How you can help Beirut by cooking a Lebanese feast Wine News

So what is the Sahtein Beirut Challenge? Literally meaning “two health”, sahtein is the Lebanese equivalent of “bon appétit”. Working with a community of Levantine writers, chefs and food influencers, Abboud created an Instagram page asking others to create their favorite Levantine dish, snap a photo of it, and post on Instagram tagging #sahteinbeirutchallenge, donate to one of the charities or initiatives listed. and identify three friends to do the same. The idea is simple, effective and above all delicious.

Rather than creating his own fundraising page, Abboud chose to highlight the work of other NGOs and organizations raising funds for this effort; Donate Blood Count, Double Your Donation, Impact Lebanon and the Lebanese Red Cross are just a few ways to donate.

“It was amazing to see familiar favorites like hummus, zaatar and mana’eesh, but what was really special was seeing people creating the hidden gems of our kitchen,” she says. . “One person made a dessert called Layali Lubnan which means ‘Lebanese nights’, a flavored semolina-based pudding flavored with rose, orange blossom and pistachios, in homage to his Lebanese house. Another cheese sambusek, small portable pies filled with cheese, shared a powerful story about his family’s ties to Beirut when they were forced to leave their home in Haifa. Abboud is not only motivated by the need to support Lebanon, but also by the desire to see the nourishment of his ancestry properly recognized. Too often, we enter food without thinking about its origin. “How can our food be so celebrated in the West, while ignoring the suffering of our people?” Abboud wants to challenge this, by putting the context of what we eat at the forefront of our minds.

For anyone who has enjoyed the soups, salads and dips displayed in a traditional mezze, brimming with potential to be picked up and slipped with folds of freshly baked flatbread, now is the time to reignite your love affair with the Lebanese cuisine.

I started with a fattoush salad myself, due to the only cucumber on my wilted plant eventually reaching a selectable size – then I will try plates of kibbeh, slow cooked lamb shawarma, rings of bread in sesame crust and bowls of fiery toum, an addictive garlic sauce. Hopefully many more will do the same.