- Lebanese Food
Lebanese Food
The Lebanese Kitchen
The Lebanon kitchen is immensely famous for the variety of spices and ingredients. The mouth-watering authentic flavorful recipes are well known throughout the world. In Lebanon, most local restaurants serve typical Lebanese mezze, an array of more than 60 small hot and cold, fresh savory dishes, mostly eaten with bread (‘khebbez’). The small food glossary below can help you out with your first local eating experience.
Food Glossary
• Fattoush: a green salad with a lemon dressing and crispy bread.
• Tabbouleh: a salad made of sliced parsley, tomato, onion, mint, lemon juice and olive oil.
• Hummus: a creamy paste made of chick peas, olive oil, lemon and tahini.
• Moutabel (Baba Ghanouj): grilled eggplant, sesame paste, yoghurt and lemon.
• Labneh: a creamy cheese paste made from yoghurt.
• Kibbeh Errass: grilled meatballs stuffed with fat or minced meat.
• Kibbeh Nayieh: raw minced goat meat.
• Shanklish: salty white cheese with sweet onion, tomatoes, parsley and olive oil.
• Shish Taouk: chicken sandwich with potatoes, coleslaw and garlic paste.
• Loubiyeh: green or white beans, often served with chopped onion, tomato paste and olive oil.
• Manaouche: a Lebanese pizza, generally topped with jibneh (cheese), labneh (yoghurt paste), lahmeh (meat) and/or zaatar (thyme, sesame seeds, and olive oil).
• Arak: a clear, unsweetened anise-flavored local distilled alcoholic drink. Arak is mixed with water (1/3 arak, 2/3 water) upon which is turns milky-white.
• Knafeh: an Arabic sweet with shredded filo dough, cheese, syrup and lemon.
Restaurants, Lunch Places and Bars
Lebanon, especially Beirut, is crammed with attractive restaurants, lunch places and bars. For each destination, a selection of bars, restaurants and other eateries is provided. To get an idea of costs, you can use the index below.
* rock bottom
** average
*** above average
**** top end