People line up out the door for Hummus & Honey’s grand opening on Saturday.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
West Pittston mom turns passion for cooking, baking into business
The counter at Hummus & Honey.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Cut up strawberries, bananas, apples and other ingredients are ready to go into delicious Mediterranean treats.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Nisrein Abdalgani works on a Mediterranean treat.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Dyana Iskandarani, owner of Hummus & Honey, works the register during the business’ Grand Opening on Saturday.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
After working in the corporate tech world for what seemed like forever, Dyana Iskandarani, 38, realized she wasn’t happy. Eager to bring some joy back into her professional life, the West Pittston mom of two decided to turn her passion for cooking and baking into a side business.
“The difference between the technology world where I came from and the food world is that people are happy when they want to eat something,” she said. “You’re met with smiles rather than frustration because their computer broke. There’s not really any negativity. It’s really a nice.”
She named her business Hummus and Honey to represent the sweet and savory flavors of the Mediterranean dishes she grew up with.
It started with making bath bombs for friends and family during the pandemic. From there, things took off quickly and she started doing pop up events.
“The next thing I know, I’m doing events every weekend and then I have holiday orders and birthday orders. On Valentine’s Day, there was a line outside of my door at home,” Iskandarani said.
In an effort to expand operations even further, Hummus and Honey officially opened its brick and mortar location in Kingston on Saturday, at 285 Wyoming Avenue.
The grand opening event featured everything from fruit cocktails to the viral Dubai chocolate bars, while local vendors like Studio M Designs sold permanent jewelry and Calligraphy by Faiza offered henna tattoos.
Hummus and Honey will serve a wide variety of Middle Eastern foods and pastries including rice and chicken or lamb dishes, different flavors of hummus, Mediterranean cookies, Mediterranean pies, a fruit cocktail bar, and much more.
The shop has both dine in and take out options. Along with indoor seating, outdoor seating to enjoy the summer weather might be added in the future.
With the new location, Iskandarani hopes to create an inviting and inclusive atmosphere for customers to experience exciting flavors and textures they may not be familiar with.
Making all of her dishes from scratch, while using fresh and authentic Mediterranean ingredients, is especially important to Iskandarani.
In fact, she recently spent five weeks in the Middle East, visiting Jordan and Dubai, where she stocked up on inventory and decor.
“I also brought back authentic Za’atar, which is a Mediterranean herb blend, and some Sumac,” she said.
With extended family in Jordan and Dubai, as well as Palestine, Iskandarani often takes trips to the Middle East.
“My parents used to take me to visit family, and it was something I feel like really humbled me a lot because they don’t have a lot of what we have,” she explained. “They’re in need and sometimes I feel guilty just being able to have the things that I have. But it’s a blessing.”
Traveling to different parts of the world is a tradition Iskandarani has now passed onto her own children, Sami, 1, and Zara, 4.
“I want them to just know that there’s diversity in the world. I don’t wanna just take them over to the Middle East. I wanna take them everywhere, you know? It’s important to me that my kids be accepting of every single culture,” she said.
With Hummus and Honey, Iskandarani hopes to spread a little bit of that acceptance throughout the community.
“The main thing is that I want there to be happiness,” she said. “There’s so much going on in the world right now so it’s just important to me that we have a nice time here.”
