Lebanese Food

[sbk]

Last time I was in Bangkok a friend suggested Lebanese food and I shuddered. My Uncle's second wife was Lebanese and she made some Lebanese food feast when I was about 10 or 11. Can't recall much, except I wasn't keen on the flavors (hey, I was ten ok?) and that she served some raw hamburger dish. Scarred me for life, I think.

Is there more to Lebanese food than the mushy funny tasting stuff and the raw meat I recall?

[Michaelaway]

Lebanese food is great:

[edit] National cuisine

This is a selection of appetizers that can be eaten alone as in breakfast, as well as important ingredients of Lebanese dishes

• Ackawi - white cheese originating from the Palestinian town of Acre or Akko
  
• Baba ghanouj - char-grilled aubergine (eggplant), tahina, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic puree—served as a dip.
  
• Baklava - a dessert of layered pastry filled with nuts and steeped in Attar Syrup (orange [or] rose water and sugar), usually cut in a triangular or diamond shape.
  
• Roasted Nuts - a mix of more than 20 kinds and flavors of kernels, mostly dry roasted.
  
• Balila - known as Cumin Chickpeas.
  
• Batata harra - literally "spicy potatoes".
  
• Fattoush - 'peasant' salad of toasted pita bread, cucumbers, tomatoes, chickweed, and mint.
  
• Falafel - small deep-fried patties made of highly-spiced ground chick-peas.
  
• Fried cauliflower
  
• Fried eggplant
  
• Fuul (Vicia faba) slow cooked mash of brown beans and red lentils dressed with lemon olive oil and cumin.
  
• Halva - sesame paste sweet, usually made in a slab and studded with fruit and nuts.
  
• Hummus - dip or spread made of blended chickpeas, sesame tahini, lemon juice, and garlic, and typically eaten with pita bread
  

• Kunafi - shoelace pastry dessert stuffed with sweet white cheese, nuts and syrup.
  
• Kibbeh - the national dish, mainly stuffed, can be made in different form like (fried,uncooked,cooked with yogurt)
  
• Kibbeh nayye - raw kibbeh eaten like steak tartar.
  
• Kofta or Kafta - fingers, stars or a flat cake of minced meat and spices that can be baked or charcoal-grilled on skewers.
  
• Kousa Mahshi- stuffed squash, many varieties are used
  
• Kubideh - served with pivaz (a mix of minced parsley, onions, ground cumin and sumac).
  
• Labneh- strained yogurt, spreadable and garnished with good olive oil and sea salt.
  
• Znood Es-sett - filo pastry cigars with various fillings
  
• Lahm bil ajĩn a pastry covered with minced meat, onions, and nuts.
  
• Ma'amoul - date, pistachio or walnut filled cookies shaped in a wooden mould called a tabi made specially for Christian (traditionally Eastern) and Muslim holidays (such as Ramadan).
  
• Makdous - stuffed eggplant in olive oil
  
• Manaeesh - mini pizzas that are made in any number of local bakeries or Furns (Furn Assalam, Ain El Hilwe, Saida), traditionally garnished with cheese, Zaatar, or minced meat and onions. some bakeries allow you to bring your own toppings and build your own or buy the ones they sell there. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
  
• Mujaddara (Imjaddarra) - cooked lentils together with wheat or rice, garnished with onions that have been sauteed in vegetable oil.
  
• Mutabbel - made from eggplant
  
• Pastirma or Bastirma
  
• Samkeh harra - literally translated to "hot fish" - grilled fish that has been marinated with chilis, citrus,and cilantro
  
• Shanklish -string cheese
  
• Shawarma - marinated meat (either chicken or lamb) that is skewered on big rods and cooked slowly, then shaved and placed in a 10 inch pita roll with pickles, tomatoes, and other tangy condiments.
  
• Shish taouk- grilled chicken skewers that utilize only white meat, marinated in olive oil, lemon, parsley, and sumac
  
• Siyyadiyeh - delicately spiced fish served on a bed of rice. fish cooked in saffron and served on rice with onions, sumac, and a tahini sauce (the most important part of the dish) originated in Saida (saidon).
  
• Tabbouleh - diced parsley salad with burghul, tomato and mint.
  
• Tahini- sesame paste
  
• Wara' Enab - stuffed grape leaves
  
• Za'atar - dried thyme and sumac that can differ from region to region and from family to family. Most are made in house, but can be bought at Lebanese larders.
  

[edit] Regional cuisine

Most of these recipes can be found in recipe books which cover the Levantine diet, and which are widely available in Lebanon and on Lebanese expatriate sites.

