Category Archives: tourism

Foraging wild zaatar

I followed this man, Salah. Zaatar is having a growth spurt this time of year and I happily accepted an offer from Salah, gentleman-farmer (originally from Egypt), to show me where and how to forage wild zaatar; there are several varieties of zaatar and this one is elongated and  called dukka; folks like to eat [...]
13 Comments

Yerba mate ceremony

  This past Sunday, I was invited to drink mate  at a lovely sheikha‘s house in the Chouf mountains. Mate is a green herb popular and traditional in Argentina and other parts of South America;  the Druze community in Lebanon has imported yerba maté  into their villages in the  Chouf mountains;  it has become an [...]
14 Comments

Erbil, Kurdistan

  I am spending a few days in Erbil (Kurdistan, Iraq) and  here are some snapshots of this fascinating city (and region). This is a quick view of the citadel. This impressive structure contains what used to be around 500 homes  and is presumed to be at least 6,000 years old.  The images below show [...]
12 Comments

Lebanese garden

This is what you could be seeing if you took a (very quick) tour of a garden in a Lebanese mountain village this time of year. The photos were taken at sunset, people were hunting nearby (even though they are supposed to be at least 500 meters away), so this is  just a sample of [...]
10 Comments

Ibrahim’s shop

Lots of Lebanese (like myself) remember the days when most of the daily’s veggies and fruits were bought from a cart vendor passing by; my grandmother would lower her basket, get the merchandise (basket was reeled to the fourth floor), inspect it, then negotiate a price with the merchant below.  It seems that these street [...]
11 Comments