Monthly Archives: September 2010

Red Lentils with quince and caramelized onions

Certain events only happen in Lebanon. Case in point: Yesterday, the ministry of interior authorized a local company to shut down a major bridge connecting Beirut to a big suburb, for the sake of running a  fashion runway show, causing hours and hours of logged traffic jams. So while people were in their cars wasting [...]
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Candied dates with cardamom

What does one ask of a coffee shop?  Free wi-fi, outdoor seating with shade, really good coffee drinks and pastries, friendly staff and animation. In Beirut, there is Café Younès, which fills these requirements. Walking home after  some leisurely time spent there, I saw these fresh dates, (guess it must be the season), and was [...]
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White lasagne with vegetables

One who reads guidebooks about Lebanon will no doubt be informed of all the civilizations that the country has experienced:  Phoenicians, Greeks,  Romans ( hundreds of temples left behind) to name but a few; and of course the Ottoman presence which lasted a few centuries. However, there is no mention of the more recent Italian [...]
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Lebanese granola

It is a fact that American food products have become so prevalent  in Lebanon that one can find the same boxes of cereals, cake mixes and jello as in the US. The shelves of the  supermarket near my apartment in Beirut are  filled with every  cereal imaginable. Lebanese don’t like to feel left out, you [...]
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Fattet Hummus

This is a traditional dish and I believe it is specific to the Sunni communities in Beirut. While living in California, I became friends with  a Lebanese man. He and I  worked in the same building. His relatives threw a dinner party and invited me. This is the dish I remembered from dozens on that [...]
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