nikkib

Sunday brunch - scrambled eggs with sumac and awarma meat (confit lamb) with a veggie plate on the side (and a beer!)curled up in a chair reading 100 years of solitude is about as good a way as any to spend a lazy day in Beirut...

No mention of upside down martinis? 3/4 oz gin 3 3/4 noilly prat twist of lemon served on the rocks for a graet summer aperitif Cheers and Sante!

Well thank goodness i had a chance to lose some weight in the heat of the summer as now i have had the opportuinty to discover Jabbours shawarma that could all go horribly down hill..... So after mentioning to some people at work i was heading here for shawarma i was inundated with people wanting to come with me, went with a couple of guys from work and bumped into a couple of others when we were there, beirut really is a small world! Jabbour is located in Dora on a strip of road alongside many other shawarma restaurants and fruit cocktail bars, we were there pretty early by lebanese standards at 930pm but the street was busy with people smoking shisha and getting take away, we sat in the downstairs of jabbour and ate in. Lebanese hospitality being what it is i wasnt allowed to pay so have no idea of the prices but shawarma is street food so i am guessing $3-$5 a piece? We had 2 shawarma each ( i know i know!) but one of my friends apparently goes pretty much every other day and has 4! Whilst this sounds bad the shawarma is made of not too much bread and only a little sauce so it is mostly the chicken o meat so not as bad as you might think. The Chciken came with just a little garlic sauce, pickles and a couple of random chips ( sorry fries) whilst the "meat" (veal/beef/Lamb?) came with tomato, lettuce and tarator (a tahini based sauce)I think the meat was beef or mostly beef but whatever it was, boy was it good! I was expecting to prefer the chicken but the deep meaty flavour combined with juicy fresh tomato and the tarator was delicious Some pictures of the shawarma, it being carved and the inside of the restaurant We finished with fruit cocktail - basically chopped banana, melon, pineapple, grapes, almonds and kiwi layered with a fruit cocktail of all of the above blended and topped with an avocado, milk and honeyu mix that was so thick it needed to be eaten with a spoon, topped with ashta (like a cottage cheese) and more fruit. Looks frightening but was delicious, very filling but i must have had like 3 of my 5 a day in there which is a bonus. The whole street looked great and i will definitely have more trips there to post on in the not too distant future, for now i can only think of my waistline and weep.....

We must be on the same wavelength when it comes to ice cream, i was in Sibon last week, didnt bother taking a photo as i only had a single scoop - ashta flavoured, it was pretty good but no where near the ice cream in the photo above... I don't know the name of the shop but it is on a little sidestreet leading from Sassine down towards hotel de dieu. I didn't take a photo inside as the shop is tiny and there were a couple of people there but next time for sure. They add something like orchid root and something else (gum arabic?) to the icecream which makes it almost chewy, like frozwn marshmallow icecream. The flavours are amazing too, selection of about 6 - all of which were crammed into my cone for $1.50. The shopkeeper explained in french that there was milk flavour (which wiped the floor with the michelin starred milk icecreams i've had)almond - with real pieces of crunchy almond in it and rose flavoured. The other 3 were arabic and he could not explain but damn they were good... too good, i will sadly for my waistline be becoming a regular for sure! This is from cafe blanc a casual lebanese chain serving traditional lebanese food with a twist, here you can see my kebee, pickles and moutabal with pomegranate molasses. the kebbe are a variation with labneh and herbs inside and very tasty indeed and here is the eponymous cafe blanc - hot water with orange and rosewater to serve as a digestif Off for shawarma shortly - will post soon!

Thanks for that - although i undersetimated the high esteem Jabbour is held in, i mentioned to a work colleague that i was going to Dora soon for shawarma as i had a recommendation and before i could say the name he guessed Jabbour! This then led to a huge discussion about shawarma and about 1/2 dzn people volenteering to take me next week so i'll keep you posted - looking forward to it!

