Need help from taibeihong

[shibo77]

I went to a "Lebanese Cuisine" restaurant yesterday, and as I didn't have any native Lebanese friends, I didn't know which dish to pick. The ones I chose were flavourful, but a bit disgusted by it.

Anyways, I saw that your(taibeihong) profile said that you live in Beirut? Wondering if you could give me some recommendations. What I had/could remember were:

Pita bread... <like 烙饼, only I'd rather have the 烙饼..

Shish Tawoot <strong wine flavouring

Kafta <best kabob

Tabouleh <neat, but no meat!

Billeh <good, but they gave me only three

Stuffed Grape Leaves <ergh...don't remind me of this, it's like eating tea leaves with wine flavouring

Ginger Juice <like ginger ale

Dates <there were a sweet variety for dessert, and another variety that tasted like wine olives, terrible strong taste

so there you go, anything I chose wrongly? Recommendations?

Shukran in advance!

-Shibo

[sunyata]

haha, I would ask my half-lebanese friend for you, but she is on vacation right now...

The Stuffed Grape Leaves are called "Dolma" and are not disticntly Lebanese cousine - this dish is a national Greek dish, as far as I know. There are also Georgian varieties of it. Too bad you didn't like it, because if it is made well - it is quite delicious. The most important thing in this dish are the grape leaves, of course. They must selected with care, marinated in a special sauce and for the right length of time in order for them to become soft and flavorful. From your "green tea leaves" analogy, it seems like the restaurant did not have good leaves ;)

[shibo77]

Thanks!

I have thought the grape leaves are good, I found a bottle that is eaten like a sidedish 泡菜 in French coooking, but it tasted much better alone than when stuffed with strange things..

I think that almost everything new tastes bad to me, but after the first try, I can't wait to go back...

Thanks again!

-Shibo