bringing lebanon's breadbasket to table
TRANSCRIPT
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Ro o t s & R i t u a l COFFEE AND CULTURE IN ETHIOPIA .
T H E I N - F L I G H T M A G A Z I N E O F E T H I O P I A N A I R L I N E S
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 20
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Cuisine
SPOTLIGHT
Bringing LebanonsBreadbasket to Table
Tawlet Ammiq restaurant connects Beiruts rural farmers and urban diners. | B Y T I M F I T Z S I M O N S
R
estaurants across the globe try to bring the farm to the table,
but there arent many places where you can gaze across
your plate upon the farms themselves. Tawlet Ammiq
a restaurant in Lebanons fertile Bekaa Valley is just a
90-minute drive from the bustle of Beirut, but it feels a world away.
There, on a hill overlooking Lebanons breadbasket, a visitor can sip
wine pressed from grapes grown one town over, munch on salads tossed
with greens from the farms sprawling out below, and savor freekeh(an
ancient grain) stewed with livestock that once grazed on the hills that
cocoon the restaurant. At Tawlet Ammiq, the people, the food and the
land that gave birth to them both are all within sight.
On warm Saturdays and Sundays especially, Tawlet Ammiq is packed
with Lebanese and foreign diners nibbling on such fine fare as roast trout,
grilled cauliflower marinated in tahini sauce, artichoke hearts stuffed
with lamb and pine nuts, eggplant drizzled with cilantro and lemon, and
kibbehnayeh a Lebanese delicacy of raw
lamb ground with bulgur, wrapped in pita
bread and eaten with mint and raw onion.
After eating, guests are invited to
lounge under umbrellas, on pillows and
in lawn chairs, and gaze at the snow-
capped Mount Hermon looming above
Bekaas rolling fields.
The story of Tawlet Ammiq is the story
of founder Kamal Mouzawaks efforts to
bring together Beiruts moneyed, urban
consumers and the countrys patchwork
of small farms.
In 2003, Mouzawak founded Souk el-
Tayeb (delicious market), the countrys
Tawlet Ammiqis housed inLebanons mostenvironmentallyconscious building,surroundedby protectedwilderness areas.
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Kamal Mouzawak (above) founded thefarm-to-table restaurant with the aimof celebrating foods sourced from thesurrounding Bekaa Valley.
first farmers market. Its always been
about connecting rural to urban, he ex-
plains.
Souk el-Tayebs quick rise to popularity
led to the markets expansion from sim-
ply selling organic vegetables, honey and
spices to also hosting a series of regional
food festivals. Mouzawak and his staff
enticed food tourists to different cornersof the country, to appreciate the grape-
vines of the north as well as the cherries
and figs of Hammana and Kfour. The food
festivals seemed to help Lebanese people
reconnect with their foods geographic
heritage. Soon Mouzawak was asking him-
self, Why cant we benefit from it in a
more regular way, and more easily?
So in 2009, Souk el-Tayeb launched
a restaurant in Beirut called Tawlet,
which means kitchen table in Arabic.
At Tawlet, rotating cooks from surround-
ing villages and the countryside prepareregional home-cooked meals and serve
them buffet-style, with diners sitting
at both communal and smaller tables.
Small-batch production Lebanese wines,
preserves, olive oils, paper crafts and
other products found in the weekly farm-
ers market can all be purchased from the
restaurants own boutiques.
Though Lebanese food is revered
worldwide, most diners will only ever
taste mezze the small, shared dishes
such as hummus, baba ghannoush, tabbou-
lehand labneh that are shared and eaten
with bread. These dishes dominate the
menus of Lebanese restaurants in Beirut
and around the world. But the cook-
ing most Lebanese eat on the average
weekday is a more informal and varied
experience that centers around a tabkha,
meaning a one-pot meal.
Housed in a converted garage in
Beiruts trendy Mar Mikhael neighbor-
hood, Tawlet reintroduced the tabkha to
the Lebanese dining scene and pulled
back the curtain on traditional family
cooking for its foreign visitors.
But Tawlets next step opening a
branch in Lebanons poor and agriculturalBekaa Valley was as much a prod-
uct of serendipity as of planning. While
Mouzawak contemplated an expansion,
another organization was about to pro-
vide him with just the space needed.
In early 2007, the Swiss Agency for
Development and Cooperation embarked
on a project to build Lebanons most
ecologically friendly model building in
Ammiq, a small town in West Bekaa.
When the building a restaurant space
was completed, SADC sponsored a
contest. Tawlet won, and so Mouzawak
was handed the keys free of charge
to Lebanons greenest building. In May
2012, Tawlet Ammiq opened its doors to
its first customers.
Blending the themes of ecological
stewardship with the restaurants character-
istic banquet-style dining, Tawlet Ammiq
invites diners to contemplate where their
food comes from and the ways in which de-
velopment can partner with environmenta
preservation. Atop its insulating green roo
solar panels generate electricity and hea
water, and a breeze-powered ventilatio
system utilizes lower temperatures under
ground to cool the building without the us
of air conditioners.
Sandwiched between the Shou
Biosphere Reserve and the Ammi
Wetlands Reserve, Tawlet Ammiq als
has the rare honor of being surrounde
by protected wilderness. Migrating bird
traveling between Africa and Asia stop in
the areas swamps and ponds to relax an
rehydrate, and the countrys famed cedar
dot the hills above the compound. Diner
can even arrange, through Tawlet Ammiq
a pre-meal mountain hike or an evening
guided bird-watching expedition.
And with the restaurants recent ad
dition of a three-bedroom guesthouse
adventure foodies will find a trip to Tawle
Ammiq not only delicious but also con
venient and comfortable perfect fo
exploring the tastes of the Levant.
Tim Fitzsimons is a Beirut-based radio an
print journalist. An avid consumer of tahini an
whatever fruit is in season, Tim eats grapefru
in the winter, strawberries in spring, cherries i
summer and apples in autumn.
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