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by John Salvi MW |
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EATING IN LEBANON by John Salvi MW This article is on John's website www.countsalvi.com and was also published in the Circle of Wine Writers Update magazine. Many thanks for permission to reproduce it here. John and his wife Petronella also edit/write the publication 'Bordeaux – New York.' Pictures taken by and copyright Jim Budd (click on the link, right, for more). Our trip to Lebanon was, gastronomically speaking, an extremely flatulent, exciting and avoirdupois-gaining experience. An abundance of chick peas saw to the first, a host of hitherto unknown dishes took care of the second and an abundance of delicious breads dealt with the third. Overall we had 7 meals, although it seemed to be a great deal more. Those who lingered for the extra two days had eleven. Plenty of time was consecrated to these repasts, as no ridiculous requests had been forwarded to our hosts for light lunches – an abominable habit sadly adopted by the Institute of Masters of Wine on its Wine Study trips such as ours.
Most of us were new to Middle Eastern and Lebanese cuisine and eager to discover all that we could about its extent and its delights in the short time allotted to us. Fortunately all our hosts were only too eager to assist us, to explain all their dishes to us and to help us to spell and to pronounce them. As Virgil said, “I will not waste your time by enumerating the impressive variety of dishes that appeared on the table as Mezze”, but of course that is exactly what I am going to do. Between them they provided a bewildering array of small dishes of contrasting colours flavours, textures and aromas. I have done my best to list what came to our table during our visit, but there are surely many omissions. There was not always enough time to get all the explanations from our hosts, so busy were they making sure that all was well with us. No meal was served without three of the national dishes mentioned below. Firstly the famous TABOULEH (bulgur wheat, parsley, mint, green onions, olive oil, lemon juice, sliced tomatoes, salt and pepper). Secondly the “incontournable” FATTOUSH (minced garlic, salt, pepper, Lebanese mint, lemon juice, olive oil, chopped Romaine lettuce, diced cucumber, and the absolutely essential crisply toasted flat bread). Thirdly Kibbe – ground, almost emulsified, meat, malaxed with bulgur wheat, onion, salt, black pepper and spices and often served with a yoghurt sauce. Here we go!
Toum: garlic paste MEAT
Kibbe (Kebbeh, Kibbi,
Kibi): raw ground meat. Pink
Chicken and rice FISH
Fish Kibbe
Lebanese fish and rice WHITE CHEESES
Halloum: cream cheese Entrée dishes
Rkakat bi Jibne: cheese
cigars DESSERTS
Yoghurt with honey Coffee: western or Lebanese, sweetened or unsweetened, with or without cardamom Arak: The national aniseed spirit in every shape, form and flavour All these dishes appeared at least once if not many times and some of the staples came with every meal. In addition to the above, and among the more unusual dishes for us, were cubes of raw liver and raw tail fat from freshly killed lambs, as well as raw kid-meat and goat-meat kibbe. The range of white cheeses, fresh, soft, dried, mixed with herbs and spices or crumbled with oil, was remarkable, as was the range of dishes made with chick peas and with aubergines. Most of these are included in the list of Mezze above. Lebanese food is healthy and “sain”. Butter is almost never used and olive oil, fresh, fruity and unfiltered, is used extensively. Parsley, mint, coriander, aniseed, sesame and fragrant Lebanese thyme were among the herbs and spices most frequently used. Every meal included a large selection of raw vegetables piled high on attractive platters – enormous, deliciously flavoured tomatoes, carrots, onions, salad greens, green and red peppers (both sweet and searingly hot), as well as cucumbers. There was also, without fail, several platters of fresh fruits at the end of each repast: – bananas, green oranges, mandarins, persimmons, apples, pears, custard apples, loquats, satsumas, melons, fresh and half dried dates. These were served at the same time as a variety of desserts, which always included Loukoum, various pastries and other exotic sweetmeats. After the Mezze came a main course, or often two. One could imagine that our hosts had liaised with each other so varied and unrepetitive were the dishes presented to us. Fresh fried trout straight from the