Behemoth

The frisson of associating with poverty? Kidding. Just kidding.

Fair enough. Hopefully one day I'll get a chance to visit and test the theory in person

I really don't see why a non-Arab can't learn to make a decent plate of hummus. Sure the quality of the olive oil matters, but it's not like Arabs have cornered the market on good olive oil. Frankly the best hummus I ever had was made by a Japanese cook in a Greek restaurant (and for what it's worth I come from a long line of good Arab cooks...) Daniel, I really am a big fan of your writing and I certainly don't mean this to be directed at you personally as it is something I have come across many times, but to be honest, I never realized there was such a fetishization of hummus until I left Lebanon, and frankly it has always struck me as a little...condescending I guess is the word that comes to mind first. edit: I don't think I was clear in my original post -- I meant that the ingredients that are needed to make a good plate of hummus are generally available to anyone who seeks them, unlike, say, the ingredients needed to duplicate a dish out of the French Laundry cookbook.

RLB recommends chilling the whole thing before baking and then setting it directly on the hot oven floor or bread stone to bake. The idea being that the crust crisps up before the fruit has a chance to get warm.

Scrod.

Also to answer Daniel's question: interestingly enough there were several "fancy" Lebanese places in Hamburg. As a Lebanese I found it rather amusing to receive my mezza in the form of a tasting menu, but those places seem to do quite well. For whatever that's worth. In any case in Hamburg it just seems like French food is associated with fusty stuff your parents like to eat, so there is more enthusiasm for chic places that offer other types of cuisine. I haven't seen truly upscale Arabic/North African food in the States, but then mostly in the US upscale still almost inevitably means French. (it's slowly changing, and there are exceptions in serious food cities like NY or Chicago, but generally it still seems to hold true.)

Daniel, not to hijack this thread, but since we're talking about perceptions of culture through food, do you think this is really true? It seems like hummus is one of those foods that depends less on the quality of the ingredients than on the technique and would therefore be easy to duplicate well. I am just asking because at one point we had a big discussion of that here. I would love to hear your take on it.

This might puts things in context: LINK (NYT, registration required but oh so worth it.)

While I realize this post will be deleted as soon as Elie wakes up, I just have to say this. 1) Almass, this thread is very clearly a very idiosyncratic account of one person's family in one part of Lebanon at a particular time, as filtered through the memory of that one particular person. I have been very clear about this. 2) You should know more than anyone that Lebanese are not a bunch of benighted natives out of a National Georaphic. We travel a lot, we read a lot, and hence hybrid foods like, say, croissants with zaatar have indeed become so much a part of the landscape that for someone of my age they are simply Lebanese now, albeit with a traceable history. Arguing about what is "genuine" in such a fluid culture as ours is mildly interesting when done contructively but completely pointless (not to mention boring) on this thread. Becuase, as I said, it is one person's account of how that one person's family did things. Sorry we don't fit the textbook definitions you've apparently been reading, but few of the people I met do these days. 3) Nobody is reading this as an account of "THE FOODS OF LEBANON" capital letters, but rather "The foods that Nadia remembers having, growing up in Lebanon". For some reason everyone else seems to have understood that. The authenticity argument is being debated on another thread, and it is boring enough over there. Over here nobody really gives a shit.

Maybe not, but I have some pretty deep roots in Philly, too. I will say, however, that merging onto the Schuylkill expressway was the closest experience to driving in Beirut that I've ever had outside of Lebanon.

So they too are hard and prickly on the outside and soft in the middle? I'm really enjoying your stories and pictures. Thanks so much for sharing them. ← Prickly is a common feature in that part of the world I guess Actually, Almass is right about the name...sabbair is the cactus, whereas sabr (looking at Larousse arabic) apparently refers to aloe. I thought sabbair was just the name in Levantine dialect, but apparently it is the "standard arabic" name too. In any case, the derivation is the same. "Sabr" means patience in arabic, so sabbair means "patient plant", presumably because it can do without water for so long. At least that's what Larousse says. Does anyone know if it has the same meaning in Hebrew?

