Catalina's
three kids
now go to the
same Lebanese country club
here in Sao Paulo
that her grandfather
first joined.
But not every Lebanese
came here by accident.
In the 1890s, Lebanese
and Syrian were fleeing
economic
and political stability.
Meanwhile,
the emperor invited people
to migrate
and encouraged Christians
in particular to come.
But to understand
just how Lebanese
this place is, consider this.
Bachir ice cream.
It's the national ice cream
chain of Lebanon locations.
All over the country.
They opened their
first location in Paris
a couple of years ago,
but now they have
a location here in Brazil.
Maurice Bachir is
part of
the family legacy
behind Lebanon's
popular ice cream chain,
which just opened its
first location here in Brazil.
Both of them are happy people.
Both of them are loving
and caring people.
Both of them do good food.
Both of them like music.
And both of them enjoy life.
They come here,
they see the same
type of culture.
They see the love, the food,
the music, the good weather.
So the similarities
made them stay here.
The Lebanese,
they suffer a lot.
So when they come,
they come to succeed.
They don't come to to play easy
They work hard.
They don't sleep.
So you can see that
most of the successful
people in
Sao Paulo are in Brazil.
There are Lebanese
we had like president.
This is called
the Beirut sandwich.
It's everywhere I go in Brazil,
like half of the menus here,
I would say on this food court,
sell this sandwich.
So it's hugely popular.
As history goes,
apparently this was started
when two brothers
actually opened up a shop.
They were selling sandwiches.
They ran out of their bread.
So they decided to get
this Syrian type
of bread
really excited to try this.
What's also interesting
is I've never actually seen
a sandwich
just quite like this in Beirut,
in Lebanon.
But here in Brazil,
it's become
a very popular sandwich
for people
so let's give this a try
This is really delicious.
And actually,
what makes it so
good is the bread
beirut sandwich
It was created by a Lebanese
who decided
to use the Lebanese bread
and do a sandwich
and call it Beirut.
You can find it
anywhere,
even in Non-lebanese places.
It's because of the bread
ultimately, right?
Yes, because of the bread.
And it was created by
a Lebanese
who wanted like a fast snack
in a Lebanese way.
And he went through it.
The largest Arabic
fast food chain in the world
is not in the Middle East.
It's here in Brazil.
Habib's was started 35 years ago
after a local met
an Arab
who is applying to work
at his bakery.
He was intrigued by the food
and wanted to make it famous
here in Brazil.
It's interesting
it's a lot of Arabic food.
You've got
well, it looks like
baba ghanoush, hummus
tabbouleh
Lebneh all just shown here.
And yet even the smells
are very kind of Middle Eastern
smells, flavors
coming from the kitchen.
This place is really popular.
I mean, it's a Sunday night
and it sits over half full.
Most places on the street
are completely empty.
So here
we come to a Lebanese market
where they actually
bring a lot of stuff
directly from Lebanon
so people can have fresh
products, fresh ingredients,
all the way from Lebanon
to Brazil.
And naturally,
a lot of this stuff
made in Lebanon.
I'm at this
beautiful, huge club,
but to be a member here,
you have to be Lebanese.
It's a link
for us
through Lebanese culture here.
We all know each other,
and my parents have friends
that they grew up with.
It goes through generations
like in Lebanon.
What keeps the club alive
is the generations.
We have the seniors playing
tennis all day long,
going for lunch,
showering here.
Then later
on, playing cards together
and the youth playing together.
Socializing.
Everyone have their
own space here in the club.
So this area is called Batroun
Beach Club,
and they even have this
massive mural,
this massive painting of Batroun
Batroun is a famous
beach town
just north of Beirut.
And they even have beach
sand people playing tennis.
It's it's
really kind of meant
to feel like your
I guess, you know,
escaping to the beach.
This club is so massive.
Not only they have tennis
racket ball basketball,
but they also have teams.
So in swimming,
in basketball and soccer,
they actually have a club
that represents itself
and plays with other clubs
around the city.
It's not open
to the public as a street,
but they made
they create this community,
they create this village
let's say it is Lebanese
village in Sao Paulo.
And your grandparents
go to this club.
Your kids also go to this club.
How does that feel?
It's amazing.
It's amazing
because you can see forth
generation of the family
coming back to the club.
So this is one of the many
Lebanese restaurants
here in Sao Paulo
And as you can see,
they put pictures
and they've got everything
you can imagine
from tabbouleh, kibbeh.
It's really quite
interesting to be in Brazil
and see all of this Lebanese
items on the menu.
But there is one thing
you probably won't
see in Lebanon,
or at least
it won't be called that.
And that's the Beirut
Beirut sandwich,
which I showed you
earlier, is also so popular,
and that is even on this menu.
So there is
food with a Brazilian twist,
or at least
a Brazilian name here.
So I decided to try something
a little bit unique,
which is a pumpkin kibbeh,
and I guess it's served
with some spaghetti.
Let's give this a try.
kibbeh traditionally would have
ground beef,
but this is actually vegetarian
and I guess it's pumpkins
so
it's really nice.
And yet they even play
Arabic music here.
Do you worry
that the next generations lose
some of their
Lebanese connections
Yeah, definitely.
Definitely, definitely.
Going on for a while,
like when I was young,
my parents wanted me
to get married to a Lebanese.
It was like I had no choice.
Now I can see that
they are getting
a little bit more flexible,
like just be happy.
But at the same time,
you can lose
a little bit of the,
you know, the family,
the roots,
when you go back
to Lebanon, man,
I used to go to Lebanon.
I couldn't feel anything,
any difference.
My kids,
I always push them
hard together
with the cousins
grow together,
know the family values.
You can get lost very fast
Today, Lebanon has fallen
into a massive economic crisis
with its currency
losing more than 90%
of its value and many
trying to leave no crises.
As permanent
crises are temporary.
It goes down, then it goes
up, goes down, goes up,
and Lebanon is our baby.
You have to
always take care of him.
And when he's sick, it's
now the time
to take care of him.
We will never leave.
Maurice regularly goes between
Lebanon and Brazil,
where he's now
excited to continue
his family's ice cream legacy.
This is the most famous
one here.
It's called Ashta Bashir.
It's an orange blossom
ice cream
with pistachio crumbles on top.
And it's delicious.
I had the similar one
in Beirut.
Reminds me of that trip.
So you're scared
at the beginning.
You don't know
what they're going
to think about.
It's different flavors
Ashta like Miskie.
They're like, What is Miske?
I said, like, oh,
it's Miske, you know,
they don't know what to expect.
And when they come,
they get surprised.
We want to give them like
showing them
that it's an old company,
it's a family business,
that Lebanon still have those
and we still carry
for those people wants to know
they come here to know history.
What where did you come from?
How how you got here?
Like why you chose Sao Paulo.
And this is so nice
because you share ice cream
and we share experience.
We share life experience, and
it's really nice.