With or without odor, I hate Basterma.

via [Naharnet]

I had quite a pleasant dinner tonight, even though I was by myself. I didn’t plan it of course but I was supposed to have a meeting with few people at Mrs Robinson supposedly tonight and I got there ahead of time or I thought I did, then it turns out the meeting was tomorrow (khrefna).

Mrs. Robinson is a new restaurant in town located in Annahar building in downtown Beirut. It is a burger joint but also has salads, appetizers and desserts. I am trying to eat light snacks for dinner so I ordered a salad that seemed very appealing and it was indeed really good!

The salad consisted of fresh mushrooms, rocca, lettuce and iceberg topped with parmesan cheese and fresh strawberries on the side, with a balsamic dressing. The strawberries really made a difference and I loved the idea.

As far as their burgers are concerned, a friend of mine did not like them while another loved them, so I have to give them a try next time I go.

PS: Listening now to Mrs. Robinson’s song by Simon and Garfunkel.

Here’s a funny flowchart by Angie from nowlebanon that estimates the chances of having a revolution in Lebanon.

I would have added also the Martyrs Square space availability option as there’s not enough space left for the millions going down, that is if each political side gets his usual 2 millions supporters to go down.

The new Lady Gaga song and her mention of Lebanese in the song seem to have stirred a debate on the Lady Gaga forum. I honestly think she doesn’t even have a clue about what it might mean. We are not talking about the deepest of singers here.

Some are saying that Lebanese are not discriminated against, but on the contrary are discriminators themselves.

Another comment thinks Lebanon is in Africa.

LittleMonster222 wrote:
I think Gaga wanted to show the whole Africa through that word.

I was tempted few days before Valentine to approach some of the jewelry shops in ABC dbayyeh and see what they got to offer. Aside from the incredibly unrealistic prices they had for the tiniest of items, what caught my attention and made me laugh were the discounts the sales people gave me.

One diamond bracelet caught my attention at the first place I checked so I asked the guy there how much it cost and he answered me: 9700$ is its original price (then he starting typing some random numbers on his old fashioned calculator) and told me price after discount is 4500$ and we can still negotiate the price if you are serious about buying it.

Another place I checked had a pendant for around 14,000$ which becomes for ONLY 8000$ after discount. Of course I got the “akeed messieur hayda mich ekhir se3er” response after the 7000$ drop in price.

And it was the same for almost all shops except one or two who gave only a 10-15% discount.

I ask here: Why would they price it this high and then discount that much? No one is that stupid to think they are doing him a great discount because they apparently do this for everyone, so why can’t they price it reasonably?

BlogBaladi will be featuring on the Future TV show Mazaj tomorrow at 9:25 am. It was featured today on 7 pm for those who saw it but I was informed few hours back and did not have time to share it with you guys.

Chahe and I basically talked about the blog and answered few questions addressed to us.

I’ve been asked by few of my friends where they should take out their dates for Valentine. Not that I am a Valentine expert but I’ve been to a considerable number of restaurants and places all over Lebanon; so I can help them out a little bit.

My favourite idea for a perfect Valentine diner is inviting your date to a nice overlooking chalet or old house in the mountains and preparing yourself the diner (or ask your mum to do it), but this needs too much preparation and requires you to be able to cook at first. Nevertheless, for those interested, I saw this cool dish that you can easily prepare.

So where can one go?

French and Italian restaurants are most suitable for a Valentine diner, and you have a great number of those in Beirut, La Posta, Pinocchio (now open in Antelias), Fiona’s, Tartuffo, La Piazza, Da Giovanni, eCafe (in Jbeil and Achrafieh), DT (or Down Town), and Telyani to name few. All are almost within the price range (80$ + per couple)with Da Giovanni and Fiona’s being a bit more expensive, nevertheless all are great places to eat.

Now if you are looking for something classier and more expensive, I suggest you try out the recently open French restaurant Stove in Monot Street, Eau de vie at Phoenicia, La Table D’Alfred in Sursoq street, Up on the 31st in Habtoor Hotel and Al Dente in Achrafieh.

