Food adventures in Lebanon

I'm still having trouble uploading images, so this post will have to suffice for now...

I thought India would serve up a lot more exotic food than what I've been eating. Custard Apples were the first "exotic" thing I ate there. Here, in Lebanon I saw custard apples like those in India, but I also saw some that were enormous. They were the size of butternut squash. So, perhaps they weren't terribly exotic, I just don't recall seeing them in the United States, but it might be because I wasn't looking for them. Among the other fruits that are "new" to me include persimmons and fresh dates.

Now, I have Lebanese blood which means that I've eaten my fair share (and more) of dates (tammer in arabic). All kinds of them, small large, oversized, in cakes, in pastries, pitted with almonds, wrapped in bacon, etc. I've eaten a lot of dates. But the thing I just realized is that they are always dried dates. I've been eating fresh dates for three days now. They are extremely delicious! They are juicy and plump and just provide a totally new pleasurable eating experience. Yum, I will certainly look for fresh dates from now on. I guess it helps that the world's leading producers of dates include egypt, iran, pakistan, israel, lebanon, saudi arabia, etc. It's definitely a fruit indigenous to this part of the world, and MAN they are good. Another fruit that has surprised me is persimmon. I had eaten persimmon before and it didn't impress me. I thought of it as a bitter small orange colored fruit that I wasn't excited to eat again anytime soon. THAT has changed. I was over at a cousin's house (surprise) and there were fruits growing on a tree. They looked like apples or tomatoes, but growing on a tree and were orange. I asked what they were and I was told "kharma" (that's with the hard kh sound not karma from hinduism). They didn't know the english name. I looked it up later to find a fruit called kaki in japanese that translates to persimmon in english. I reported this and my cousins thought I was saying pomegranate. I explained the difference. The kharma I ate tasted something like papaya with the texture of an over ripened tomato. Strange, but really delicious again. I'm enjoying the fruit here to say the least. Luckily, most of my snacking consists of fresh fruits instead of too many pastries (of course I eat pastries too, because lebanon has some killer good pastries!)

Lastly, a thing called "kibbee" which they translate as "fresh meat" here. It's raw lamb with herbs. Kibbee I should note comes in whatever variety the cook wants to make it. I usually eat baked or friend kibbee with pine nuts and onions. This, however, is the real deal. I just found out about it a couple years ago, because in the united states raw meat is frowned upon highly with the exception of sushi (god bless america!). Here, you are supposed to drink Arak with it (to kill the germs only, of course) Arak is brandy distilled with aniseed. It's similar to ouzo or sambuca, but not as sweet. Alcohol is not TOTALLY acceptable here, except of course for purposes of medicine. I get medicated quite a lot while I'm here...

Well, these are my recent food adventures. Lebanon is turning out to be a more adventurous food experience than I'd expected. I grew up eating this food, but only the things that are widely available in america. Now I'm getting even more of the real deal, and I love it every bit as I thought I would.