Pop City is a booth I should have spent more time at, and tasted one of the many unique popsicles flavours... but I regress and regret now.
On to savoury, these women (who I failed to take their names) take the basic Kebbeh and stuff it with other dishes and flavours. What a brilliant idea - topping Kebbeh like pizza or turning it into sandwiches. Something I am sure to try soon.
Taking a break from food, these are cooked but not edible - soaps made into all sorts of traditional Lebanese objects. Wonder who may get one for Christmas this year.
Lebanon winery scenes is following the growth we are seeing in the Okanagan. Chateau St. Thomas is one such winery that I have not heard of before this fair. And they sure knew how to get noticed - preparing fresh mulled wine with their exceptional Pinot Noir.
One of my lovely cousins showed up with a list of Beirut fun activities. The list was long and the Christmas In Action event, with its many many exhibits, took the share of the outing. A huge warehouse filled with booth after booth of local foodies presenting their foods. I was like a kid in a candy store jumping from booth to booth, forgetting along the way to take down the business name. So if I don't mention your name, it just means that you distracted me too much with your delicious goodies; not that I do not want to promote you. The varieties of grapes, citrus, pumpkins and vegetables - all organic and original to the land welcomed visitors.
Miel du Levant is the first organic honey in Lebanon. Different flavours and sizes with 0% saccharose. I tasted and I liked! (www.mieldulevant.com)
While not edible, this was my favourite encounter and purchase. Bechara Baroudi Akel is a young Chilean Lebanese artist with productions that is a hybrid of art and graffiti (at least that is how I saw it). Beautiful stuff and some of the art is turned into iPhone covers; which I am now a proud owner. (www.becharabaroudi.com)
Jams, jams and more jams. This guy turns anything edible into jams including eggplants and every fruit you can think of. I could not resist picking up a beautiful looking jar of watermelon jam (yes, with pieces of watermelon in the jam). You are welcome to visit for a taster over afternoon tea next week.
And of course chocolates. There were over a handful of chocolate booths, but the one that grabbed me is LE NOIR Atelier Du Chocolat based within four minutes drive from my parents' house.
Pure chocolate turned into an amazing hot chocolate with melting marshmallows. Exceptional. (Info@lenoirchocolat.com).
Zig zagging through streets that barely fit a car, you reach El Furn. El Furn is a place where all morning, a father and his sons make Manakeesh dough, bake them fresh and sell them for about a dollar a piece.
And by fresh I mean they make and bake them right there in front of you as you almost faint from heat and hunger.
Manakeesh Furns are everywhere and it is amazing that what seems like a simple process can produce a big variance in the quality of Manakeesh from furn to furn.
A perfect project for a researcher - sampling as many Manakeesh as possible to get to the bottom of what furn characteristics correlate with exceptional Manakeesh.
Eid El-Burbara is when we remember Saint Barbara, a 7th Century Lebanese woman who, legend says, disguised herself in many characters to elude persecution of her Baalbec sun-worshipping father because she decided to become a Christian. It is also said that wheat grew out of season and several metres taller than usual to hide her as she ran away from her father; who eventually caught her and cut her head off.
When I was a kid, Eid El-Burbara included running around in masks, fireworks, and boiled wheat with sugar and nuts to reflect elements of her story. The following video is a great depiction of this celebration by my favourite Lebanese singer, Sabah.
While fireworks and masks rituals are slowly disappearing, December 4th sweets ritual is very much alive.
Zlabeyeh is a version of donuts that is made on Eid El-Burbara - fried spiced dough that is dipped in the famous Lebanese sugar syrup - the syrup is a common element of all this feast's sweets.
It doesn't stop here. Three other Eid El-Burbara sweets are the Mshabbak (the coloured ones to the left above), Maacroon (the dark fried etched cookies to the right) and ..
Ouwamat, the round ones (above). All three are basically the same dough, but vary in shapes and spicing but all are dipped in the sugar syrup. I couldn't have timed this trip better.
The Starbucks' controversial 2015 red cup followed me to Beirut, so I thought I may as well check it out (Hamra Location) and blog about it. Once you walk in, it is the same menu, prices and Starbucks types lounging around as any Starbuck in Vancouver. Where it differs is the physical set up. This Starbucks is spread over 3 levels and an outside patio. And forget about the uncomfortable small tables - here you have big leather chairs in an arabesque ambiance.
This arabesque fanciness extends to even the washrooms!
Yes, Beirut likes to fancy anything up. Check out this one remaining bombed out building from the days of the war fancied up with graffiti to hide the bombed out holes.
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