pain-aux-olives

Behold, for I just had the best olive bread I’ve ever tasted in my life

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by • Featured, Must-Try Foods • Tags: ,

I just love discovering new food experiences that randomly come across me and that are a true revelation. It is not often that this happens, so when it does, I have to write about it because people who make great food deserve to be heard of.

I’ve recently had this experience when my dear Priscilla told me that her mom’s friend makes olive bread, if we ever wanted to try it. And then one day, for some celebration, Priscilla brought some to the office with her. It comes in the shape of a crown, it’s soft and moist, and it smells like heaven with notes of thyme, olives and vanilla.

And then you taste it. What can I say about its taste? Where do I start? There are sweet milky notes that combine to perfection with the thyme. The dough has the right amount of salt and the olives bring the earthy notes that make for a perfect finish. It is simply incredible. It’s like eating a cake that’s not a cake and you get to enjoy it with Labneh (my favorite), cheese or zaatar. Even if you do not wish to add anything to it, it’s still as delicious and you simply cannot stop eating it. I have been to many, many restaurants in Lebanon and around the world and believe me when I say this is the best olive bread I’ve ever tasted in my life.

Of course, I wasn’t going to write a blog post about it and not leave you with the contact details of the lady who makes it. Her name is Chantal Feghali and you can reach her on 03589837. She also makes the same but replaces the olives with cheese, chocolate or cinnamon. I have yet to taste these variations, but I can assure you that the olive bread will be a revelation for you, just as it was for me.

food

Dear restaurants: for the love of good food, less creativity, more taste

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by • Featured, Tips • Tags: ,

This blog post has been on my mind for some time, but I didn’t quite know how to express what I wanted to say in a proper way. I’m still not sure I can, but it is very important that I get it out of my system :).

I have been very disappointed by my overall restaurants experience lately. There is no specific restaurant I am talking about and I am in no way reviewing any, but I would like to address restaurants in general, especially those new places that scream modernism in every aspect from décor to comfort, service and especially the food. You get the menu and just marvel at the names of the dishes and what is supposed to be inside them. But then you get to the tasting part and that’s where the whole disappointment is. I’m a big, big fan of balancing food and selecting ingredients in their right dose for the entire dish to have a harmonious taste. And this is what these new restaurants, probably in their “nouvelle cuisine” concepts, are missing. You see, when I want to eat chicken fajitas, I want to taste the chicken at some point and not be overwhelmed with the spices. When I want to have a guacamole entrée, I want my avocado to be fresh and to taste good, rather than be drowned in tomatoes and whatever other ingredients are in there. When I want to eat a salad, I need to recognize every ingredient through its texture, taste and more importantly, through how well it goes with other ingredients.

Sadly, it seems to me that restaurants are recreating picture-perfect dishes that look great on Instagram and visually seduce younger generations, but with no real taste that follows the dish’s presentation. I go to a place knowing in advance what to order because I’ve seen the pictures, and I can assure you that most of the time, the taste is bland, deceiving or simply imbalanced. I wish the chefs would simply ease it down on the creativity and focus on the taste instead by simplifying their recipes and valuing good, harmonious ingredients that go well together.

 

Photo by Katie Smith on Unsplash

steak

Dear foodies, please stop asking Le Gargotier to become a modern restaurant

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by • Featured, Must-Try Foods • Tags: , ,

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know I never review restaurants. The reason why I don’t do it is because I am not a restaurant expert, nor do I pretend to have the qualifications to professionally rate the service, prices, décor, etc. of any given restaurant. Moreover, my aim in writing blog posts is to simply talk about good food, regardless of where it is found.

But today I decided to make an exception and talk about a restaurant, because I’m appalled by the amateur reviews I’ve been reading about it. The restaurant I want to talk about is Le Gargotier and the reviews I’m targeting are ones asking for more modernism in this place. Let me start by saying that Le Gargotier has been around for 46 years, way before these so called foodies and sometimes even their parents were born. It has a typical French bistro architecture, décor, carte and style, the very elements these foodies are criticising. It is a cozy restaurant whose charm is built on its old décor, old music, old waiters and Hoda. Hoda is the owner who knows everyone’s name and everyone’s parents. She is the very reason this restaurant exists and is a landmark in an otherwise forgotten area.

The menu is simple, straightforward and simply good. It is authentic in everything that’s served. It may not be the best food you’ll ever get served in Lebanon but it is damn good and totally worth your dining experience.

When you ask Le Gargotier to become more modern and change its decor, music and staff, it is exactly like when you tear down another old house in Beirut to replace it with a faceless, characterless building; it will lose its identity and the very essence of what makes it what it is and what it has always been.

To me, Le Gargotier is a place where my parents, my family and hopefully my children have had and will have great memories to share. It has an unparalleled value proposition that the best modern restaurants haven’t been able to compete with.

salad

My infallible tip to refresh a leftover salad

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by • Featured, Tips • Tags: , ,

There is nothing I hate more than throwing food away. It just drives me nuts the amount of food we discard every day, especially when the reason is simply because we get bored of eating what’s in our fridge, or because we do not eat leftovers.

I always make sure to store in the freezer all the food we are not going to be eating in the near future, preserving it and making sure it doesn’t go to waste. This is not as obvious with salad that simply cannot be frozen because freezing fresh vegetables (like lettuce, cucumbers or tomatoes) ruins them and makes them inedible.

But I also understand that a leftover salad is the least appealing thing to eat the next day, especially when it’s mixed with the dressing, because the vegetables lose their crunch and color and most of the time become mushy. But that doesn’t mean that I’m willing to throw it away, so I found the perfect way to refresh leftover salads and make them almost as fresh as when first prepared.

My tip for this is to add one or two fresh elements to that leftover salad. If your salad initially had lettuce leaves or cucumbers, I suggest you add few fresh leaves of lettuce or chop a fresh cucumber over it and the trick is done! Don’t ask me why that works; I know nothing scientific about it but I know that adding a fresh ingredient changes the texture of your salad and brings it back to life :).

 

Featured photo credited to Raphael Nogueira.

chateau-heritage

Château Heritage: In Vino Veritas

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by • Drinks • Tags: ,

Few days ago, we were invited by 209 Lebanese Wine as part of a small group to visit Château Heritage winery and discover their latest wines. I’ve known Château Heritage wines for a long time and some of their wines are always found in our cellar at home, but I was eager to go on that adventure and further explore the story behind this winery.

Once we got there, we were greeted by the man himself: Dr. Dargham Touma. The minute you meet the guy, the pieces of the puzzle start fitting in. He is simply incredible. He radiates passion, generosity, charisma and an unfathomable love of live.

After a very insightful tour of the winery, seasoned with the right dose of information and laughter, we reached the most important part of the winery aka the tasting room. I still cannot believe we tasted 10 different wines, out of which we had five reds, one rosé, two whites, one sweet wine and one chocolate wine.

The wines I particularly want to talk about are the newest Cuvée Saint Elie white and red, produced in commemoration of Dr. Touma’s late father. The white wine is simply incredible. It is a blend of Chardonnay and Viognier, the oldest vines of the winery, and is mixed with staves of oak that add richness and give the wine an exquisite hint of spices.

The red wine is a blend of Cinsault, the oldest Lebanese grape and Cabernet Sauvignon, the most resilient grape variety. It has hints of oak that do not overthrow its balance, and a velvety finish that is extremely smooth on the palate.

Both wines are a pure delight and are sold exclusively on 209lebanesewine.com. I highly recommend you give them a try; they’re a true commemoration of a winemaker’s story, passion and persistence.

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