Lebanese Cuisine

Lebanese Cuisine is very diversified and tasty. It combines elements from Europe with recipes and influences from Arabian cuisines. Lebanese Cuisine is very old. It was famous even back in the days of the Old Testament. Ever since then, the Lebanese Cuisine has influenced more cuisines than one might expect from such a small country.

Lebanese Cuisine is Mediterranean and it uses lots of starches like wheat, fresh fruits and vegetables as well as fish and seafood. Poultry is preferred over read meat and if red meat is eaten it usually is lamb. Lebanese cooks also use plenty of garlic and olive oil. Hardly a dish where these two ingredients don't play a major role. Butter and cream are hardly used, except in some desserts.Lebanese Cuisine uses plenty of herbs and spices and heavily relies on seasonal products.

Lebanese Specialities

• Kibbeh: Kibbeh is the Lebanese national dish. It is made of finely ground lamb meat and bulgur wheat. It is eaten either raw like steak tatar or it is baked (kibbeh bil-saneeya) or fried (kibbeh rass).
• Mezze: Mezze are starters and appetizers similar to Spanish tapas or Italian antipasti. There is a wide variety of Lebanese mezze and they can consist of everything from salads, breads, humus, and pickled vegetables to roasted pieces of meat or poultry, or pickled fish and seafood.
• Baklava: Just like the Turkish and the Greek Cuisine, the Lebanese also like this sweet treat, Lebanese baklava is usually prepared with pistachios and perfumed with rose water.
• Coffee: Coffee is served throughout the day and certainly after a meal. It is served 'Turkish style' that means extra strong with grounds at the bottom of the cup and very sweet. It is often flavoured with cardamom.
• Arrak: Just like many other Mediterranean countries (Pastis in Southern France, Ouzo in Greece, Sambuca in Italy and Raki in Turkey), the Lebanon has its own anised liquor. Like most other anised liquor, Arrak is mixed with water which makes it milky and white in colour.