For some reason, the first traffic light at Sin el Fil intersection wasn’t working this morning and it caused a huge traffic nightmare. The traffic started getting more congested from Jal el Dib and the funniest thing was once I got to the intersection I saw two policemen standing in the middle of the crossing chatting!

One of my favorite sandwich places is Canadian Burger. They’re located in a small alleyway in Bourj Hammoud opposite Mano. I’ve been going there since the 80s and my favorite item on their menu is their roasto with cheese sandwich which I personally believe is one of the best in Lebanon (tell them no pickles and extra salt). The place is tiny but always packed and that probably has to do with their prices (beside the food of course). They’re one of the cheapest places I’ve been to with the roasto and cheese sandwich being one of their expensive items at LL2,500. The regular roasto without cheese is LL2,000, their famous burgers are LL2,000 and so is the Philadelphia sandwich, chicken sandwich, asbeh, soujouk, makanek, and cheese and ham sandwich. Their hot dog is just LL1,500. The service is good although don’t expect to interact with the staff much since they’re always busy preparing sandwiches. The place actually is doing so well that it inspired a knock off right next door called “Lebanese Burger” which is always empty and doesn’t look too safe to eat at.

I highly recommend Canadian Burger and if you’re a tourist in Lebanon then Bourj Hammoud is a hidden gem. Lovely place with tons of small back streets filled with random shops that sell random things and that have been there for ages.

Municipal elections are usually restricted to the town or village, but not in Lebanon considering more than half of the Lebanese population were kicked out or immigrated from their original villages. The picture above is a banner supporting certain candidates in Damour placed near Kababji inKaslik! Damour is a Christian town in the South.

The Hilton Hotel in Beirut is situated near Biel and was demolished in 2002 and rebuilt but was never opened.

The scheduled opening was in June 2008, but was delayed until further notice. A friend of mine told me the building did not meet Hilton standards and will not be reopened but it says on Wikipedia that it will open sometime in 2010.

Ironically, the first Hilton was opened one day after the Civil war started in Lebanon on 14/4/1975. Let us hope it never reopens if that is to be repeated.

I passed through a very funny experience yesterday which is part of the procedure of buying a car in lebanon. It’s been quite some time since I’ve been looking to buy a car and finally I found my FJ in one of the expos in Antelias. But this is not it…My journey just began…
After going to the bank and doing the whole procedure, i still had to register my car bel nef3a and fix the small details and since i am not the only customer because my supplier had too many cars to pick up and sell, part of my contribution was to help him pick up cars from one place to another until i get mine in one of the garages. After he picked me up from work (Sin el Fil), we went in a new Range Rover to AL Nab3a to pick up a new mini cooper and there I WAS SHocked…..the pictures are self explanatory (p.s:I got so scared driving these cars in such places especially after seeing around 10 kids running after us).

Picture taken from Zouk Mosbeh.

I spotted this cheese cake at Moulin D’or while i was buying some bread. Who said cakes can’t be patriotic ?

Update: I got the picture of the guy but it’s a very ugly site. I won’t post it.

I just read this on naharnet and nowlebanon as well.

Walaw ? What were the security forces doing there ? Observing the man die ?

I understand the residents’ frustration and desire for vengeance but this is barbaric and unjustifiable.

Ketermaya is a village situated in South Lebanon.

Residents of the southern Lebanese village of Ktirmaya on Thursday killed the murder suspect of two grandparents and their two young grandchildren. It said Mosallam was rushed to hospital by police after angry residents cruelly beat him up.
But the locals chased the killer to Siblin hospital, dragged him out after stripping him of his clothing, tied a metal wire around his neck and hung him on a pole in the town’s squared.

If there is anything worse than a typical Lebanese driver, it is a typical Lebanese taxi driver. Most of them are not yet used to this new invention called the traffic light and so sometimes find themselves ahead of the light unable to see it when it turns green. To accommodate this new “obstacle”, they refuse to stand back in line with all the other cars and instead rely on their hearing senses and accelerate once they hear cars heavily hoking behind them.

I got an sms yesterday from a friend i haven’t spoken to in ages saying:

“Please vote for my sister (name) for best smile on www.mycrestsmile.com. Please vote daily if you can. Thank you.”

I went in to check the website and it turns out it is a contest where random Lebanese females uploaded pictures of themselves smiling with shiny teeth and whomever has the highest number of votes will have her picture on the front page of Femme magazine’s July edition.

You can check the most popular smiles here. I asked my friends if they knew about it and apparently many got smses to vote for this and that. I can’t believe people would spend their money on such a thing. Plus, how would Crest know which pictures are photoshopped and which are not ?

I, for my part, will vote for Maya Zankoul‘s smile lol.

I received the following table in my email this morning. Some of the radars will be moved. This table was taken from the ISF website, from a bid document. Keep your eyes open!

[HiRes]

I finally went to that new diner called Taxi and it was a horrible experience, mostly due to the service rather than the food.

The place is located at the worst location ever… Burj Al Ghazal Achrafieh. You can’t find any parking space and you have to give it to valet parking who charges you 5000LL for just moving your car a few meters.

I get in and the place is huge and nicely done. It must have cost them a good chunk of money for the decoration and all. The place was empty around 8pm, but it seemed like they had a large reservation.

I sit on an uncomfortably low couch and a waiter called H (not real name) approaches us and says:

H: Hello, my name is H and I will be waiting you tonight.

Me: Can you please get us a coke with ice and a seven-up with no ice. Make sure it’s no ice please.

5 minutes later, he brings both drinks with ice.

Me: We ordered it with no ice. Can you change it please ? And we’d like to order Nachos as starters and the buffalo wings. Is the wings sauce spicy ?

H: Yes.

Me: Can you please get a non-spicy sauce ? sweet BBQ sauce ?

H: Sure.

10 minutes later, H comes back and brings the buffalo wings dipped in spicy sauce.

Me: Looks like you want to kill me. I ordered the non-spicy BBQ sauce please.

H: Apologies, i will change it right away.

10 minutes later, H comes back and brings me wings dipped in HOT SPICY BBQ SAUCE !

I just let it go and barely ate any wings.

Then I had to order the main dishes…

Me: Excuse me H, can you tell me what’s the garnish on the Swiss Mushroom burger, and what’s the special Taxi sauce that comes along with it ?

(after few seconds of silence)

H: El Sauce fiya Mayonnaise.

(Wow very helpful)

Me: Ok please bring it on the side so in case I don’t like it, i can still eat the rest of the burger.

Amazingly he did get it on the side and there was no garnish on the burger. It was also a decent burger with long and thick fries on the side.

I was in no mood for dessert afterward and just ordered the bill. It was around $50 which is more expensive than most diners.

My car was parked right where I left it, but I still gave the valet a 3000LL tip. Apparently that is the minimum charge these days, or so i thought as he comes back and tells me it’s 5000LL not 3000LL.

The hard life of a Lebanese police (traffic) officer.

I am not sure if it’s an engineer’s mistake or there was a plan to build some other bridge, but whomever built that bridge left a poll standing not connected to any road or bridge. He could have had some extra beton or is a complete idiot because you get to the sea if you connect the main bridge to that poll.

Of course the Lebanese know how to make use of almost anything and quickly turned it into a religious shrine. For those interested in visiting this unique monument, it is located on the maritime road leading to Kaslik.