I have eaten Enchiladas in Lebanon even though as far as I know they are also not a Lebanese dish and there is no Lebanese recipes for those either. Perhaps my uncle read about the Tunisian dish, decided to give it a whirl, and it became a family favorite. Who knows. I'm really not sure what point you're trying to make here, or if you're just being cranky.

Priscilla, Paula Wolfert has a cactus paddle recipe from Tunisia in her cookbook Mediterranean Grains and Greens. From what I've read I don't see where Lebanese and Tunisian cactus paddles differ, but I will need to ask around. edited to add link for the curious.

Almass, my memory may be playing tricks on me about the paddles (I'll ask my dad tomorrow), though I really do remember eating them blanched, with the standard lemon and olive oil dressing. Maybe a different variety? Anyway, I went back and looked in Chef Ramzi's book (Min Tourath Lubnan, Arabic edition, page 544) and he says that they are called "Sabbar" or "Sabbair" which as far as I'm concerned is just a minor difference in pronounciation (though you may disagree.) The term "teen" referring to cactus fruit might be a regional thing, as I have never heard of it and Chef Ramzi fails to mention it. Finally, he is quite emphatic that the fruit needs to be carefully cleaned, as it is covered in thorns. As for a la Huitres, whatever floats your boat, dude

The fruit becomes bright orange/red and very sweet, kind of a weird watery seedy texture but very cooling. I do remember eating the paddles, blanched in a salad. Very similar to the mexican dish, actually. Both the fuit and paddles need some heavy cleaning to get rid of the thorns.

Should be a familiar word to anyone who's spent time in Israel: sabr (aka sabra )

Some photos from my grandmother's village: We were a few weeks too early for pomegranates: We also grow olives: Also a few weeks too soon for cactus fruit: I wrote something up that didn't seem to fit posting in a thread here, so chefzadi very kindly let me put it on his blog. Memory of a Lebanese Village

I think it has to do with gluten levels. I know you can make pastry flour from 2 parts bleached AP flour to one part cake flour. Cannolis. Wow. Now there'e something I would really need to work up some nerve to make.

You could download a photo of the dish off the web and print it on an edible card Smithy, sea bass would be a good fish to use, but I think any white-fleshed fish would give decent results. Frankly, it would be a completely different dish but I bet tuna steaks with a tahini sauce would be quite nice. I haven't made it yet because, frankly, I don't think I'll be able to face Lebanese food for another few months...I might be interested in trying the Charles Perry verison though. It is so interesting to see where these dishes come from.

Not that I want to enter this debate, but dried salted fish has been available in the the Levant since 1200BC. That the author used "tari" to refer to fresh rather than dried salted fish is not entirely implausible.

← Farid & Adam, not that I need any more distractions right now, but do you have a URL for the translation? This is gold for nerds like me. (Tried to google it, only got bits and pieces.)

The ones at Jamaican Jerk Hut are very good. edit: expectations? Next time I visit the folks I'll have to try Golden Bakery. Beef patties within walking distance is almost too exciting to contemplate.

Not really sure why you want to sit down to eat with this woman...let alone spend time and money making something delicious for her. ← If nothing else it'll push the issue. Nothing like a good family confrontation every once in a while.

It sounds like you need to make something very aromatic and kid friendly, like macaroni & cheese, something that the kids will clamor for until she can't say no. ← I would make the invitation less ambiguous. Instead of "you guys are more than welcome to come hang out" I would say something straightforward like, "we would love it if you guys would come have dinner with us." I'm not that sensitive to these things, but some people are weirdly formal about accepting invitations.

I was amused today to see purslane at the farmer's market going for $2.50 a bunch, and the same growing out of a crack in the sidewalk a block away for $0 a bunch. At what point did we get so inept at feeding ourselves?