Behemoth

Cipolline onions glazed in spiced red wine: Tagliata di Manzo (sliced grilled steak with sauteed garlic and rosemary): Blood orange salad: random italian table wine with, coffee ice cream after.

I think lavash was probably the closest thing to markouk that would have been available to western readers in the 60s. Readers living in Lebanon would probably be familiar with marquouq anyway. Marqouq is a large circular very thin bread, and while the shape is different the consistency is similar to lavash. For the purposes of the recipe, the two doughs would be reasonably interchangeable. Having said that, I am completely unfamiliar with this particular dish. Maybe Foodman or Zeitoun have a clue? Touareg, I wonder if it would make sense for you to try and learn the arabic letters first, to become less dependent on variations in western spelling. I know in my case it helped to learn the korean alphabet first thing, so I wouldn't be as dependent on westernized spelling differences. (Plus then I had a fighting chance of getting the pronounciations right.) Very impressive though, Arabic is not the easiest language to learn!

Looking at it again, I bet they are referring to unbaked lavash. That would make total sense. (See photo)

Ugh. Okay my fendu shape has closed up and so I basically have three misshapen batards in the oven. I guess you need to re-do the seam after proofing. Oh well. Second time has been a charm for me so far, so we'll see if I get it to work next time. But after all that kneading! Youch.

For some reason Raqaqaat reminds me of the Rougag described in the "Beautiful Algeria" thread. I think it refers to bread or pastry dough. "Unbaked Jewish Bread" sounds like a bad translation or the author had access to packaged unbaked bread from a store. ← This was written in the 60's, remember.... Raqiq means thin (as in tissue) in arabic, and the tissue-like bread dough is "marquoq" so I assume it refers to thin dough, though I am not sure if by that they mean pastry-type dough or thin bread dough. I have no idea about the Jewish reference.

I have yet to try the pain a l'ancienne but for the ciabatta reinhardt specifically says that the crust is hard right out of the oven but is meant to soften up by the time it's ready for slicing. Right now I've got 3 loaves of fendu-shaped pain de campagne proofing cozily in their couche. We'll see how that goes...

Thanks Jason, I might just pick up a copy when I'm there in June. For now, the internet is a wonderful thing!

The author names sounded familiar but I wanted to check before I said anything. Indeed, my mom had the 1965 edition. Sadly, it got lost somewhere between there and here. It is a great book, I think my mom depended on it quite a bit as a new bride. I think she will be happy to know there is an online edition!

It is a great indian snack made with puffed rice, potatoes, tomatoes, onion, chili, tamarind and coriander chutney. I think there is a recipe by Survir Saran in the eGullet recipe archive, wherever that is now.

Here is a little shortcut for the tamarind. I have taken to using indian tamarind chutney in my pad thai sometimes. This came out of a day when I had the stuff in my fridge (self made, for a bhel puri experiment -- but store bought is usually pretty good too.) Worked great, just remember to use less sugar in your sauce since the chutney already has some. As for the red color -- someone mentioned paprika upthread. I've gotten that red color from pad thai recipes that used ketchup (yech) and I suspect a few restuarants I've been to use that variation (yech). What I now do is put a little pile of red chili powder on the side a la david thompson. Looks really pretty. I use the Korean stuff that they package for Kimchi. For the nuts: Roasted cashews would be a great substitution I think.

Close...Loquats Yum. I am really excited about the cherries. I just remember setting a couple kilos on ice on hot summer evenings. You could get drunk off those things. Lucia, too bad you won't be around, it would have been really neat to meet up. We were thinking of going to visit some friends near Aleppo, but A is applying for his greencard and is a little worried he would be given a hard time if that stamp were on his passport. We'll see -- it would be an amazing experience for him. I think I've mentioned this elsewhere, but at some point (on one of those crazy car trips) we befriended a family of farmers around there. Someday I wil tell you about Rocky, the sheep they insisted on giving us.

Hi Tammy, Liam is such a cutie. And your community looks like a really nice place to live. One possible vegetarian middle eastern option that doesn't require a lot of work could be to do a tray-style kibbe (see middle east forum of foodman's ecgi course) using pumpkin instead of ground lamb, and stuffing with maybe a lentil-mint-feta mixture if you want to avoid nuts.

I live in central illinois. I take what I can find!

I was wondering about that as well. He does come across as a bit off the proverbial rocker, not to mention unprofessional. Is there some history there that we are not being told about? It does make for an entertaining read though.

Of course the octopus sandwich is mandatory! I've only been telling him about it for the five or six years we've been together. And June will defintely be ice cream weather. I personally always went for the fruit mix but he will have to try the chewy milk flavor, just for the experience. Do you have an approximate street address for abu fadi? I used to go when I was in high school but I'm sure it all looks different now, I don't know if any of my old crowd will be around to take us there. Thanks for the Beirut tips!

