Behemoth

Sidon and Tyre were the big cities of ancient Phoenecea. Here is what Sidon looks like today: There is a nice little souk to explore, you can buy fish straight from the source, plus they make the lovely traditional olive oil soap here. After looking around the famous water castle (Crusader era but built atop Phoenecian and Roman foundations) we stopped to buy some "Sanyoura" for the family from a local sweetshop: Sanyoura is a type of powdery cookie for which Sidon is famous. We also bought some lovely arabic ice cream: Arabic fruit-flavored ice cream is very similar to Italian gelato, but with perhaps more traditionally Lebanese flavorings such as mulberry. But the milk and pistachio flavors go through an additional process: if you ask for "bouza madqouqa", what you will get is ice cream out of which most of the air has been beaten. The ice cream contains an ingredient which holds it together called sahlab (an orchid-tuber extract if I understand correctly?) so you get this funky sort of chewy texture which is highly prized. I have heard that in one part of Syria they beat so much air out of the stuff that they actually hang it in strands from a nail and literally cut pieces off on order. My aunt gave me a little vial of mastic (gum arabic) and a recipe so I am planning to experiment a little. For lunch, on recommendation, we headed up to Echmoun's temple, about 15 minutes by car in the mountains above Sidon. Near the temple there is a nice little-known restaurant called "Restaurant Echmoun" or somesuch. It is vast, right on the river, and probably gets quite full in the evening as they hire popular singers. But for lunch we had the place to ourselves. They happen to offer dishes cooked with Qawarma, which is lamb shoulder cooked and preserved under lamb fat for the cold mountain winters. Clifford Wright gives more info and a recipe here. If you get a chance to go, order the hummus with qawarma, it is fantastic. Also their kefta was supurbly seasoned, as were their makdous -- miniature eggplants stuffed with walnuts and hot pepper, preserved in olive oil. The place is very nice, beautiful view of the river, great service and I think we paid about $10 per head for a great little lunch mezza and a few Almazas. Finally, we ended the day in Tyre. This photo is of one small part of the vast ancient city. Does Ahiram = Hiram in English? In any case, we was king here and apparently great buddies with King Solomon, who got the cedars for his temple shipped from this very port. Have a good weekend everyone! (edited for silly typo)

I suppose the combination of corn and soybean is a complete protein... (I apparently can't even get the spelling right in one lousy sentence!)

Three in five hours! We first stopped by the Loewenbrau one because it was close to our hotel and we were starving. Then as a future colleague gave us a tour around town we went to the one in Viktualienmarkt, and finally the one in the Englisher Garten. the second day we repeated the latter two. I discovered I am very partial to leberkaese, I suppose that is also not great for the waistline?

Yes scheich i am out of my mind.. I am so out of my mind that I made up the fact that I had a brown curry sauce at two german resaurants in New York.. Are you one of those people who likes to answer questions with another questions... If you havent heard of it, keep quiet and try to learn something.. Thats why i asked the question.. ← Daniel, I suspect Scheich (being a gin-U-ine German) was teasing you a bit. Curry Sauce comes in large red plastic ketchup bottles in Germany. It is the sort of thing you only crave when you are quite drunk. Actually as I am rather drunk right now, I could really go for some currywurst. It's not really a "German" food but a weird sort of street hybrid. I've never seen it in a restaurant in Germany, so I can see why someone would be surprised you got it on your schnitzel. It is basically garden variety ketchup with garden variety curry powder, and probably, as Scheich said, commercial chilli and possibly a small quantity of some sort of mayo. I assume that is the stuff you are talking about? (It is a fairly dark sauce...)

The Chouf Mountains: The Chouf mountains connect Beirut with the Bekaa valley. Originally we had planned to do a road trip over the Chouf mountains through Sofar, Deir el Qamar, Beiteddine, Jezzine and some nearby waterfalls. But then my passport renewal took an extra day because of all the election chaos, so I had to cut this trip short to go to Tripoli. Anyway we only managed the first few places, and made marathon-like loop through the South before coming back to Beirut. In other words, I was unable to aquire my long-coveted funky Jezzine-ware carving set. (Real horn, none of that melamine stuff, please!) This is a beautiful part of the country. It is a (Druze leader) Jumblatt stronghold and whatever his eccentricities, the man has done a lot to preserve the natural beauty of the area. Again, because of the war this was my first time here. I think this region is famous for its preserves, though needless to say we didn’t get a chance to sample any. We did get to eat some serious mountain food, but I will talk about that in the next installment, as it was a little closer to Sidon and I don’t feel like editing those photos just yet. Oh, the region was also historically famous for silkworms, though China pretty much conquered that market. Okay okay, one small aside. My grandmother was given to adopting all sorts of weird little creatures and breeding them. At one point when I was about 4 or 5 she decided to raise silkworms, in what was at the time my bedroom. Her little industry was quite successful but it was hard to sleep at night with all the munching sounds. Also the stacks of mulberry leaves made it hard to navigate my way to the bathroom at night... Anyway, as you head up the mountains from Beirut, you come to beautiful Sofar, where all the rich arab types used to summer before the war. Edward Said mentions in his autobiography coming here every summer as a kid. There are lots of umbrella pines, which is of course why pine nuts are so much cheaper here: And this is Beiteddine, the castle built by prince Shihab starting in 1788. It was very badly destroyed in 1982 but restored by Jumblatt, and is today still used as the summer presidential palace: The second picture is of the hammam. Nice place for a bath, huh? The rose gardens outside are absolutely lovely: Apparently the foraging bug never left me. Capers grow wild here: Coming up: the south.

