nikkib

I just zig zag a good tablespoon squeeze of sriacha on anything I'm eating when it's available but would be interested to see how your experiments turn out...

Abdel wahab & falamankis :-) ahhh what a great night, glad you enjoyed it! I always used to go to the blue sahyoun falafel shop, not sure where I heard that one was best but it sure is good there. What a lovely week so far - mercy ktir & shukran!

Saba7o! Will you be watching the football (soccer) tonight? Crunch qualifier against UAE....

Yes the arak is expensive but I do enjoy it as a treat, tend to order the local home made stuff on restaurant menus when I'm out of Beirut and am yet to be disappointed... The brunches at massaya are really lovely and any excuse to head into the bekaa is good enough for me! You should try to check out lux at some point, just opened down near the port - I mentioned it in my notes from my last trip, not Lebanese food so get your fill of that first! Have a great day and what I know will be a delicious dinner at abdel wahab. If it fits into your plans, tawlet are doing their Friday lunch/dinner in collaboration with chateau marsyas which should be fun. You should check out souk el tayab on Saturday down by Beirut souks too - especially for jars of pickles/honey or zataar to bring home.

Frozen berries with melted white chocolate with a splash of cream added - it's a rough version of a recipe from londons Le caprice/the ivy - seriously quick and easy, seriously tasty

Oh and marsyas also do very good wines (similar price to domaine de Baal) so really pretty hard to go wrong where Lebanese wines are concerned...

Kefraya and ksara are probably the two highest producing wineries and from experience people tend to fall into one or other camp ( despite the gave they are actually pretty similar) of the newer wineries, massya (in particular their arak) is worth trying as is Ixsir who are rapidly expanding. Musar whilst being well known is very dissimilar to the rest of Lebanese wines, using varieties such as merweh and obeideh, only really found in the Bekaa. Domaine de Baal at the higher end of the market produces consistently good wines and Karams cloud 9 is fascinating as it is so different from other Lebanese wines (much more floral than the more common blanc de blanc from ksara, kefraya etc) hassouni you should contact massaya and see if they have space on Sunday at brunch in their winery - not far from chtoura. Open wine and arak and a small but delicious selection of mezzo and grills. *snap out of it Nikki*

I'm trying to pull myself out of an almighty sulk bought on by the fact that my boyfriend is going to see THE WAILERS!!! Tonight in Beirut but also that you are in Beirut and I'm not :-( in all seriousness I am really looking forward to this - I spent 10 years in London and under two in Beirut yet Beirut is where I feel most at home... Great start to what I know will be a great week!

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Thanks for a great week!

Soooooooo looking forward to this! Yalla Hassouni I can't wait!

It's definitely lebanon. Hassouni pointed out during my blog that we both have the same coffee cups as pictured above. The other picture is a delicious manaouche with zataar. So hassouni or possibly chefcrash although he went back last summer so may be a litle soon for a repeat visit. I could do with a healthy dose of Lebanon right now - can't wait!!!

Lebanese service taxis have red plates and they tend to be pretty old.... Hassouni could be back in Beirut for a bit - ooh that would be great!

Jamie Oliver does the most delicious scallop crudo with pomegranates at his fifteen restaurant. Something like sliced, raw scallop with a drop of fantod olive oil, pomegranate seeds, dried coconut and crisp ginger with a little yuzu juice. It is stunning...

lovely eclectic cook book selection, will look forward to reading the blog whoever it is :-)

Or oyster bar even - sorry! Damn iPhone

Dont want to throw a spanner in the works but I really think skylon is terribly poor, better off going to anchor and hope or even wright brothers iyster bar in borough. If not you are also only a hop, skip and a jump from da polpa in Covent garden if you haven't been there...

I am loving this!!! The words you use to describe the kidneys are just perfect!!!

Wow - sounds amazing but it will take a while until you are forgiven for lack of photos ;-)

I know - it popped up on my twitter feed yesterday. She's waiting for them to contact her as they've probably got a lot on right now, hoping she can still have it there but maybe in a marquee... At least no one was killed or injured in the fire so she's trying to stay positive...

Breakfast at the Chin chin eating house, said to be one of the great eating places in the CBD. My friend opted for bee hoon, basically just fried noodles with sambal on the said. I had nasi lemak, rice cooked in coconut milk with sambal and ican bilis (small fried anchoives) The noodles were ok, the nasi lemak pretty good but i'm not sure i get what all the fuss is about re Chin Chin - i think the haianese chicken is their speciality maybe i'll give them another shot for that one time...

Finally got round to checking out Lau Pasat. During the day this is a hawker centre near the CBD - at night most of the stalls close and the action takes place on the street outside. It is all about the satay here - no pork as most of the satay men are muslim but no worry, we opted for chicken and some BBQd prawns. WOW - absolutely delicious (*not cheap though hardly pricy 60 cents per chicken satay with a minimum order of 10 and $2 per prawn) we demolished 10 skewers of chicken each and 4 prawns as well. Great atmosphere, great food - will definitely be back..

Oh I'm looking forward to this - can't remember when our last UK blogger was. Hoping for game galore, some delicious winter comfort food (snow has hit a lot of England over the past few days so imagine it's the same in wales?) and maybe some lava bread or other traditional welsh dishes (is lava bread a seasonal thing? Hope we'll find put soon) this will be fun!

Kim!!! Welcome back - it's funny my iPhone opened at your pictures and I instantly knew it was you! Don't abandon us again... What with you and RRO being MIA the dinner thread has not been the same....

Looks great norm!