I'm counting on this. I still really want to try the fried chicken & steamed pork buns... I feel like I've finally got the hang of that one, but I might try making my own noodles this time. That would be fun, especially since I have, like, 10 lbs of rice flour taking up way too much space in my pantry. (Korean pine needle rice cake project that I still haven't gotten around to...but at least I finally located my pine needles! ) Snowangel, I think the thing with the noodles is that they really seem to differ from brand to brand. After a couple of "too mushy" tries I now err on the side of slightly too stiff when soaking-- then I pull off pieces and try them as I'm cooking. If they are still too stiff, I put in a little more sauce and stir fry them longer until they are just al-dente. (All the "fresh" ingredients get added at the end so you can't really overcook the dish.) Oh, and despite what David Thompson says, I got impatient once and soaked the noodles for 15 minutes in warm water. Worked fine.

The problem with this argument is that it is sort of like suggesting that since we can't end poverty we should stop giving to charities. Small steps in the right direction aren't a bad thing.

Are your friends planning to go this year? See, my dad was into packing us all into the car to explore the country. This during the height of the fighting. He would have happily driven all the way south if my mother hadn't put her foot down. But we got some crazy looks from soldiers at some pretty abandoned checkpoints. soldier: "what the *** are you people doing here? Are you nuts?" dad: "roadtrip! and, yes!"- I love my dad but I'm trying to break A in gently

So I don't want to take it personally, but the war started a couple of years after I was born, and ended right after I left. Now (for lots of reasons) I block my first trip in well over a decade, and three car bombs later it's looking a little scary again. Anyway, I am still hoping to give A a first taste of Lebanese summer fruit, not to mention a real shawarma and HALLAB! And er, also of course to meet the family and stuff... God knows I can deal with a little chaos but the boy is a mellow german and not used to so much drama. And car bombs are kind of the worst form of chaos Assuming all hell doesn't break loose, we are still hoping to go -- we'll just spend more time up north if we have to. I would love to do a trip to a winery, would love to hear of your favorites. I was originally leaning towards Musar or Massaya. We are hoping to drive through bcharre to see the cedars and visit some friends in Baalbek, and of course the family village in the north (asbeh sawda after we get a few drinks in him ), tripoli souks...I would love to go see places I never got to in the war: the south and bettedine, but now this seems iffy...Of course we were planning to spend a few nights in Beirut to relax before I unleash upon him the force of nature that is my family. So basically, I could really use some advice. First of all on whether it makes sense to go then (right after May elections I guess.) And assuming we make it, what are some of your favorite (food and other) places? Does anyone remember what is in season in mid-to-late June? I can't believe I've been away for so long, and how much I am still mentally invested with the place...

My grandmother has been using regular canned coffee through a cold press for about 40 years now. It actually tastes pretty decent (mellow, nutty), and if you want a strong cup you just put in more of the concentrate. My yuppie grind-my-own-espresso self is a little embarassed to admit it, but how many people actually enjoy their 95 year old grandma's coffee? (Having said that, I use about twice as much concentrate as she does....)

I really enjoyed how trotter was running around calling everyone an idiot. I never realized the man was such a firebrand Having said that, I must admit I really respect his position. He clearly opens himself up to a lot of derision (as seen in this thread) but if the man isn't comfortable with it, he is just not comfortable with it, and its cool that he can be honest about it. Also, people seem to have made this assumption, but does Trotter actually use factory-farmed meat? Lots of top-end restaurants buy meat from small local farms these days, I would think it would be especially easy in a city like Chicago. I live 1.5 hours south (in rural nowhere) and I've been able to find humane sources pretty easily...as for price, well, I just eat less meat I guess. edit: although, if bourdain's invisible friend is telling the truth...

I don't blame you... I simply couldn't socialize with people like that. I really don't mind any well-meant mistakes no matter how bad but this kind of behavior just indicates an arrogant ugliness that I would need to put myself as far away from as possible. Maybe it's my arab nature poking out here but I just can't see humor in it -- I'm just completely appalled! I should add -- I've been served some truly weird things in my life: whole roast head of a goat, roast chicken with head and feet intact, iraqi-style boiled tripe... not to mention the sort of mistakes of overreaching by inexperienced hosts, the dry overdone meat, the crunchy underdone vegetables, etc etc but they were all served with such a generosity of spirit I simply cannot include them as part of this thread. Your story really wins the prize.

I made one of the more complicated waffle recipes out of "How to Cook Everything." You know, one where you whip the eggs whites seperately. It was good, but I couldn't tell the difference in terms of texture. Then again maybe if I made waffles more than like, twice a year I might be able to differentiate more. But then I'd have to eat waffles more than twice a year.

My second attempt at ribs and my first BBQ of the season: I need to thank snowangel and ronnie suburban. This was the first time I had a chance to use the "probe thermometer in cork through the vent" trick, and it worked like a charm. Controlled heat in my cheap little weber at 225 degrees for 3 hours, not overdone, not underdone, I can't stop eating them. You guys rock. Did we need side dishes? Well, baked beans (with tomato chutney instead of ketchup) and mustard green sauteed in mustard oil with mustard seeds and red chilies. Corona, and coffee ice cream. Very glad I got to run today. Whew.

Thanks guys. I ended up using all the stock in a chickpea soup (note to self: stay away from the chickpea thread) but it is definitely information I can use in the future.