Leila A. wrote: >Ob Lebanese Food Comment: Za'atar (mixed with olive oil, natch) makes a >lovely smear on a jack cheese quesadilla. Very reminiscent of a Beirut >snack favorite, the "half and half" manqushi, which is half cheese and >half za'atar. You can't get the half and half outside of Beirut, it's a >new thing and not done in the hinterlands, i.e. Sidon or Tripoli. I'm not sure if Qabr Chmoun counts as the hinterlands--it is about 35 minutes from Beirut by Lebanese driving, 60 minutes if a sane person who happens to value his/her life is driving--but I had this very item for the first time a couple of weeks ago while visiting the fam. It was damn good. The other one that's really popular (and that I didn't eat while growing up) consists of a stuffing made with kishk (dried yogurt), roasted pureed red peppers, onions, sesame seeds and olive oil. It doesn't really sound all that great, but it was. Ahh, food memories from Lebanon... The coffee with cardamom. And the ice cream made with gum Arabic. And the fig jam. And the chicken shawerma. And the freshly roasted nuts. Nabeel
Lebanon