Photo by Farah Shammout/The Gazelle

Four years ago, during my Candidate Weekend, I brought an Auntie Hanady’s milk chocolate chip cookie as my object that represents home. Now that I am about to leave my home at NYU Abu Dhabi, I feel the need to explain why I carried this cookie all the way here.

It all started on June 24, 2011, when we opened the doors of our family bakery for the first time. After six years of extensive market research, my family’s dream was finally becoming a reality. Hanady, my mother, had worked tirelessly with my father to craft the perfect American-style baked cheesecake. On the first day of operation, the store had five employees only: my parents, my two younger siblings Khaled and Abdulrahman and myself. My parents were responsible for cheesecake production while my brothers and I handled customer service. I clearly remember feeling much older than 17 as I learned how to punch customers’ orders on the cashier. Meanwhile, my 15-year-old and 13-year-old brothers packaged customers’ orders. We felt intimidated by grumpy customers, but were also flattered upon hearing compliments from the friendly ones.

Thankfully, the business turned out to be a success, and I now wish that I could go back to being an employee there. Every time I go back home, I notice how my brothers are becoming experts at what they do: balancing trays full of drinks and plates on each of their hands, drawing a smile on a grumpy customer’s face and managing to deal with unexpected plumbing accidents. Khaled, now 18, tries to impress me with his fast service, while Abdulrahman, now 16, is specialized in latte foam art and serves me a welcome-home cappuccino with a smiley face on top every time I go back.

Photo From Auntie Hanady's Cheesecake

Our bakery is more than just a business; it has become an essential part of our daily life and has imprinted many rituals onto our family’s character. We can’t dig into any cheesecake that we bring home before my mom tests it with the index finger of her right hand. She then draws upon her experience to try and guess the ingredients of the cheesecake before even tasting it. What’s most ironic is that cheesecake is her least favorite dessert. The best part is when she turns the kitchen into a creative laboratory of flavors that produces new creations, and we are the first ones who get to try them.

Evaluating the products of my mom’s experiments can sometimes become especially challenging. The Milk Chocolate Chip cookies are the toughest: Is it chewy enough? How fast does its taste dissolve in your mouth? Do you feel its sweetness in the back of your throat? These are among the many questions that I now automatically think of whenever I am eating any chocolate chip cookie. My mom then labels and edits the recipe and marks the newer and enhanced version; we have probably now reached Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies Version 10.1.

Many phrases and words have become a part of our family conversations. Sporkit, sporkit, sporkit, sporkit... Does it stick in your mind? My dad kept asking for three months, as he was working on finding a name for a new product: the Sporkit. The idea is that the product requires you to eat it using a spork, due to its creamy center that is surrounded by moist cake.

I know it's almost time to go to sleep when I hear my mom ask my brother, “Did you lock the backdoor? Hide its key,” once he returns from his night shift.

We all know my mom would get upset when the day ends with an unbalanced inventory: a surplus of two slices of peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake and a shortage of one white chocolate raspberry cookie.

But my brothers always have their own personal conversations, as they discuss the chronicles of their day: “Bro, this man tipped me two JDs today, after I served him his Arabic coffee.” The most amusing part is my brothers’ weekly fight over who is doing the Thursday evening shift.

Photo from Auntie Hanady's Cheesecake

Although I miss out on my family’s cheesecake conversations while I am away from home, I stay involved in their WhatsApp group by spamming them with pictures of all the cheesecakes that I encounter during my travels. The first thing I Google whenever I land in a new city is the city’s best baked cheesecake. I go to the store, and first take pictures of its cheesecake displays. I then order the original cheesecake and begin the intricate analysis process by taking close-ups of the biscuit crust, toppings, whipped cream and the texture of the cheese. Finally, I report to my parents a cost vs. indulgence analysis summary of my experience.

If I am leaving home for Abu Dhabi, I make sure to bring with me a dozen or two cookies. My dorm room is therefore always full of empty boxes from Auntie Hanady’s that remind me of home. Sometimes when I am feeling very adventurous, I even carry frozen cheesecakes in my carry-on luggage. Therefore, whenever someone asks me for top destinations in Jordan, the first one I recommend is — obviously  — Auntie Hanady’s Cheesecake and Cookies.