A sampling of food pics from Lebanon

Lest you were unaware dear reader that Lebanon is a fanatical food culture, allow me to put your mind at ease.

This is from a little joint called Pizza Burgers in Beirut. I saw this monster and decided I must eat one. They scoop out the top of the bun so as to load it up with condiments (lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles, french fries). Then place the small almost insignificant burger patty on the bottom, and toast the whole thing... OOF.

A "burger" with EVERYTHING


Here is a picture of my Aunt Linda. She has a large garden where she grows everything she cooks with except for meat. Here is a picture of her making falafel. I've eaten plenty of it in my life, but this was the most outstanding ever! All the herbs are organic from her garden and she hand mixes them. Fries them in olive oil and serves them hot with fresh tomato, tahini, and fresh parsley. Oh my many many many Gods. If India could produce such a culinary wonder I'd be shocked.
Best falafel I've ever eaten!

One thing I love about India is the little food stands selling all manner of breaded breakfasts. Well, it should be no shock that Lebanon has this same sort of arrangement. This is a shop hardly bigger than the double door entrance to it. These bad boys are on dough just made that morning spread with Zatar and a tomato and ground lamb mixture then popped into a woodfired oven for a few minutes until everything is toasty. I can seriously eat zatar for breakfast every morning. In fact I have been for the last two weeks and I'm not even remotely tired of it.
Breakfast of Zatar and Lahme

Here is the elusive 961 beer. I saw it my second night in a supermarket in Hazmieh (I think) and it was the eurostyle pale lager. I had no interest, but was excited to buy some other variety later. Sadly, I did not get to drink any of this, but I did get to drink the Turkish stuff on the right. Efes extra strong (9%) is actually a strong beer, unlike the garbage beer that is kingfisher "superstrong" weighing in at a pathetic 6%.
961 beer


Here is a small food shop in a miniature town called Jdita. It's very close to Zahle in the Bekaa valley. In the case are kafta (freaking amazing) and raw kibbee. I didn't try their raw kibbee as I was busy stuffing my face with shawarma.
Kafta and Raw Kibbee


I hope you like licorice flavor. Arak is pretty popular around Lebanon, and it's pretty strongly anise flavored. It took me a couple tries a few years back, but you learn to love it. There must be near 100 Arak makers in Lebanon with the best being small restaurants who distill their Arak into art. I hear the most expensive Arak sells for near $1000/bottle and in smoothness supposedly rivals good cognacs. (If you have cognac questions, please don't hesitate to ask me...)
A wall of Arak


At my other aunt's house. She's making another couple gallons of vinegar from grapes grown at her house. WOO! It's good stuff.
Homemade vinegar


What do cheese, onions, fried cauliflower, hummus, baba ghanouj, Labne, figs, tea, pita bread, zatar, and olives have in common? They all went into my stomach in one morning. Of course I didn't eat everything shown here, but I sampled everything. If breakfast really is the most important meal of the day then I certainly did fine that day.
A "light" breakfast


It's the middle of winter and here is a fresh fruit stand. On the coast and down in the Bekaa valley, growing fruit is a year-round business. Up in the mountains it snows in the winter and you have to drive nearly TEN WHOLE MILES to get amazing fruit.
fruit stand just outside Beirut


This is a grapevine which hasn't been properly cared for this fall, nor has it been trimmed correctly. However, I like the idea that you really can grow grapes all year round. All you detractors saying that Jesus didn't actually make wine because grape wine wasn't known at that time (there is a significant portion of the population who believes this...) need to check your history. Whether or not Jesus actually turned water into wine is debatable. Whether it was grape wine or honey wine is not. Grapes are everywhere in Lebanon. Almost everyhouse (even the abandoned ones) have their own grape vines. Perhaps I should open a winery there...
Grapevine in winter


This picture serves a dual purpose. In the center of the room is a stove of sorts. it's a heater and keeps the main central room nice and toasty. On top are some iron stove eyes. People generally keep a pot of hot water on top and serve tea and arabic coffee throughout the day. Here is a picture of the stove being used to grill potatoes (from my aunt's garden of course).
Potatoes on Heater

Here is a picture of "Kharma" as they are so named in Arabic. They sort of look like tomatoes growing on an apple tree. Peculiar I thought. Anyway, they are totally delicious and I found out they are persimmons. I had no idea these were persimmons or that I actually like them. I couldn't eat enough of them.
Persimmons and dessert

Another fruit stand, need I say more?
fruit stand in Aley