Hassouni

But it's not quicker, and sometimes that makes a huge difference.

Mmmm tahdiiiiig

village bread, ya'ni, markouk?

Oh good God did I create something wonderful Highball glass rocks white rum (FdC) fresh pressed pink grapefruit juice splash of Cointreau splash of homemade grenadine top with soda water garnish w/ grapefruit twist.

I'm drinking some now, nearly neat (poured over an ice cube which has half melted). It's still rough around the edges, but the smell, my GOD. Sweet, delicious, funky molasses front and center, which carries into the finish when drinking ETA: anyone ever made a mojito with one of these?

Glad I could provide some inspiration! Sahtein!

That's very similar to the Persian and Iraqi way to cook rice - soak in salted water, boil in lots of water till half-cooked, drain, throw the water out, and add the rice back to the pot with some butter or oil in the pot. Steam for another half our or so over low-ish heat, or even longer, until a nice crust forms (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahdig) Do you add salt and some kind of fat? With those Basmati rice is divine, without - very boring.

It's at times like this I wish you Americans would find another word for the language you use and abuse. "Au jus" is not an English word (or even a word) it's a phrase... Well, to be fair, the tendency to misuse/mispronounce foreign lanaguage terms isn't unique, or even most pronounced in the US, it's prevalent the world over... I'm in total agreement with MJX. ... Even so, and even if the dictionaries list it as a correct plural, I still think it sounds like nails on a chalkboard when somebody says "shrimps" and isn't referring to verb for the process of fishing said critters (ie "Manolo shrimps for a living," but never "Manolo is eating shrimps for dinner.") Well, anytime you have over seven-billion human beings using something, in this case language, there are going to be a few anomalies. I'll confess I'm a "shrimps" offender. Having lived several places where "shrimps" is the norm, at first I repeated it a time or two because I thought it was cute, but then it sorta crawled into my lexicon and got stuck. Interesting that that one doesn't bother me so much. I guess because it's primarily a natural conclusion reached by people for whom English is a difficult challenge, and they've learned that, in English, most plurals are created by adding an "s" to the singular. So "shrimps" makes sense. At least they're trying. The "broo-SHETTA" thing in the US, though, puzzles me. I mean, we manage to get right that hard Italian "ch" in so many other words: mocha, zucchini, gnocchi, Chianti, just to name a few. How did bruschetta get so screwed up? ETA: And none of this pronunciation thing bothers me so much as the abuse of the apostrophe. Just a few days ago, I was reading a menu that listed the various categories: Appetizers, Soups, Salads, etc. And then it got to: Steak's. Speaking of the possessive, which we suddenly are, what on Earth could have possessed them to inexplicably throw in that apostrophe when they hadn't talked about "Appetizer's, Soup's, Salad's"? And one of the "Steak's" was "served in it's own juice." Nobody's perfect, and the exact rules of grammar can be argued endlessly by scholars, but really, how hard is it to distinguish between "it's" and "its"? I posit that it's not difficult at all. One is a contraction. So, would they have meant the above to read, as it properly would, "served in it is own juice"? Of course not. This menu looked to be professionally printed. Couldn't someone somewhere along the line do a little proofreading? If the owner/manager/whomever isn't really good with grammar and punctuation, is it asking too much to have someone else read it over before investing your money in a final product that would be difficult and expensive to change? Hardly Earth-shattering issues. Minor irritants. Minor, but just irritating enough to keep us all chattering. Right? And so interesting that one person's complaint-worthy irritant is always somebody else's no big deal. I think bruschetta got so woefully mispronounced thanks to the s and c in Italian being a sh, and maybe an unconscious influence from German where the sch is also a sh. As for the apostrophe plurals, almost nothing drives me more crazy, especially when it's inconsistent!

Well, that's OK by me since it's unusual and specifying the deviation.

This has not been trussed properly. You didn't tell us there was going to be a test. Hey, whatever works works, ain't no right or wrong if it tastes good! Mmmm roast chicken....

Not for the entire height of the wok

while not having done it over the chimney, I have done it on charcoal and it's way better than a stove. The chimney approach seems sensible, if prodigal with the coals.

Which is in turn derived from Persian polo/polow, which doesn't mean rice in general, but rather a category of preparations of rice. That being sad, nobody in Persian would say rice polo.... Just as nobody says rice risotto.

I don't know that I've ever even seen organic rice or wheat...

In my quest for mojito and daiquiri perfection, I can highly recommend FdC white and Brugal white for us embargo-affected Americans (I've used HC when I lived in London). Matusalem is very smooth and nice but doesn't have much character. Brugal and FdC have some personality and are quite lovely as they are.

I wouldn't get my hopes up about the can, they're usually not very good. What brand is it?

OK, so made a batch with chickpeas I soaked last night and boiled today with baking soda. Removing the skins was a MONUMENTAL PAIN IN THE BUTT. It took at least half an hour and even then I didn't get them all. They didn't really float, and I had to remove most of them one by one. But, this is definitely the smoothest hummus I've ever made, and that was in a standard issue, medium-sized Cuisinart. Is there any way to remove the skins without wanting to just throw it all down the sink? Is it possible to get split dried chickpeas?

It seems to me slightly unlikely that *every* restaurant and cafe in Lebanon is using chickpea flour. I wonder if they just have commercial grade blenders? If you did it from beans in a BlendTec, I wonder how that'd turn out....

well I bought some dried hummus for the first time ever, let's see if doing it proper old school doesn't come out smoother...

FYI, especially to whoever said it doesn't need tahina, cf. hummus bi tahina... hummus is just the generic word in Arabic for chickpeas. If they're whole in a salad, a soup or in something like balila, they're still called hummus. Hummus bi tahina/tahini (Regular Arabic vs Lebanese accent) is the actual name of the dip that everyone loves so much. It's usually shortened to hummus, because every other dish featuring them is called something else. Me, I'm still on the elusive quest for Leb resto-quality smoothness at home...

Striped bass is rockfish in DC/Chesapeake area parlance, and I quite agree! They grill up brilliantly.

Could it be what's often called collar?

That looks awesome. The cucumbers and tomatoes are particularly drool-producing.

All right! Look at those cucumbers! So, apart from its use with labne, za'tar (Jordanian is often considered the highest quality, by the way), can be put into meat marinades, sprinkled on salads, or put into baked goods. Tomatoes look good too. With those and the cheeses you have the makings of a killer Lebanese breakfast. Also, Aleppo pepper, such as its called, is ubiquitous in Turkey, where it's called pul biber or Urfa biber, and is all domestically produced. For those without Middle Eastern stores, it's almost identical to coarse Korean gochugaru

Any friend of Plum is a friend of mine. Rather, what.