Village Life in Northern Lebanon

The drive from Tripoli goes past blocks of decrepit old apartment buildings, past a large Palestinian camp, past Bedouin encampments, up the national highway toward Syria. We then head east to the bustling city of Halba, the regional government seat for the province of Akkar. From there, the road becomes much more scenic. We climb up steep hills peppered with quaint villages of stone houses capped with steep red roof tiles.

Lebanese countryside 

We drive up the winding road past small fields of golden wheat and fruit orchards. The air is already much cooler. Bright wild flowers line the side of the road. Left over red poppies from the spring, wild thistles, pink primroses, wild mustard. Everywhere it's an explosion of color against the deep blue sky.

After a little more than an hour we make it to my grandparents' village, Beit Mellat. Nestled high in the mountain, it is one of a few small Christian villages among a Muslim area of northern Lebanon. There are at least 5 churches in a village of fewer than 500 people. 

Beit Mellat

Saint Simon, my grandma's church

Small altars dedicated to various saints a scattered throughout the village in front of pious homes. Olive groves and fruit orchards are the only left over of former agricultural days.

 My great grandfather left his home over 100 years ago for what he thought was Brasil. Instead an unscrupulous ship captain left him in Haiti. There he started a new life, found a wife and eventually became prosperous. His sons, including my grandfather, came back home where they met their brides. With a promise of a better life in America, my grandmother married at 18 and headed to Haiti with her new husband. They eventually built a summer house high in the mountains of Haiti but nostalgia brought her back home to her native village where she built another summer house in the 1950s.

The house was a large modern structure built of local stone but with a large roof top deck foot enjoy the cool summer nights. Seven bedrooms and 3 and a half bathroom, large modern kitchen, large dinning room, formal living room and a large reception room  were built to accommodate my grandparents' large family. A large plot of land planted with pine nut trees and a orchard was meant to produce most of the fruit and vegetables.

Sign announcing house of mayor of Beit Mellat, my cousin.

View from rooftop terrace

Pine nut drying up in the sun

House garden

Mom with her sister

We arrive early in the morning and open the doors and windows to air the house closed since last winter. Villagers somehow know that my aunt and her family have arrived. Old friends and relatives drop by all day long for the traditional visit over a cup of strong, thick-as-mud Turkish coffee. It has been three years since I last visited with my mom. Many people who remember that I am a physician come by with their medical files for a second opinion (from someone they trust).

Visiting old friends

Village life is quiet. Up with the sun, we start the day with a traditional breakfast of "manooshay", thin flat breads baked on a traditional round grill and covered with a variety of toppings from the traditional zahtar (mountain thyme, sumac,  sesame seeds and olive oil), local cheese, ground meat mixed with onion, tomato and allspice to newer versions with ham and cheese. 

Afterwards we go for a walk. It is late spring and the morning air is still crisp. Wild flowers line the edge of the fields. As we wander through the village, housewives are busy doing their chores. Laundry is being hung outside to dry in the bright sunshine. We are warmly greeted by everyone. We eventually make it to the house of old friends were we stop for a visit and the traditional cup of coffee. We wander past the village churches and make it back home.

Village street

Old house being remodeled

Traditional village house

Lunch takes up a couple of hours in the early afternoon. Grilled kibbehs are served with tart yogurt and a salad seasoned with olive oil, mint, garlic and lemon juice. Then comes the fruit plate (apricots, red and green plums, peaches, water melon and loquats). More coffee does not keep us from a quick nap on the front porch.

Grilling kibbehs

By late afternoon more visitors come by for many other cups of coffee. We eat a light dinner of labne (yogurt cheese) drizzled with olive oil from my aunt's olive grove, olives, ripe green Lebanese tomatoes and cucumbers and bread. After another round of fruit, we settle back on the front porch were more visitors drop by until after 11.

Sunset on the front porch

Politics is the Lebanese favorite topic. Recently northern Lebanon has been caught in battles between 2 Muslim groups, the Sunnis who support the Syrian insurgents and the Alawites who support the current Syrian regime. We get news that the main highway out of Tripoli to the village has been closed due to the violence. In the past 24 hours, 13 people have been killed and 38 more injured. The word on the street is that the army is not stepping in for now. Worried about been cut off from the rest of the country, we decide to go back in town the next morning. Although we will be closer to the violence, it will be easier to head to Beirut in case the situation deteriorates even further. 

Our visit has been cut short but it was great walking once more the streets where my grandmother was born and spent her youth. Her spirit is everywhere around us. I always feel a strong emotional connection every time I visit.

EATING IN LEBANON

Eating out in Lebanon is a serious endeavor. Friends and families gather around the table and spend hours sampling a multitude of small dishes called mezze (hummus, baba ganouj, olives, pickled vegetables,cheeses, raw meat...), tabbouleh and fattoush. 

Fresh vegetable platter

Raw platter of kibbeh, kifta, lamb fat, liver and tenderloin

Later on the main course is served. Dessert usually consists of a bounty of fresh fruit. Although a wide variety of sweets are made and sold throughout the country, they are usually not the preferred dessert course but rather a snack with tea or coffee. Dinner usually ends with a delicious cup of Turkish coffee served (at restaurants) by coffee boys wearing the traditional outfit of shirwal (a long skirt that gathers in the middle to form a sort of pant with a deep seat and tapered legs), white shirt with colorful embroidered vest and a tarboosh (Lebanese version of a fez). Christians usually drink either whiskey or the traditional araq (anise flavored liquor diluted with water) with their meals. 

