Most marvelous day of filling my cakehole. For breakfast I had Lahmadjun (in Armenian and Lachmacun in Turkish). This must be a pan Ottoman thing because there variations everywhere. The Armenian version is a paper thin dough with a spiced meat topping. Like a little thin, thin pizza. Sometime with Armenian spices, sometimes just with pomegranate syrup, which is sour and delicious; and used here like balsamic on salady things. Its cooked in a pizza oven for about a minute because its so thin. And you eat it rolled up. They’ve been making this one thing since 1946.

There also a lovely fresh flat bread here. More wholemealy and chewy than the regular bread (which is served with everything!). Its cooked on a sort of upside down wok by handsome men*. Sometimes*

Then I went to an old bakery in the East of the city. There was baklava in a million forms. Cashew, pistachio, walnut. Pastry and nuts and semolina. All tiny and perfect. A man was hand rolling and stacking phyllo. I ate an amazing pikelet-thing with clotted cream and orange blossom jam. Could have eaten 20.

And a tiny ice cream shop in the only undamaged corner of a condemned building. The oven has a bullet hole in it. A lovely man and his mother have always had this business. I ate rose water sorbet, pistachio, milk and mastic which is what they use in Turkey. It’s hard to describe the flavor. Its very subtle. Mostly it changes the texture to make it chewy.

I went to a very beautiful little hipster restaurant. Gorgeous inside and out. They had rows of amazing home made pickles. Pickled green almonds. Plums. Figs. Peppers. and lots of dried herbs and spices. Zatar. Sumac. Strings of tiny baby dried okra. Rosemary water. Sage water.

Baby Okra – another necklace for Sofia 🙂

This one is dried intestine. Maybe not for Sofia’s jewellery  :).

Lots of cheese. Everything is goat or sheep here. If its cow is probably Bulgarian. Not so much hard, aged cheeses, just fresh feta-y cheese and labneh. Somtimes dried labneh in balls, preserved in oil.

Lebanese manti is baked first then put into the hot yoghurt. So its crunchy. Its really good. But I prefer the Turkish one.

I had the best falafel I’ve ever had. Part chickpea,part fava. Crispy. Fluffy on the inside. Tiny bit of anise and coriander. In a sandwich with yogurt sauce, tomato, pickles fresh herbs.

And the best charwarma in Beirut – but I still prefer the Turkish doner. Which is slightly different.

Grilled meat is fabulous here. Taouk chicken is marinated and grilled. The good stuff is cooked over charcoal rather then electricity. And they have amazing chain places. Everyone delivers , so there millions of motorbikes, because the bladerunnerish traffic congestion prevents parking.

Different types of figs and plums. I’m too early for persimmons but I had juice in Istanbul

Armenian tabouli. Where everything is cooked down into a thick salsa-ish sauce. Tastes way better than it looks.

Lamb cooked with cherries and cashews –

My eating companion was a gorgeous chef/ food blogger/ Palestinian man. Definitely one of my people. I loved him. We just gave up after a while and drank wine and talked about boys. He is in a clown troupe that perform for the kids in the camps. He is fabulous. I wish he could be my Beiruti souvenir. But he’s very at home with all the lovely bears in Beirut. Eyelashes to die for.