Taste Lebanon
لبنان
Mezze, herbs, olive oil and a Levantine table that is meant to be shared. Parsley is a salad ingredient here, not a garnish.
Hummus is chickpeas, tahini, lemon and garlic, judged on texture. Tabbouleh is mostly parsley, with bulgur in a supporting role — the other way round is a different salad. Fattoush wants fried or toasted bread, sumac and a sharp dressing. Kibbeh is pounded bulgur and meat, fried, baked or raw depending on the cook. Mujadara is lentils and rice with enough fried onion to count as a dish, not a side. Man'oushe is breakfast za'atar on dough. Knafeh is cheese and pastry and syrup, a sweet that does not pretend to be subtle. This kitchen overlaps with Syria, Palestine and the eastern Mediterranean while still tasting like itself.
14 recipes · 2 cuisines
Essential dishes
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Further Lebanon listings, including shorter editorial recipes and imported methods.
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Regional cuisines
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Take the Lebanon food quizFood history
Phoenician trade, Arab kitchens, Ottoman rule and French mandate markets. Mezze is a way of eating, not a starter course invented for restaurants. Olive, wheat, lamb and yoghurt are older than any modern border. Twentieth-century Beirut restaurants polished some plates for a cosmopolitan room; village tabbouleh and home hummus did not wait for permission. Levantine overlap is a fact of cooking, not a failure of nationalism. Mountain and coastal pantries still disagree about garlic and sourness, which is as it should be.