waters above which we sat to eat them, herb encrusted frogs legs, kibbe pockets. These last were fascinating, being raw lamb or goat or kid meat, pounded with herbs and spices, made into pockets and filled with fat to keep the meat moist whilst being cooked. When served and opened the fat had to be scraped out before eating the meat. One of our longer dinners had a powerful and pungent dish of little pasta balls and chick peas with a rich meat sauce (beef this time) ladled over them. Known as Moghrabiyeh, it was a dish ideal for ravenous agricultural labourers returning from the fields, rather than for over-sated and sedentary wine-tasters at the end of a long, energy-sapping day. There were also highly flavoured lamb stews and chicken stews with Bulgur wheat as well as a variety of Kebabs of various meats, savoury and spicy little sausages, grilled sausage meat patties and grilled lamb, goat, kid and chicken pieces. One Winery offered us a choice of more or less Western dishes in their excellent winery restaurant and produced, for Petronella and myself, a perfectly cooked, rare steak and a fine piece of sea-bass cooked on a hot rock. I was stupid enough to eat some raw, unknown mushrooms up in the stand of Lebanon cedars and suffered acute stomach ache that night. This was cured with aniseed tea dosed with orange blossom water – a cure that I shall take as often as I can in the future!
If you think that all of the above was squeezed into three days for some, or a maximum of five for others, then you will not be surprised that some of our group had firm intentions of dieting upon their return home. It would be interesting to know how many fulfilled their good intentions and how many, like me, were immediately led astray by an “entrecote aux sarments” and a bottle of 1966 Château Palmer." Lucky you John! |
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Our arrival was momentous
and cannot be left unsung. Rarely I feel is one plunged quite so deeply
and rapidly into the heart of a new culture. We had exactly fifteen
minutes to wash and brush up at our hotel before being trundled off in our
bus on a long, twisting and mysterious drive, through the dark, to heaven
alone knew where. It turned out to be the Hotel Mounir. Here we were
catapulted straight into a full-scale Lebanese wedding for 300 guests.
The dancing was amazing, the decibels right off the scale and the food an
unending stream of unknown delights. We were encouraged to join in as
though we were absolutely part of the family. It was an evening of great
warmth and emotion, and the food, which was served throughout the entire
evening, was a more exotic version of what we were to eat at every meal
during the days that followed. It gave us an immediate, if rather
overwhelming, introduction to the immense variety of Lebanese cuisine.
Of course we must not
forget the breakfasts, three of them for the regular tour and five for the
stoppers-over. In the Bekaa Valley hotel these were relatively spartan,
but at the Radisson Hotel in Beirut they were copious buffets covering the
full spectrum of breakfast foods and rather more – a savoury chick pea and
broad bean stew by the name of Foul Moudamas Balila
Nine of us, out of the
original twelve, stayed in Lebanon for two extra days. Being on the
coast, in Beirut, and having had very little of it, we went resolutely for
fish. The recipe in these restaurants is simple and excellent. The fishes
are colourfully laid out on chilled slabs, packed with ice. One discusses
and chooses a selection of them. These are then picked out, weighed and
one is charged accordingly, by weight. One then tells the restaurant
exactly how one would like each fish to be cooked – grilled, fried, baked,
in sauce, etc. Fish is expensive and it is better to choose local fish,
which is absolutely spanking fresh and flavoursome, rather than imported
fish. Most of the shellfish, lobsters, prawns and shrimps for example,
are imported from Kuweit or Turkey. The Blue crabs are local and simply marvellous as are the red mullet, sea-bass, sand and rock grouper and some
mysterious fishes known as “mouse” and “Sultan Brahim”. These are all
fished offshore and should not be missed. There are no native oysters or
mussels. There are an abundance of fish restaurants along the coast,
ranging from delightful, rustic, simple terraces on the beach, to elegant,
fine, crystal and white linen tablecloth palaces, with glass fronts facing
the sea. Both of these are enjoyable and exhilarating experiences.