• Douma: Laban Immo (cooked yoghurt and lamb with rice)
  
• Hammana: Fasoulya Hammanieh (kidney bean stew)
  
• Beit Shabab: Riz bi-Djaj (chicken with rice)
  
• Kfar meshki: Kebbe bil-Kishk (meat mixed with wheat and yoghurt)
  
• Baskinta: Makhlouta (meat, rice, and nuts)
  
• Tripoli, Lebanon: Mjadrah and Fattoush (crushed lentils and salad)
  
• Broummana: Deleh Mehshi (stuffed rib cage of lamb)
  
• Baino: Kebbe and Lahme bil-khal (meat mixed with crushed wheat and meat soaked in vinegar)
  
• Dhour Choueir: Shish Barak (dough balls stuffed with ground beef and cooked in yoghurt)
  
• Firzel: Freikeh (cooked wheat with meat)
  
• Ehden: Kebbe Zghartweih (oven-cooked meat and crushed wheat blend)
  
• Beit Mery: Kebbe Lakteen (pumpkin-flavoured meat)
  
• Beirut: Samkeh Harra and Akhtabout (spicy fish and octopus), Roasted Nuts
  
• Zahle: Kebbe Zahleweieh (meat and crushed wheat blend)
  
• Rashaya Al-Wadi: Kebbe Heeleh (meatballs)
  
• Ras al-Metn: Fatet (yoghurt, fried bread and nuts)
  
• Ain-Zibdeh: Hareeseh (wheat and chicken)
  
• Rashana: Mjadrat Fasoulya (lentils and kidney beans)
  
• Beiteddine: Kafta Bithine (spiced meat with sesame concentrate)
  
• Ihmej: Ghameh (stuffed cow intestines)
  
• Sidon: Riz bil-Foul (Rice and fava beans)
  
• Bsharri: Koussa bil-Laban (meat and rice-stuffed zucchini cooked in yoghurt)
  
• Deir al-Kamar: Fatet Batinjan (yoghurt, fried bread and aubergine)
  
• Saghbeen: Zankal bil-Laban (meat filled pastry and yoghurt)
  
• Tyre: Saiyadit al-Samak (rice and fish)
  
• El-Koura: Abu Shoushe (topinambur and lentils stew)
  
• Baalbek: Safiha Baalbakieh (meat-stuffed puff pastry)
  
• Jbeil: Koussa and Wark Inab bil-Kastaletah (stuffed zucchini, grape vines and steak)
  
• Kalamoun, Lebanon Fresh Carrot juice with ice cream inside
  

[edit] Common beverages

• Almaza Beer
  
• Arak
  
• Ayran
  
• Jallab
  
• Lebanese wine
  
• Tahn
  
• Turkish coffee
  
• White coffee
  
• Arabic coffee qahwa saada (plain coffee) is plain and more bitter,although it originates in lebanon, it is popular in many the Levant countries.
  

[edit] Coffee

Coffee drinking in Lebanon is so much a part of the culture that it is joked that a Lebanese who didn’t drink coffee could lose his nationality. The coffee served is sometimes a variation of Turkish coffee, but a dark type of coffee (see above) is the main type served.

Coffee is served throughout the day, at home and in the public cafes. Lebanese coffee is strong, thick and often flavored with cardamom. It is also usually unsweetened and bitter. When guests arrive at one's home, they are invariably persuaded to stay for a coffee, no matter how short their visit. It is made with a long-handled coffee pot called rakwe, served in a demitasse, and poured out in front of the guest from the rakwe itself.

The Lebanese host usually asks the guests how they take their coffee; with or without sugar, since sugar is added during preparation.

[edit] See also

• Arab cuisine
  
• Cypriot cuisine
  
• Iraqi cuisine
  
• Islamic dietary laws
  
• Greek cuisine
  
• Levantine cuisine
  
• Mediterranean cuisine
  
• Middle Eastern cuisine
  
• Ottoman cuisine
  
• Palestinian cuisine
  
• Syrian cuisine
  
• Turkish cuisine
  

[sbk]

I do see some mushy stuff on that list, but some of it sounds pretty good too. Of course, the fact that I loathed my uncle's second wife might have had something to do with the shudder factor

Maybe I will give my friend the go ahead on lebanese next trip to Bangkok

[tutsiwarrior]

most of the famous Middle Eastern dishes are of lebanese origin...check out Claudia Roden's 'A Book of Middle Eastern Food' considered to be authoritative on the subject...

[Sateev]

Next time in BKK try Beirut, either in Ploenchit Center (bottom floor), or at Sala Daeng, in the same little mall with KFC and Subway, close to Patpong.

Start with some chicken shwarma and hummus, a few fresh pita breads, and the included pickle/veggie plate. Also comes with tahina, the best garlic sauce you will ever taste, and a sweet green chili sauce that compliments the others perfectly. Tear off bits of pita bread, spread some garlic sauce inside, and make small sandwiches with the chicken/hummus, and some pickles. Top with a bit of tahina and the green sauce, and get ready to cash bad checks for your next fix...

My fave.

Sateev