My Taste Buds don't lie!

4 things you should never pair with cucumber

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by Celine Chami • Tips • Tags: cucumbers, food, vegetables

I’m a cucumber freak. I generally love vegetables, but cucumbers have a special place in my heart… and in my fridge. It’s a great ingredient to add to salads because it brings crunchiness, sweetness and juiciness to the salad. It goes with almost any other ingredient, but sometimes, it is added to ingredients that are just wrong and are ruined completely by being mixed with cucumber. Here is my list of foods to never pair with cucumbers:

Chicken: I don’t know why people insist on adding cucumbers to a salad they’re eating with chicken but that’s just wrong, unless their taste buds are numb and they can’t taste how bad the mix is. If you want to add something crunchy in your salad, I suggest you choose red bell pepper as it goes perfectly well with chicken.

Canned tuna: there are only a few foods that go well with tuna and cucumber is not one of them. The mix has a fishy taste that is not good. Pickled cucumbers however, or cornichons are great with tuna because they add acidity and crunchiness.

Mayonnaise: I know mayonnaise is a condiment rather than basic food, but when you want to add it to a salad or any other type of dishes, don’t add cucumbers to the same dish. The aftertaste left by cucumbers and mayonnaise is really bad.

Eggs: eggs are a tricky food because they do smell a lot of times, even if nothing is added to the dish. Generally, not a lot of fresh vegetables go well with eggs, especially cucumbers. If you want to add an extra fresh taste with some crunchiness, the best combination is green onions or leeks.

Hungry? Try eating markouk bread, black olives and a tomato salad

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by Celine Chami • Quick Fixes • Tags: black olives, food, Lebanese food, tomato

I love to keep food traditions alive, especially foods we used to eat when we were kids, because on top of the taste, they bring back great childhood memories.

I wasn’t much of an eater when I was a kid, so my mother and aunts had to get very creative with me just so I’d eat something. I used to like (and I still do) acidic and salty tastes, so anything involving those flavours was always welcome.

And so once they had the brilliant idea of making me eat something they particularly like: black olives with tomatoes. But instead of just cutting the tomato, my aunt diced it and mixed it with salt, pepper and olive oil. She then brought markouk bread and black olives, and told me to taste the whole mix. So I’d remove the olive pit, roll the bread around the olive and dip it in the tomato salad. You cannot imagine how rich in flavours this whole mix is… The black olives bring earthiness, the tomatoes bring their usual sweetness and acidity and the salt, pepper and olive oil mix with the tomato juice to add sharpness and to perfect the flavours.

Next time you’re hungry and looking for a quick fix, try this incredible combination. I’m sure your taste buds will relish as it will easily become one of your favourite mixes.

Holy Smoke: best pork ribs in Lebanon!

by Celine Chami • Must-Try Foods • Tags: pork, pork ribs

I just love it when I taste something for the first time with no expectations whatsoever, and I get blown away by how good it tastes.

This is exactly what happened to me at the Christmas in Action exhibition. My husband had a booth there for his company and his neighbor turned out to be an old friend who was selling smoked pork ribs. He had a huge smoking station where the ribs were slowly roasting. He would open the lid every now and then and drizzle barbecue sauce on the ribs. Apart from this being an impressive show, the smell that filled the air was incredible! So naturally when I got hungry, I ordered a smoked rib sandwich to finally discover what it tasted like.

The guy toasted bread, added coleslaw and chopped ribs and handed me the sandwich. As simple as that. I cannot begin to express how good it tasted. The ribs were tender, juicy and had a double smoky taste from the cooking and the barbecue sauce. The coleslaw added a dash of crunch and sweetness – pretty much all what was needed to enjoy this masterpiece.

I asked Jack, the owner about where to find this delicacy, thinking he would have a restaurant somewhere we can go to. It turned out he has no restaurant and only caters to private events and participates occasionally in exhibitions. So, my dear readers, you will have to wait until the next exhibition, or give Jack a ring whenever you’re hosting a private event. But believe me, if it’s the latter, it will be the best thing you can serve to your guests, because whatever he smokes is hands down out of this world.

