23 Jan
The Bay Area is one of my favourite places to eat out. There are so many good restaurants, it’s rare to have a bad meal. At worst, the meal will not be exciting but it will still be good. At least, this is my experience but I do have the right friends there who know the scene very well! And the other day, my friend Roberta took me to Cosecha, a fun Mexican cafe/restaurant situated in what seems like a covered coutrtyard with fun food shops all around. Like a mini market place. Everything was freshly made there from the corn chips (that were admittedly a little too salty) and guacamole to the delicious looking tarts and biscuits.
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24 Dec
It is the day before Christmas and I wouldn’t be cooking normally. If I am in Beirut, it is either my mother or sister at the stove and if I am in England, I would be in the country with my English adoptive family. But this year I decided to have Christmas lunch at home, mainly to save on the exorbitant mini cab fares with no public transport (turned out to be a flawed logic!). Regardless, our meal is a shared effort. My brother is bringing the champagne and wines (he has a fine collection). A chef friend is making the starters: foie gras, brioche and ceviche of scallops and langoustines. He is also bringing a buche de noel and my lovely friend Arabella is supplying the mince pies — she has been trying them all over London and has finally settled on some from Chiswick farmers market (a nightmare for her to get to yesterday because of the Hammersmith fly-over closure) and some from Sally Clarke’s. I am in charge of the nibbles (sweetbread boreks) to serve with the champagne and the main course: a beautiful baby goat served with spicy biryani rice as well as the salad (white tabbuleh) and the bread (k’sra, a classic Moroccan loaf) which is the subject of this post.
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14 Nov
Well, the baby lamb and stuffed tripe of a few weeks back were a trial run for last night’s dinner which I cooked for four chefs, an eminent food writer and a restaurant owner. Except that this time, the beautiful baby was a goat, all tender and pink like a baby should be with the sweetest and teeniest testicles I have ever seen.
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17 Oct
Every time I visit Beirut, I have to have various dishes including ka’ket k’nafeh which is one of my favourite breakfasts, a luscious cheese pie drenched in sugar syrup then stuffed into a sesame galette the inside of which is also drenched in sugar syrup. An insanely delicious sweet sandwich that clocks in at more than a thousand calories a bite!
