It was my friend’s birthday and we wanted to celebrate trying some new cuisine. Finally we agreed upon a Lebanese restaurant about a mile from home. It was a warm but nice evening, so we decided to walk down to this place.

The restaurant was a cozy place, decorated with lovely paintings and woven curtains and adorned with lovely carpets.  I browsed through the menu, there were 'Mezze' (appetizers) and main course.  They had ample of vegetarian dishes to choose from, in both the sections.  That is something astounding in a restaurant, usually vegetarians do not have much to choice when eating out.  The non-veg section had more of fish, seafood and poultry, lamb was the only animal meat in the menu. 

Lebanese cuisine would be a part of the Mediterranean delicacy.  Though the middle eastern cuisines are similar in names and to some extent in the basic ingredients, the spices, preparation method and as a result taste vary.  Lebanese food is a perfect combination of rice and bread, lots of fresh vegetables, fish and sea food.  Olive oil and garlic are the signature of this cuisine. Another noticeable ingredient would be grape leaves, it is used abundantly used in salads and wraps.  Not many sauces are used in cooking; the spices and herbs are used for flavor generally. 

Few main dishes that are part of Lebanese cuisine;

• Pita – Pita is a double layered wheat flat bread, used in main course usually, and is served with the main dish.
• Hummus - It’s a dip made of chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic and other spices. It can scooped with pita bread as an appetizer or it accompanies the main course as a dressing.
• Fattoush - This is a salad made up of fresh seasonal garden vegetables and toasted/ fried pieces of pita bread. Lemon juice, herbs and olive oil is used for the flavoring.
• Baba ghanoush - This main course dish is made with fried eggplant and chickpeas and served in gravy of onion, tomato and some other spices.  This is usually served with rice.
• Falafel - This is a fried ball or flat patty made of beans or chickpeas.  Optionally it can contain meat, and is used as a stuffing for pita bread. Falafal is a street food in Middle East countries.
• Grape Leaves (Dolma) - Grape leaves are extensively used in salads,  otherwise they are used to wraps, containing  the minced vegetables as tomato & peppers or even meat. These wraps are served with yoghurt. 
• Kibbeh - It is made up of minced lamb meat, bulgur wheat and various spices. The minced meat is kneed with the wheat and spices and then it is either baked or deep fried, then served with fresh yoghurt. Kibbeh is the national dish of Lebanon.
• Shawarma - this is a sandwich made of shaved meat, which is already marinated and grilled. Along with the thin slices of meat, herbs and essentially olive oil goes into the pita bread to make this dish. It is served with fresh garlic sauce.  This is another street food/ fast food in Lebanon.
• Baklava - Baklava is the famous sweet dish of middle east cuisine again, this pastry is made up of layers of a special dough called phyllo (flour, water and little oil/butter) filled with nuts and sweetened with sugar and honey.

We tried out the Fattoush, Baba Ghanoush and Chicken Shawarma.  With a complimentary basket of pita bread and fresh yoghurt seasoned with spices. We wanted to try out Baklava, as I had heard a lot about this dessert, but it was our bad luck Baklava was not available in that restaurant.  But food was amazing, and it was different than any other cuisine I tried till now.  On way back home,  I was wondering, the same basic ingredients rice, wheat, vegetables and meat; how the spices and preparation method make is so very different. Across the world….thousand of different cuisines.  Mystifying, isn't it?