Today we’d like to introduce you to Mona Daiban.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am an American Yemeni currently living in DFW. I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. Growing up, the best summers I had were the ones spent in Yemen. Although it’s completely different than the US and what I was accustomed to, I enjoyed the rich culture, vibrant social life, and the authentic Yemeni food. I come from a family of amazing cooks, so I became interested in cooking after watching my family members cook. My mom made the best Yemeni food from scratch, including the Yemeni spices. While it was hard at times (due to living in a place where Middle Eastern food products in general were scarce), but she made it work. Whenever we visited Yemen though, it was a completely different experience. From the ready-to-buy spices, to the unique cooking techniques, to the spectacular flavors of fruits and vegetables, everything took my breath away. I wanted to learn how to replicate this delicious food, and so I gradually started cooking and baking. Fast forward to a few years later, I decided to take advantage of my bilingual abilities and start an Instagram page that shares Yemeni recipes in both English and Arabic. At the time, I was one of the few (if not only) bilingual Yemeni food bloggers. I enjoyed sharing recipes and saw my page grow. I decided I needed to do more, though.
A friend encouraged me to create a traditional cookbook. I was skeptical at first, but the more I thought about it the more I became excited. I did everything in that cookbook from the cooking, to the photography, to the design, to the editing. I had to redo the cookbook multiple times until I was finally happy with the layout and pictures. When I got my first draft copy, I was on cloud 9. The fact that I can now share recipes with my daughter is one of the best feelings ever.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being a perfectionist made this journey a lot harder, but every single struggle I had while writing this cookbook was absolutely worth it. A lot of the struggles stemmed from me being unhappy with the layout and photography, which is why I had to redo it from scratch. Something else I faced later on in the process is finding a suitable printing company with affordable prices.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am actually a technology advisor aka the person you call when you’re having technology issues (and who’ll probably tell you to restart your computer since that solves a big percentage of computer issues). Cooking/baking is just a hobby that I’m very passionate about.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My mentors are my family member. From my mom to my aunts to my grandmother to my father. They all taught me everything that I know today.
Pricing:
- $29.99
Contact Info:
- Email: Monasdaimah@gmail.com
- Website: www.monasdaimah.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/monas_daimah
- Other: www.tiktok.com/@monas_daimah
Image Credits
Mona Daiban
