Food Artisan

Of Land and Sea August, 2010

Welcome, once again, to Lebanon’s schizophrenia! It’s always about day and night, left and right, north and south – mountain and sea.

Lebanese cuisine has two faces: private – home cuisine; and public – mezze and festive food. Mezze displays that schizophrenia too, with two identities: mountain and sea.

The Colour of Life June, 2010

Green is the color of life, of spring and of new beginnings. In a never-ending cycle, spring brings warmth and new growth, year after year. In our part of the world, Adonis, the gorgeous lover of Astarte (Aphrodite) is a symbol and a hero of spring. But in his version, spring is announced by a red flower, anemones, and not by green!

Seeds of Life April, 2010

Rice makes me think of another seed (or cereal) of ours … burghol (cracked wheat). It also brings to mind the famous proverb “el ezz lal roz, wl burgol chana’ h’allo,” which basically means “Glory to everything imported, foreign and new, like rice, and the old, original and native, like burgholwill disappear!”

Laban and Loubnan March, 2010

This story begins with a wedding. Ezzat Majed, a grandfather, is proud that he only had to leave his beloved Chouf Mountains once in his 85 years of life, and that was to buy a suit for his wedding many years ago. He and his cousin went down to Beirut; one bought the jacket, the other bought the trousers. The suit was worn in its entirety for Ezzat’s wedding the first week and for his cousin’s wedding the second. He and his wife, Abla, have remained on the mountain ever since, taking care of a herd of 500 goats and producing the best serdeleh cheese, which Abla preserves in old jars.

A CHOCOLATE-COFFEE BICERIN IN TURIN February, 2010

What makes chocolate so desirable? Is it the sweetness, the bitterness, the dark colour, the melting effect, the smooth texture? Or is it all of the above? Or perhaps it’s more of a fantasy in our minds....

In Turin, it is definitely not a fantasy in my mind. Let me tell you a love story about a drink and a city. The drink is the bicerin and the place is Caffè al Bicerin!

Of Comfort and Discomfort January, 2010

Is it the smell of tomato paste cooking over a wood fire in late September; the vision of a hot, thick whitish kishk (a local delicacy of goat’s milk and cracked wheat); a sweet, ripe fig – or better yet, fig jam loaded with sesame seeds; or a runny manoushé b’zebdeh w’sekkar (a flatbread dripping with melted butter and crystal sugar). These are all examples of simple, recognizable flavours that contribute to personal and collective memories, of individuals and communities across Lebanon.

Merry Meghli! December, 2009

One wonders whether Christmas is about the hysteria of shopping and what one receives or the dinner one has to prepare…or attend. Some Western traditions have been adopted in Middle Eastern cities like Beirut, where such delicacies as the bûche de Noël (Yule-log cake), marrons glacés (glazed chestnuts) and chocolates are modern-day clichés that have replaced our own Christian traditions that have replaced the true traditions of our Christian origins

Endless Summer of Preserved Abundance November, 2009

What if life was an endless sweet summer, with fruit trees forever bearing apricots and peaches, wheat stalks always heavy with grain, and fresh herbs growing every day of the year? What if the air was always fragrant with jasmine and gardenia, and all of humanity was forever young and strong?

Schizophrenic underground delicacies September, 2009

“Who ever says truffle, pronounces a great word” … and these are not my words, but nothing less than Brillat Savarin. A wrinkled, often black tuber that is part of those “gastronomic myths”. There is the category of “regulars” as meat, wine, cheese, poultry … and the “exceptionals” like a pistil of flower (saffron) or an underground tuber (truffle) or fish roe (caviar).

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