It's about time I write something about the amazing food, here in Lebanon. The most common street food includes: falafel (usually in a pita sandwich w. tomato, yogurt, and pickled cucumbers and radish) and shawarma (you know... the gigantic rotating hunk of lamb or chicken, shaved onto rice or sandwiches).
Mezze plates, sort of like tapas: hummus, moutabal (what I know as baba ghanoush, or puree of roasted eggplant and sesame paste), wara enab (rice-stuffed grape leaves), labneh (yogurt with garlic and mint), flavored nuts, seeds and rice crackers, olives and pickled things.
Plus lots of fresh salad options: tabbouleh (bulgur wheat, parsley, tomato, onion, lemon), rocca (arugula, onion, lemon), and fattoush (lettuce, mint, cucumber, tomato, lemon, etc).
Bakeries make everything from fresh pita to manoushe (flatbread with a parsley/basil/sesame pesto and melted cheese) and sfiha (triangular dough filled with minced lamb, garlic, onion, tomato and spices). Oh so very delicious and fattening.
Then, of course, there's a hundred ways to eat meat, meat, and more meat (plus a little fish). Kafta (strangely textured lamb sausage, with wheat and no casing) and kibbeh (raw ground lamb, bulgur wheat, and lots of spices--not as disgusting as it sounds) have been the most exotic.
Oh yeah... there's also an amazing assortment of sweets: baklawa, and lots of date/pistachio/sesame/dough combinations.
The coffee and tea are strong and delicious. And though I'm not a big fan, arak, the local anise seed liquor, must be mentioned. It's smell is much stronger than its taste and it goes down quite smoothly, but I've always been grossed out by licorice.
Pictures are:
5. Coffee service
4. Street falafel
3. Sfiha in the brick oven
2. Nuts, seeds, and rice crackers
1. Mezze and kibbeh with Hawraa, a social worker in Baalbek.
What's the coffee taste like? Do they put saffron and cardamom in it? This is important info!!! Hope you're having a blast see you soon!
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