Elie, thanks for the title change. Right now we have houseguests from Germany so I am a little short on time. I will probably add the Chouf mountains and the South next, then the Bekaa valley and finally Tripoi, Koura and el Mina (my home turf and therefore where we spent the most time). To be honest I am putting the north last because it will take me some time to organize my thoughts about everything we saw and did there. As far as the Italian food at La Posta... we only had lunch. A decent Margarita pizza, and some various antipasti, mostly grilled vegetables. We also had a grilled calamari salad that was quite good. I mean, you won't think you're in Italy or anything, but the produce is excellent and local, so it is at least as good as any decent trattoria in the US. Their espressi were well made (but then one rarely gets bad coffee in Lebanon.) They had good bread. I believe the chef is Italian. We also drank some homemade limoncello, which I enthusiastically recommend. (I enthusiastically recommend drinking in general...) At Casper's and Gambini, we were with a bunch of old family friends so I wasn't paying that much attention. I do remember my mint iced tea was very nice. They mostly have salads and sandwiches, light fresh stuff. Note that the order in which I am posting things does not match our itinerary. By the time we were staying in Beirut we had already spent a week being plied with all sorts of festively weighty eats by well-meaning family and friends. We really needed a break, hence the relatively light Mexican and Italian meals.

A couple of days with my family would probably cure that But anyway, in terms of Beirut nightlife -- I have to hand it to them, I don't think any other city comes close. There is that intense "stay out all night drinking" atmosphere that probably comes from all the kids who are out of sight of their parents for the first time (in a still somewhat conservative culture, both for muslims and christians), coupled with a deep sense of irony & black humor that comes from the fact that the building you are drinking in may well have contained dead bodies 20 years ago. I may be exaggerating a little, but basically the end result is a scene where people really seem to want to get away from everything and have a great time, so they are laid back and don't take themselves all that seriously, if that makes any sense.

It may have been that summer vacation had just started, or that we have really high unemployment. Keep in mind we're talking Beirut though, not the rest of the country. Tripoli shuts down at 9, and that's on a good night.

