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"Always Uniting Lebanon Through Food"
Fadya, Rima, Suzanne, Georgina, Nada, Em Amer, Anna, Saydeh, Ibtissam... Kamal and good old me in the middle... enjoyed a wonderful lunch together celebrating a truly special occasion - the fifth anniversary of Tawlet - a place that has and still is uniting people from different parts of the country - if not the region - under one theme: Authentic food.
The women, my new friends, mentioned above, came all the way from different villages of Lebanon and across to prepare the finest authentic food from each of the towns their are from and serve on a single table.
Let's start by introducing Tawlet, this state of the art concept that gathers mothers from all over the country around a table. They come here with their traditions cooked with passion, love and dedication for hungry connoisseurs to enjoy. Tawlet opens for lunch every day of the week with one single formula. All you can eat and drink for only $30. The table is always filled with a choice of salads, a vegetable platter, cold starters and many hot plates. In my opinion, nothing is ever a bad choice.
But this review celebrates a special day, a special event, a unique table, because Tawlet is 5. A lot has been done in the last years. Lebanese women have prospered, Palestinian mothers have had the ability to work, Syrian refugees have found an income for the sake of their children and for the first time in Lebanon, home workers have been given the chance to exist. Kamal Mouzawak has put a smile on women's faces in all villages of the country.
Helped by Chef Fady Ayoub and Sous Chef Nada Rizk, every day a woman handles the cooking. I've had very bizarre food and some other common ones which all left me in awe. Today's lunch was extravagant... I was stunned and left amazed. I met all the hard working women, had lunch with them and stayed at a table where a dozen different Lebanese dialects where spoken simultaneously. What a beautiful feeling, what a beautiful gathering... Here, there is no politics, there is no religion. Cooking is the only language, Lebanon is the only cause.
Today's menu is breathtaking:
- Tabbouleh, a vegetable basket, a seasonal salad
- Raw kebbeh of goat meat (Georgina El Bayeh) from (Kfar Dlekos, north Lebanon)
- Goat raw meat, (Sarkis Geryes) from (Ejbeh)
- Red pepper moutabbal (Fadya Chaptini), from (Tripoli)
- Hindbeh
- Akkoub (Rima Massoud) from (Ramlyeh, the Chouf)
- Noodles made from rice powder and vegetables, with curry and cashew nuts (Anna Fernando), from (Sri Lanka)
- Kebbet basaliyeh (Suzanne Dweihi), from (Zgharta)
- Are3 (Saydeh Rizkallah) from (Aytouleh, Jezzine)
- Sfarjaliyeh (Ibtissam Masto), from (Edleb, Syria-Now refugee in Lebanon)
- Msakhan djeij (Em Amer), from (The Palestinian camp of Ain el Helwe)
The food was awesome... The real feel of authentic homemade food like you've never eaten before:
I don’t think that I will go into a detailed description of those creations because everything I had today was breathtaking. Every ingredient is felt to the bones, every plate is produced to perfection, every bite is a trip to the lands of wonders. I loved the tabbouleh, adored the shish barak, admired the fawaregh and the way they are individually cooked, enjoyed the red pepper moutabal so much that I've eaten two portions… The noodles were a premiere for me and the finest of all is the moujadaret loubieh. Served warm and having a soup consistency, this is the Moujaddara of dreams... Lunch was devine.
Dessert was as good. Anne Marie Bassoul’s cake is simple yet tasty. A simple sponge cake with pastry cream and raspberry jam while the chocolate cake with nuts, orange juice and bitter lemon produced by Nada Saber is one of the finest I’ve had from a home cook.
Stay tuned for another lunch in December. I will be helping in the kitchen and interviewing all the cooks during a Christmas lunch organized at Tawlet. Meanwhile, please head down to Tablet and make sure to take every single tourist who visits Lebanon. Tablet is “the” place to start with a culinary tour around Lebanon.