My mother has old hand written recipes from one of my great grandmothers and both of my grandmothers and bought myuself and my sister recipe books to add our recipes too. Whenever i go home and think of a dish i need the recipe for she'll cook it with me and i write down the notes as a lot of her recipes are in her head. My mum (who is only in her mid 50's) also has a habit of shouting out random facts about her recipes whenever she thinks of them " If i die your fathers favourite chocolate cake recipe is page 345 book X" " The scones are from x book page 27" etc which whilst they sound a bit morbid have become a long standing joke in the family and certainly make sure we remember where favourite recipes are

mmm not taht you would serve lobster to 120 people though - sorry just saw that ... (also i should point out by jelly i mean Jello)

I'd second spaghetti or noodles, and soup too. My mother was instructed that a lady should always know how to eat jelly with a fork, should you go to a party and spoons were not available - don't ask me what kind of crazy etiquette lessons these were but could be entertaining all the same. And of course there is the pretty woman style of "training" escargot or lobster for comedy value. I have also seen people drink fingerbowls before as they would rather do this then ask what they are, of course etiquette would demand not pointing out such a faux pas....

one of my favourite courgette (sorry cannot get my head around zucchini!) dishes that i dont think has been mentioned yet is where i boil a whole courgette for around 6-8 minutes and then scoop out 1/2 of the insides. I then sautee the scooped out insides with a peeled deseeded tomato, a chopped chilli and some chopped onion with cayenne and smoked paprika and then return it to the rest of the courgette with some defrosted atlantic prawns that i keep in the freezer. I make a cheese sauce, pour it over the top and oven bake for around 20 minutes before finishing under the grill. Served with some crusty bread it is the perfect supper... I also sautee it briefly with chilli, add spinach and the zest of a lemon with 1/2 the juice and wilt the spinach very quickly. Served with fish dishes ( especially a salmon wrapped in filo with lime zest and coriander) it is delicious....

http://www.ocado.com/webshop/recipe/avocado-and-cucumber-soup/2769 i love this recipe - i add a tiny bit of the woucestershire and add tabasco instead, its delicious

any pointers on how to find jabbour short of just telling them dora and getting lost?! looks delicious and a damn site cleaner than most of the other places ive been too

any more recent recommendations for damascus? Planning to share a service taxi there from beiut(for the grand sum of $20) next week and assuming i make it across the boarder am planning to spend 2 days in damascus eating shawarma galore... any syrian specialities i should try too or stuff to bring back from the souks?

http://www.countrylife.co.uk/countryside/article/280522/Best-pheasant-recipes.html if you struggle to get chanterelles i'm not sure how easy it is to get pheasant but this mark hix recipe has got to be my all time favourite way to eat chanterelles..... mmmmm I also had a great Pierre koffman dish that was chanterelles, escargot and bone marrow that was mind blowing too

so, after chefcrash's recommendation i finally decided to go to tabkha this evening for a late lunch/early dinner. I cant believe i haven't been before - i think i always thought it was a really large restaurant but it seats nearer 20-30 people. The menu is written on 2 blackboards, the usual menu offering of burgers, grilled halloumi, mixed majounat (sp?) which i chose - a selection of hot mezze, as well as shawarma and some other mains. The Daily menu was much the same as chefcrash's image. Buffet wise, i chose the wilted chicory and shallots, moutabal (really smokey and delicious) lentil salad, aranabeet (roasted cauliflower with tartor tahini sauce) and grilled courgettes. There were a couple of other options, vine leaves, another salad or two. potato and garlic salad and a tomato white bean chilled stew. With 2 beers, the buffet and the hot mezze my bill was $25 and very enjoyable. I also have attached some photos of the kibbe as heidih mentioned it before - you have here the raw casing (bulghar and minced beef) and then the tabkha cooked version as well.....

halloumi or labneh would do the trick too....

Thanks chefcrash - yeah, i found out about the raha, soooo yummy! I have walked past schtumpf literally like a million times but never been in, same for tabhka in gemmayze - will have to rectify that soon everything looks great! I havent really seen shwarma anywhere when i've been hungry hence the no mention, its one of those things that never seems to cross my mind at the right time... but have had plenty of kafta/kibbe etc, will have to post some images soon.... There are a lot less tourists here then everyone was expecting really this summer, hotel occupancies are more in the late 70's/80's than the 100% everyone was predicting, maybe it will pick up during ramadan....

Heidih it was more like a thin outer shell filled with chunks of cjhewy octopus when you cut into it - great.... Doggie bag wise, everywhere does take away but i have never seen anyone ask - also its more of a status thing i feel, - the lebanese like to show off - ecesseive amounts of food show your hospitality to your guests, and the amount you, as a guest eat correlates to how you respond to their hospitality... by that (probably incorrect reasoning on my part) doggie bags would sort of insult your host and suggest you could not afford more food for home. I dont know i could be way off but thats my take

Great to see your posts Foodman - i was talking to someone yesterday about heading to Bourj hammoud for the armenian specialities you've put here - the sandwich looks great! I was in Balad for lunch the other day - with a friend who hates me taking photos of the food but we had hummus, fattoush (it is great there) and a great halloumi coated in almond flakes before being fried along with kafta, you can just make out the restaurant in this photo here - its the one on the top left along with a fattoush and halloumi salad i had in arestaurant called massaya across the street.