Since you guys were so helpful, I have decided to take on this rather monumental task. I will have to do this in installments, as I work through my stacks & stacks of photos. We begin, of course, in: Beirut. It is really hard to figure out where to start. Beirut looks nothing like I remember it. We lived there when I was born but we moved north in 1978 because of the war. A few places near our hotel in Hamra were familiar: Horseshoe, Café du Paris, Wimpy’s…a couple of bookstores... But Downtown? Here is what it looks like today: This building, left un-renovated, on the former green line is more the way I remember things: (If you look closely at the buildings in the renovated Downtown, you can still see the bullet-holes. ) There was a small but moving tribute to Hariri in Downtown: The footsteps mark where Hariri walked… ...to the table where he spent the last hour of his life. Perhaps it is typically Lebanese that someone has already made off with a few of the metal prints. Ah well. Okay, since this is a food site, I will stick to the fun stuff as much as possible. Downtown in the summer is overrun with rich gulf tourists. Still, it is a pleasant place to hang out, for lunch or in the early evening. Beirutis really don’t go out for dinner until at least around 9 o’clock, so you will probably have no problem finding a table before then. We tried Al-Balad for Arabic food (good, and if you want to see what the old currency looked like take a trip to the bathroom). La Posta does decent Italian (no hot-dogs on the pizza, Elie!) and Casper’s & Gambini does all kinds of currently hip sandwich type stuff. In the latter two places try to sit on the back terrace, there is a great view of hariri’s big mosque (under construction) and the roman ruins they found when they dug up the place. For going out, Monot street is a good place to start. Don't bother before 10pm though. We ate late at a good (and packed!) Mexican place, Pacifico I think, and then caught an excellent indie/punkish band over a few Almazas (the local beer) at Shakespear’s, down the street. There is a bar, 1975, that has waiters in militia uniforms and sandbags instead of seats, but as my cousin said, we lived through the real thing, let’s leave this for the kids who didn’t... There was supposed to be a music festival that evening but that was the day the head of the communist party was assassinated, so it ended up being a fairly subdued night out. Under the circumstances we decided to skip Che Cafe, though I hear that's also a fun scene. I’ve been told Solea, 37 degrees and Lime are also hip with the kiddies. Basically, walk down the street and pop in wherever it looks interesting, okay? For a slightly less college-kid crowd, head to nearby Gimayze. There is a cute little bar with a dragonfly theme (it might even be called dragonfly) housed in a very old shopfront. Godot is also a good one. I think Gimayze café showed up in the movie West Beirut, so it is worth stopping in just for that. In Hamra, we made De Prague on Rue Makdissi our second home. I wish I could airlift the whole damn place with everyone in it to wherever I happen to be living at the moment. Great music, great crowd,great atmosphere. Chez Andre is also nearby, old school, very weird little place but very Beirut. And please, at least have an espresso or something at Café de Paris, if only for old time’s sake. That place has so much old Beirut soul. I really wish they would get a wireless connection, so they could get some of the crowd packing the Starbucks across the street. As far as food, you are right at the university, so there's lots of cheap stuff. I really liked the “Le Sage” chain for great saj (sage?) toasted cheese sandwiches. I think the menu is only in Arabic, but you know, just ask a native – most younger people speak fluent English. Zaatar wa Zeit is also a good place to get variously topped man’ouch. There are probably fancier places to eat but at that point we really couldn't stand to look at anything more than a sandwich. Oh yeah, walk around the university. You just need to leave your ID with security at the front gate. Beautiful campus. If you want to hang out on Raouche, Bay Rock was recommended to us by a friend. As with everyplace else, this joint didn’t start happening until around 10 pm, but they serve very decent mezze, very reasonably priced, especially if you consider the view: basically right over Pigeon Rock, looking out on the sea. One thing you can try here is the “sardine bizri” which are little inch-long sardines that are dredged in flour and fried. You squeeze a little lemon juice on them and eat them whole, like chips. Very good, but you get enough to feed a family of four for all of 8000LL. We also got hummus, mtabbal and that kind of stuff. After 10, the place filled up with packs of grannies smoking water pipes. Which, you know, is a good thing. What else? This is not food, but do go to the National Musem. At the beginning of the war the curator built concrete walls around everything to prevent looting, so this was my first time seeing the stuff. Marvel at the freakishly realistic baby statues circa 500 BC from Echmoun’s temple. If you are feeling brave, walk up the green line towards Achrafieh for lunch. Then walk up to martyr square and say hi to the tent hippies. Then you could have an espresso in the cafe on top of the virgin megastore right across the street.

I have to admit, I expected to hate the article but was pleasantly surprised. I for one liked all your choices. Even though I still don't get the whole Chicago hotdog thing. I can't believe I never made the connection between pastrami and basturma -- the Armenain preserved beef. It seems so obvious now that you mention it.

In Northern Germany, krabbensalat (small north sea shrimp in a sweetish mayo dressing) would also be a breakfast staple. I mocked it but then I grew to love it. Lachs (smoked salmon) for special occasions, served with horseradish or a sweet mustard sauce. In Lebanon, labneh and zeitoun (olives) is the default option. Zaatar man'ouch fresh from the bakery is a nice treat especially if you have to be on the road at an ungodly hour, and a nice regional treat in Chtoura is an areesha (cheese curd/clotted cream typa thing) sandwich with local honey. Strong sweet tea in most families, black arabic coffee in ours. For kids before or on the way to school, various forms of ka'ak are popular. Variations range from crumbly sweetish cookie to rock-like plain to decidedly breadish -- the last kind with zaatar or cheese or both. Foul is popular but I must admit I tend to eat more of the pickles that come with it than the actual beans. I personally think it goes best with arak but my aunts tend to disapprove.

First I have to do some catch-up work to convince my advisor I am not a worthless, fellowship-scamming waste of time. I took lots of photos -- the ones with family won't be posted on the web but that still leaves quite a bit. So I promise more as soon as I take my next study break!