Discovering cauliflower and its whimsical Lebanese interpretations

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by Celine Chami • Tips • Tags: cauliflower, Lebanese cuisine, Lebanese food

I’m a huge fan of cauliflower. It is one of my favorite vegetables. It is high in fiber, full of vitamins and minerals, and tastes so so good. I believe every Lebanese home is very well acquainted with cauliflower because from the minute we can eat all types of foods, moms introduce us to cauliflower one way or another.

Growing up, everyone around me just loved cauliflower. I never actually met someone who dislikes it, probably because there are many Lebanese recipes where cauliflower tastes so different and so yummy!

The first recipe is raw cauliflower with cocktail sauce: I honestly don’t know if this is a Lebanese creation, because cocktail sauce is not Lebanese to start with. But I’ve been to many countries around the world and I’ve never seen this mix anywhere else. And it’s an incredible one. Cocktail sauce balances perfectly well the sharpness of cauliflower with its warmth and notes of sweetness. Of all the vegetables that could be eaten raw with cocktail sauce, I believe cauliflower is the best.

Next we have pickled cauliflower. I mean how delicious is that?? We Lebanese love our pickles with almost everything we eat, but I don’t think any kind of pickles tastes as good as cauliflower, right?

We then have the cauliflower stew. The transformation of the cauliflower and how it becomes tender, softer and milder is just out of this world. Cauliflower stew is a perfect dish for cold winter days and goes perfectly well with lemon juice, radish and black olives.

Last but definitely not least, we have the fried cauliflower. I don’t think there is a single being in Lebanon who doesn’t LOVE this version with tarator dip (tahini, salt, lemon juice and optionally garlic). It is hands down one of the most delicious Lebanese dishes to ever exist! Some people now bake the cauliflower instead of frying it because it is healthier, but I will leave that dish for my cheat meal and have it deep fried like it originally is :). Bon appétit!

fait Maison: changing the concept of bread freshness

by Celine Chami • Must-Try Foods • Tags: bread, French baguette, Lebanon

Before I start writing about fait Maison and how good their bread is, I would like to clarify a misconception I’ve had about frozen food until recently.

I’ve always thought that frozen food is… frozen which was, to me, the very opposite of fresh food. Accordingly, I always preferred buying shelf food, thinking it was fresher and healthier than frozen food. But then I started noticing how my mother freezes peas, mloukhieh and other seasonal foods and then uses them in stews during winter. So I did my research and it turned out that the way frozen food is preserved is simply by being frozen, so no additives are added in the preservation process, unlike shelf food, which almost invariably has additives and preservatives that make its life longer. The farther the expiry date, the more preservatives are used in the food. And because the only thing that makes frozen food last is the freezing process, frozen food must be cooked and consumed once it thaws or else it won’t last.

So, now that I clarified this very important point :), I can talk more easily about fait Maison and their bread.

fait Maison is a Lebanese brand of frozen bread. I got first acquainted with it through a training I was giving, where I met their sales manager. One day, he brought us freshly baked bread and croissants to the training and that’s where it all started for me. The croissants are amazing – fresh, crisp, fluffy and with the right dosage of everything. The bread is full, with a beautiful crust that you bake to your liking and it actually tastes like a fresh French baguette!

After that, my husband and I got used to ordering our bread online and baking it minutes before eating it, so imagine how the overall experience with bread has changed for us. I even get multi-cereal toast for my daughter that she eats every night for dinner with Labneh or zaatar.

Now that the holiday season is nearing, and the weather is getting colder J, it is the perfect time to warm up with cheese and wine nights. Get your bread from fait Maison and bake is just before enjoying it with your guests – believe me, it is going to be a much more enjoyable experience. Cheers!