LEBANON EATS: Must Eat Regional Food
Mezze Menu of the Day. Le Chef. Gemmayzeh. Beirut, Lebanon. Photo by Deets on Eats
Dear Foodie Fam,
Here is a list of the Lebanese foods I recommend for any foodie visiting Beirut!
If you have any to add, comment below!
Fattoush. Le Chef. Gemmayzeh. Beirut, Lebanon. Photo by Deets on Eats
Fattoush فتوش
“Fattūsh” comes from the Arabic word fatt (“crush”). Flatbread-based foods are known as “fattat” in Lebanon. The flatbread in this dish is crispy and toasted.
Fattoush is a traditional Lebanese salad served as a side dish allowing grilled meats to be the star of a meal. This salad was born in Northern Lebanon when Lebanese farmers took leftover pita scraps and fried them with olive oil to make them more like chips. They tossed them with in-season vegetables and this salad was created!
Think of how lovely croutons sometimes are in a salad… then imagine that instead of croutons, a delicious salad comes with a crispy, thin and finely course pita. You get to crumble it up on your salad and mix it all up together, yourself! Which is pretty fun because it’s almost like permitted playing-with-food!
The salad itself has vegetables like lettuce, tomatoes, radish, cucumber and purslane. It’s soaked in a tangy mix of olive juice, garlic, lemon and salt. It’s sweet and a little sour. The major flavor is sort of vinegary.
Fatteh. Le Chef. Gemmayzeh. Beirut, Lebanon. Photo by Deets on Eats
Fatteh فتّة
This is my favorite Lebanese dish! It’s eaten at breakfast and sometimes in the evening. It’s the most popular brunch dish in Tripoli.
Fatteh uses flatbread as a base. The bread can be fresh, toasted or stale but it’s always crumbled up (“fatteh” means “to crumble”).
The crumbled up bread is smothered with chickpeas, olive oil and strained yogurt. Sometimes, cumin is added. These ingredients are crushed up and mixed together.
Fatteh is all at once warm, thick, creamy, velvety, melty and silky. The one we had was lemony and buttery. It’s casserole-ish and it can be eaten with pita or all my itself! Gosh- it felt really like a guilty fucking pleasure.
Lebanon has at least ten kinds of fatteh including chickpea fatteh, chicken fatteh, lamb fatteh, kafta fatteh, stuffed eggplant fatteh, lamb feet fatteh and lamb tongue fatteh. Other times, eggplant, carrots, chicken, pine nuts or lamb is added.
Kibbeh. Le Chef. Gemmayzeh. Beirut, Lebanon. Photo by Deets on Eats
Kibbeh كبة
This is Lebanon’s national dish and the national dish of many other Middle Eastern countries, too. Its name comes from the Arabic word for “ball” and it’s traditionally served in both Lebanese homes and eateries.
Kibbeh is made of finely ground up meat mixed with cracked wheat, bulgur and pureed or minced onion. It’s got spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove and is drizzled with mint and olive oil. Specifically, it uses the Arabic seven spices called “baharat.” It’s often topped with sautéed pine nuts and served as part of a mezze with pita bread and fresh vegetables like tomatoes.
This rustic dish is most famous for using incredibly fresh meat. The meat is usually beef or lamb but it can be goat or camel, too. It’s sometimes eaten in a round, small football-y form but often appears in triangular slices or flat patties. It’s cooked in broth, fried or baked but it’s most famously eaten raw (kibbeh nayeh).
Course, cinnamon-y with hits of parsley. Because of the wheat, it’s some of the softest meat I have ever had. Super supple with a nice bounce. STUNNING with the cool, cucumbery, garlicky yogurt sauce it often comes with.
Watch Migrationology’s Mark Wiens visit the birth place and mecca of kibbeh in Lebanon!
Source: Wiki Commons
Tabouleh تبولة
Tabouleh originated in the mountains between Syria and Lebanon and is now a very common side and mezze dish. Its name comes from the Arabic word for “seasoning” or “dip.” It’s mostly chopped up parsley, bulgur (sometimes couscous), mint, garlic, onion and tomatoes soaking in olive oil, lemon juice, and salt.
Watch Migrationology’s Mark Wiens enjoy shanklish in a glorious mezze video at the end of this post.
Arak. Beirut, Lebanon. Photo by Deets on Eats
Arak ﻋﺮﻕ
Because Lebanon is a Muslim country, it’s biggest export is alcohol. This is Lebanon’s national alcoholic drink. This clear, unsweetened drink is made of distilled grapes and aniseed. It tastes like anise and is a doozy capping at 63% alcohol. It’s served mixed (2 parts arak to 1 part ice or water) in small glasses as a courteous opening to a mezze. More modern arak cocktails can have ginger ale, orange juice, green tea or grapefruit juice.
It has quite a licorice-y taste. Dutch hated it. I liked it!
Source: Wiki Commons
Kanafeh كُنافة
This is a sort of sugary Nabusi cheesecake popular in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon for breakfast or dessert. It’s offered during traditional events no matter the religion of those eating it.
Kanafeh is made with cheese, sugar and butter and topped with pistachios and a simple sugar syrup. Sometimes it’s a thin stringy pastry and other times it’s a fine dough but it’s always soaked in syrup and layered with fresh cheese. Orange blossom or rose water syrup gives it a distinct color and taste.
Slices of kanafeh are often served on bread like a breakfast sandwich or topped with clotted cream and nuts. The way the kanafeh is served depends on the region it’s served in.
Source: Wiki Commons
Mannakish مناقيش
This is basically Arabic pizza. Its name comes from the Arabic word for “pastry.” It’s the plural of the Arabic word for “sculpting” or “carving.” Dough is rolled flat and little beds are pressed into it for craddling toppings.
Aromatic ingredients like zaatar, sesame seeds, kishik (cracked wheat paste) olive oil and sumac are spread on fresh dough and baked with cheese and sometimes with ground meat. It’s served with tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh mint leaves, and olives as a filling breakfast or lunch.
You can grab mannakish fancy Lebanese eateries or street vendor stalls. Entire communities specialize in mannakish bakeries. During times of war, bakeries couldn’t make large volumes of bread so they let families bake their small batches in their ovens. Today, by traditional, women still bake their mannakish in communal ovens every morning.
Watch Migrationology’s Mark Wiens enjoy mannakish, below.
Source: Wiki Commons
Shanklish شنكليش
Shanklish is made of cow or sheep milk usually shaped into golf ball-sized bites. The texture of shanklish depends on the type. It tastes dry and salty.
It’s often rolled in zaatar, pepper and/or thyme before being aged and dried. Every family used their own spice coating. The more aged the shanklish is, the harder and more pungent the shanklish gets.
It’s served crumbled up on a plate with diced tomato, chopped onion and olive oil, pita bread and sometimes arak. Other times, it’s mashed up with eggs or with pita, cucumbers or mint for breakfast. It’s most populary eaten during a mezze.
Watch Migrationology’s Mark Wiens enjoy shanklish in a glorious mezze video at the end of this post.
Other Foods to try:
Halloumi
Hummus
Baklava
Baba Ghanoush
Ful Medammas
Kofta
Shish Taouk
Shawarma
Falafel
Labneh
As you may know, we are huge fans of Mark Wiens. He actually went to Lebanon while Dutch and I were just boarding a plane out of Beirut! Here’s a cool video of him enjoying a mezze. Let’s just say… we can relate!