Of course there are many others, but those are the ones I’ve been to or been recommended to go to. I will be trying out Stove’s french cuisine tonight and will let you know how it went. They don’t have anything planned for Valentine which is great because I only like having a calm dinner and that’s it. However, if anyone is interested in getting Mariachis, I have a friend who’s planning to do so and can provide me with their number.

For those interested in Japanese cuisine, there’s also a whole bunch of Sushi places in Beirut, mainly one of my favourite places Maki, Le Sushi Bar and Wok Wok in Phoenicia. Outside Beirut, there’s Le Yen in Antelias and Ichiban on the Jal el Dib highway worthy trying.

As far as Chinese places are concerned, there’s Memoires de Chine in Downtown and the Jasmine Room on the Jal el Dib highway.

Funnily enough, I received an email from Benihana Sushi place in Le Commodore hotel regarding a Valentine menu and I’ve always wanted to try it out but am boycotting it until they drop their lawsuit against Mark from 248am.

Happy Valentine everyone!

Via Beirut Drive-by shooting

A friend visited Bcharreh the past weekend and sent me those awesome pictures. Thank you Reine!

I’ve always wondered how come Lebanese don’t include more of Debs el kharoub in their meals and desserts and promote it better. I mean the same way you open up a Nutella jar and start eating from it, you can prepare some Debs el Kharoub and eat it with bread or Kaak or toasts.

Debs el Kharoub is one of the healthiest desserts you can have and is very delicious one! It is very addictive too and does not have any artificial substances in it and is prepared by simply mixing it with “t7eene”.

Its extraction is very difficult however and is restricted to few areas in Lebanon but as our grand parents would tell us:

“«اسمع يا جدي، الدبس هو أطيب أكلة في العالم، طبيعي 100%ØŒ بحلّي وبنشط وبيفيد، وأهم شي ما بيضرّ»،”

I am considering emailing some of the Lebanese restaurants in Lebanon and asked them to make Debs Kharoub based desserts, and also Crepaway to come up with Debs Kharoub based crepe.

Central Bank governor Riad Salameh said Friday “the Lebanese Canadian Bank abides by Lebanese laws and international standards,” a day after the Treasury Department accused it of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in drug profits for a cocaine smuggling organization with ties to Hizbullah.
The bank “receives the absolute support of the Central Bank,” Salameh said.

“Management of this bank is highly professional and the bank has high liquidity reserves,” he said. “We would like to reassure customers that their operations are safe.[Naharnet]“

It is very kind for our central bank governor to defend the bank and prevent its bankruptcy but shouldn’t there be an investigation into this issue?

I heard the other day some other major banks are involved as well but not yet revealed.

Don’t be drag, just be a queen
Whether you’re broke or evergreen
You’re black, white, beige, chola descent
You’re lebanese, you’re orient
Whether life’s disabilities
Left you outcast, bullied or teased
Rejoice and love yourself today
‘Cause baby, you were Born This Way [Full Lyrics]

Lyrics from Lady Gaga’s latest song entitled “Born this way”. Notice anything in the lyrics?

Who knows? Maybe Lady Gaga, or Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, is somewhere from Lebanon. Germanotta sounds like Germanos lol

U.S. authorities have blacklisted one of Beirut’s major financial institutions, Lebanese Canadian Bank, alleging that it is part of a drug trafficking network that benefited the banned Islamist group Hezbollah.

The bank was involved in a complex scheme in which cocaine was shipped from Colombia and Panama and retailed in Europe and the Middle East, U.S. officials said. They alleged that the proceeds were deposited with LCB in Beirut, wired to U.S. accounts and used to buy second-hand cars that were resold in western Africa.[Source]

Over 200 million dollars were being laundered on a monthly basis according to the report.

This is going to be bad news for a lot of Lebanese. Assuming this is true, The Central Bank will probably take out the bank’s license and save whatever is left of it before it’s too late, because I am assuming people have started taking out their money from the bank already.

The Bank has already issued a statement on its main website claiming it has nothing to do with this. They were one of Lebanon’s top banks and were building their new headquarters in the middle of the Martyrs square.

Update: here’s the alleged money laundering scheme.

I live 12 KMs away from the office, my average speed in the morning is 16 KM/h. FML