A few general remarks: Okay, so it will be about 6 months before I need to eat Lebanese food again. I'm kidding, of course. Sorta. It would be faster to list what we didn't eat rather than what we did... Anyway. Cherries were very much in season. The UN elections observation folks spent a LOT of time parked in front of Hallab, by the way. Oddly enough, we didn't see them at the polling places. Halab has gotten even better, which is scary. I don't think you can top Beirut nightlife. Smart and with that black sense of humor I missed so much. Needless to say all the bars listed above were past it by now, but luckily we had some excellent guides to show us the current "good stuff" It was fun speaking Arabic again. All those weird little things you are expected to say at certain points in the conversation. Weird how quickly it all came back. We also saw a lot of very old buildings. All the cabbies know where abu fadi's is. But that is emphatically not the best samke harra in el Mina. the best is a couple of blocks away and about 9 floors up

Okay the whole Biergarten thing was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I would worry about my future wasteline, but I saw so many tiny little women knocking back whole Mass of beer that I figure the biking and walking must take care of the problem.

What?! Actually, I was in Hamburg for all of three nights, in transit (ie no days ). We hung out in our old 'hood. No Reeperbahn, but lots of chilling in the backyard, no shortage of alcohol natch... Spent some quality time in Muenchen, though. I thought my German was good, but I'll be damned if I could understand a thing people were saying. Luckily, my husband couldn't understand anything either. It scares me to think some day "Gruess Gott" will roll as quickly off the tongue as Moin, Moin!

I have heard Saudis produce the deadliest hooch known to mankind. But Farid, you will no doubt be pleased to know the modern Lebanese wine industry was begun with Cinsault vines imported from Algeria Actually, I think one of the articles linked above mentions that.

Mr. Rogov, I actually first came across your website a few years ago when I was looking for reviews of Lebanese wines One question -- I remember reading somewhere that Lebanese wines had a weird quirk where they started out very light and fruity, almost floral, and then had about 5 years or so of ageing during which they went a bit off and tasted kind of funky, then mellowed out and got better again after that period. Am I just hallucinating that article, or is this possible?

I of course love them, and not entirely for patriotic reasons I can often find a couple of brands at wine stores that carry smaller boutique labels. My place in Urbana carries Musar (probably the most highly regarded producer) as well as Kefraya. But even the smaller brands are very enjoyable -- we had a case from a fairly obscure label sent to us for our wedding by a friend of the family and it went over very well. I have to admit that I find it much easier to get a wider variety in Europe...Lebanon just doesn't seem to be on the radar in the US. There was, however, a very favorable article that came out in the NYTimes in the 80's -- I remember it very well, as it was during the height of the war, and it was very nice to see something in the western press which acknowledged a civilized life beyond the fighting. Unfortunately, I don't know much about the wine scene right now as it was still recovering from the war when I left. I will have to remedy that: I will definitely be getting a copy of the author's book, mentioned at the end of the article. And sampling as much as possible in the next few weeks

MP-- thanks, that looks great.

I haven't experienced that much variation. All the ones I've had are just buckwheat noodles in an ice cold metal bowl with a deep red sauce that starts out a little sweet and seems to get increasingly spicy as you make your way through. Usually with a slice or two of beef, a hard boiled egg, and the occasional asian pear. Don't get all pedantic with me, missy! I've been to Korea. Er, once. Now give me the freakin' recipe! I'm starvin' here!

I've gotten very good shanklish in Montreal. Well, actually my dad buys it when he's up there and brings it down for me. There is a big Lebanese population in Montreal from what I understand. Still, I would love to perfect a homemade version.

Now that the thermometer is at 90+ most days, I have been having wild bi bim naeng myun cravings. The place I used to frequent last year seems to have gone downhill, and I haven't found an accessible replacement. Would anyone care to share their favorite recipe?

23 is woodruff. 27 looks like sorrel. My mom would know this stuff. My gardening skills are limited to purslane. Yes, I know it is a weed. Oh, and you've mentioned previously that the stuff on top of your oven is thyme. My mom uses it as groundcover.

Thanks Gen and legourmet. I am not a wild club kid by any means (though I do enjoy the occasional night out dancing), but since moving away from Philadelphia what I really miss is seeing good live music. My tastes go from classical to jazz to weird experimental stuff so I am optimistic I will be able to find things to see. I will probably sign up on Toytown and ask around when we get closer to that time. But we've strayed a bit far from any food discussions. As far as food goes, it sounds like Munich is the best possible place in Germany for us to have landed. (Not to mention the fact that my husband is a huge Bayern-München fan. I suspect he does it mainly to annoy people -- from what I understand it is like being a yankees fan in the US )

Very easy. I put them in the freezer in one layer on a wax-papered cookie sheet until solid, then pack them into freezer bags. I try to use them up within the month. To cook them, I just throw them into the boiling salted water while they are still frozen. Takes about 5 minutes or so for them to be done. (Depends on the ravioli, obviously, but usually I can tell by looking at them.) I am living off farmer's market greens, bread, and a little cheese. Oh, and homemade granola with yogurt. And the occasional egg, for protein. Getting ready for a marathon travel junket, so I am trying to keep the fridge empty. helenas, your photos get prettier and prettier.