Dessert of fresh fruit, sweets and candied fruit

Restaurant food tends to be rather predictable. Usually a wide variety of rather standard mezze is first served followed by the entrées that usually consist of grilled meats (lamb kabobs) and grilled chicken with garlic sauce. Seafood restaurants substitute the meat for grilled and deep fried fish accompanied by a tahini sauce.

Fried smelt, tabbouleh, labne (fresh yogurt cheese), garlic sauce

Fried red mullet

Another day we head to a restaurant I saw featured on a travel show while at home. The place, called Tawlet al Souq al Taeb, is actually a restaurant space where housewives from different villages throughout the country come to cook their local specialties. The menu changes daily and consists of a large buffet where one is free to eat as much as you want. Araq, lemonade, desserts and coffee is included in the 22000 Lebanese pound cost (around $15). Today we are lucky that the chef is from the region of Ehden, famous for its kibbeh. The menus consists of several salads, delicious raw kibbeh (pounded goat meat, seasoned with a hint of allspice and mixed with grated, onion and fine bulgur wheat) eaten drizzled with olive oil and accompanied by raw onion and mint leaves, sautéed hindbi (a wild mountain spinach) with burned onions, several stews including a delicious artichoke hearts and lamb stew, and a multitude of side dishes. This ranked very high in my culinary experience in Lebanon.

One morning in Tripoli, we decided to go out for breakfast. I chose the foul m'dammas (stew of dried fava beans, 

chickpeas cooked with garlic and lemon juice, drizzled with olive oil). It was served with tomatoes and mint leaves and accompanied by pickled vegetables, green olives and homemade bread. My cousin ordered a bowl of fatte while my aunt got some hummus. The beans were perfectly cooked and seasoned. The  juicy ripe tomatoes and the cool fresh mint leaves provided the right balance to the warm, thick garlicky stew.

Although we visited many excellent restaurants during my two week stay, the best meals were definitely home cooked. 

Home cooked meals are usually much simpler. Salads are usually part of the meal but a plate of fresh vegetables is always present (small local cucumbers, sweet radishes, sweet white onions and the local thin-skin, red and green hued tomato). Main courses are usually stews, stuffed vegetables ( small zucchini, small eggplants, cabbage leaves, grape leaves, chard leaves and even hollowed out potatoes), rice dishes, kibbehs or even hardy soups. Thin bread is always plentiful. Large quantities of fruit is always present as dessert.

One of my favorite meals is rice with chicken. Chicken pieces are steamed in a cinnamon broth and then deboned. Rice is then cooked in rich butter, mixed with spiced ground meat and mixed with the previously steamed and shredded chicken. The whole thing is the put on a plater in a steaming heap and covered with a mixture of pine nuts and almonds fried in more butter. This is usually eaten accompanied by "fatteh", fried strips of flat bread covered  with a layer of tart yogurt and topped with pine nuts cooked in brown butter. Probably a calorie bomb but oh so delicious.

At home we did also eat some mezze before a much simpler main course. Olives, cheeses, pickled vegetables...

Shanklish with zaatar and olive oil, radishes and bread

Grilling kibbehs for lunch

Grilled meats are always a favorite weekend meal: lamb skewers, kiftas ( ground lamb spiced with chopped onions, and mint leaves), chicken. a thick garlic aioli is usually mixed with pomegranate molasses and served with the meat.

On one occasion after we had feasted at a restaurant for lunch, dinner consisted of sautéed chicken livers, hearts and gizzards with pomegranate molasses. Once the meat browns, the molasses is drizzled over the mixture while still on the stove. It caramelizes over the meat and imparts a delicious tart yet fruity note to the dish. 

At a cousin's home we were treated to a plater of baked kiftas (ground lamb mixed with minced onion and mint and shaped either as a patty or as a long kabob) with potatoes and tomatoes. Once again the  mixture was seasoned with salt, some allspice and drizzled with olive oil and the ubiquitous pomegranate molasses before being baked in the oven. Although the dish is usually arranged in layers starting with the meat at the bottom of the pan, the potatoes in the middle and the tomatoes on top, by the time it is cooked, the potatoes and the tomatoes have caramelized in the oven and soaked in the flavor of the lamb and spices.

On a cool night we ate a delicious meal that  consisted of small kibbeh balls stuffed with ground meat and pine nuts ( the kind that is usually fried) cooked in a yogurt soup. The soup was prepared with goat yogurt that is first brought to a boil with the addition of a small handful of rice, a tablespoon of cornstarch and occasionally a whole egg, all meant to keep the yogurt from curdling. Subsequently the kibbeh balls are added to the soup to cook. Garlic and chopped mint is then fried in butter and added to the pot.

We ate many other great stews: fasoolya b zeit (kidney beans stewed with onion and garlic sautéed in olive oil with pomegranate molasses added also to the pot), small white beans stewed with lamb in a rich tomato sauce, tiny okra stewed with lamb and tomatoes. Usually these were accompanied by rice cooked with browned raw vermicelli and butter. 

We also visited several sweet shops. The best one was in Tripoli. Abdul Rahman Hallab and sons (www.hallab.com.lb) has been in existence since 1881 serving a wide variety of fresh, delicious sweets: baklavas (filled with pine nuts, pistachios, walnut), znoud as Sit (filled with creamy achtar), basma, knefeh, mafrouke, maamoul, sanyoura...

I left Lebanon happy with my visit, satiated by two weeks of delicious meals, tasty, ripe fruit and rich sweets. I gained a few pounds that I will have to spend the next month shedding but I made memories that will last a lifetime.