Outside of Beirut this time, at a restaurant called Dorada sur mer in Jounieh. Releatively new looking and very nicely done - floor to ceiling windows which gives you the impression of sitting on the seafront, a rarity here. The spread in front us in the photo was about 2/3 what my hosts ordered for 3 of us - Lebanese bhospitality really does know no bounds... Not sure quite what you can make out clearly in the photo but we had 3 different types of octopus, one poached in lemon with parsley and cilantro, one provencale style and one grilled. We also had grilled calamari, fattoush salad, smoked salmon mousse wrapped in smoked salmon, fried fish kebbe - a sort of arancini but made from grains of some sort not rice and filled with more octopus. Artichoke, grilled potatoes and what i gathered to be botargo - any ideas? I have only ever had dried bottargo which is why i'm not sure if this was that, it was delicious all the same... We visited after a tour of Chateau Musar in nearby Ghazir which is well worth braving the rush hour traffic for and i would heartily recommend

It is positively unfair to tease us with that DELICIOUS photo and not give the recipe.... may i be so bold as to ask for it please..... Also Pierogi your fig "bombs" sound fab, looking forward to trying those myself Its been achingly hot here too so a couple of light suppers - shop bought hummus and veggies with home made tabbouleh and feta and then home made mouttabel with the left over tabbouleh and veggies, i've also got the remainder of a 7kg watermelon (the smallest i could find) in my fridge which is being used as a salad with walnuts and feta cheese and also injected with tequila for a picnic at the beach

.jpg] why not buy the kind of juicer used in bars - we juice for every cocktail as we make it,using this type of juicer (which im sure is readily availble in kitchenware shops)which has the added bonus of not getting your hands sticky and needs only a quick rinse under the tap to clean it...

Ok so a guilty late night supper while watching the world cup final at Chillis - "Mexican Beer" or a Chelada as i more usually know it which is quite a popular drink here and onion string fries with bbq sauce. I have never been to Chillis before ( i dont think we have them in the UK?) but it was my favoured hang out to watch the world cup in despite the abuse heaped on me for being an England supporter and my steadfast refusal to support the favoured teams over here (like germany and argentina!)and whilst it's not the kind of place i would usually choose to eat in, what they do they do well and i think it will remain a preferred sporting venue of mine

have you tried a peach smash? Its basically a mint julep with 1/2 a peach muddled in at the beginning - very good!

This is my recipe handed down from a friend - its simple and quick but i love it, 700g firm red ripe tomatoes aprx 10cm long cucumber, peeled and chopped 2 or 3 spring onions, peeled and chopped 2 cloves garlic, crushed half a large green pepper, deseeded and chopped 1 heaped tsp fresh chopped basil, marjoram and thyme 4 tbsp olive oil 25ml white wine vinegar salt and freshly milled black pepper Begin by scoring the bottoms of the tomatoes with a sharp knife and placing them in a bowl filled with boiling water; after a minute or two the skins will loosen and slip off very easily. Halve the tomatoes, scoop out and discard the seeds and roughly chop the flesh. Now place the tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, crushed garlic and chopped pepper into a liquidiser, adding to it the salt and pepper, herbs, oil and wine vinegar. Blend everything at top speed until the soup is absolutely smooth. Taste to check the seasoning and pour the soup into a bowl. Stir in a little cold water to thin it slightly, cover with foil and chill thoroughly. Serve with little bowls of chopped red and green peppers, diced spring onion, diced cucumber, chopped parsley and crisp croutons so that everyone can garnish as required. If its really hot i make ice cubes with chopped herbs in and then serve the gazpacho with the ice cubes as alast minute garnish. I like mine spicy so add tabasco or chopped chillis to my portion at the end - enjoy with a great home made bread and a chilled glass of manzanilla mmmmm Also - not gazpacho i know but i make a killer chilled avocado and cucumber soup which i serve with white crab meat and chopped avocado, cucumber, tomato and red onion as a garnish.

sounds gooooood!