Dear reader,
When a foreigner visits Lebanon, there’s a very specific, unwritten itinerary you’re expected to follow. First come the heritage checkboxes: the ruins of Baalbek, Saida’s citadel, the old souks of Tripoli, Beiteddine Palace. Then come the nature and food landmarks: the mandatory trip to a restaurant perched by a river in Baakline, usually named Shallalat something. You take them to Al Hallab for sweets, introduce them to the Lebanese burger — with cabbage and fries inside — get them a moghrabieh sandwich in Tripoli, and make sure they survive the glorious heaviness of a morning knefe.
But that’s the stuff of tourist brochures. My real expertise lies elsewhere: street food, elite shawarmas and the perfect man’ousheh. And this week, I took things a step further. I took a French person to Beirut’s southern suburbs for what can only be described as the ultimate culinary hate crime: a shawarma croissant.
Feeding a Frenchman a croissant stuffed with spiced chicken and garlic is the cultural equivalent of walking into a Michelin-starred restaurant in Rome and dumping ketchup on a plate of handmade pasta.
But here is the absolute truth the French aren't ready to hear: Lebanon does croissants infinitely better than France. There, I’ve said it.
I’ve had croissants in Paris. They were perfectly respectable, yet were also bland and lacked ambition. In France, the croissant is treated like a sacred artifact. They're terrified of messing with their buttery layers. Meanwhile, in Lebanon, we’ve casually normalized stuffing them with zaatar, cheese cocktail, turkey and cheese, or even a hotdog. We have absolutely zero respect for tradition and we somehow keep finding new ways to push the boundaries of what a croissant (or anything really) is allowed to become.
(My French friend survived, although a small part of her national pride died that day. So did our friendship. I hope.)
We’re not going to ask you to stuff a pastry with meat in your own kitchen this week, but we do have some incredible recipes that actually make sense.
It’s been a while since I've recommended dessert recipes for you to try, so this week, treat yourself to Chef Chantal Tabet’s coffee and almond praline craquelin cream puffs. And if you’re looking for a truly Lebanese dish to introduce to a foreigner, we have Kamal Mouzawak's ‘true’ tabbouleh.
Melissa Manouchakian
Distribution editor
Restaurants and more
Melanie Ghoul left Oxford and scientific research to open, with her brother Anthony, Ceci, a Lebanese restaurant in Milan serving made-to-order mezze bowls.
A cooking playlist
In case you missed last week’s newsletter, here’s a reminder of the new cooking playlist we’ve created. A curation of 15 songs designed to help you cut through the distractions, find your flow, and finally get dinner done.
Our foodie finds
From Zgharta and its surroundings, you may know its sacred nature, rivers, the Qannoubin Valley, its churches and millennia-old trees, but did you know where to find Asian flavors, a magnificent cinnamon-scented sahlab, and the essential, unbeatable kebbeh in all its forms?
