Beef Briefs from Further East

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Regular readers will know that I love my food. I enjoy very many kinds of it. This is not to say I am a glutton. I am fortunate in that my disposition is to eat in moderation. As for preferences, I lean very much eastwards – to the Levant to start with, and then to […]

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BUKRA FI MISH MISH

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Memories flooded back as I turned the pages of this food and family orientated book. It is many years since I visited Damascus, and indicative of this is that back then, in the 1960s, I, an Englishman, drove by myself to and through the city several times on return trips from Beirut to Amman, in […]

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COMMENT – HAVE A NICE BESPOKE DAY – ENJOY !

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  Fashionable Words and Phrases In a good eating place a few nights ago, where the chef knows his stuff – a little on the heavy side, perhaps , but worth the visit – and the young staff efficient and attentive, we were asked “Is your starter alright?”, “How are you Mains?”, “Is the dessert […]

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COMPLIMENTS TO THE CHEF

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Sometimes, the chef comes out of his kitchen, generally when last orders for main courses have been completed, to say “Hello” to his customers. A custom I like, because it bespeaks confidence on his part. Sometimes his tour of the restaurant is cursory, his simple comment being “Everything alright?” “Yes”, we generally say, “Wonderful”. On […]

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GARLIC – LOVE IT, HATE IT, YOU CAN’T IGNORE IT!

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                Plump cloves of garlic from my garden in Vouni village. These had been hanging about in my kitchen for a few months and were, in my opinion, as good as garlic gets. Earlier, we had used other cloves when they were fresh and green, imparting a delicious earthy flavour to soup and dressings. […]

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GOOD BOOKS, A CURRENT TART AND A DESERT MEMORY

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  A cook book I was browsing yesterday, purchased from a company specializing in “remaindered” items (i.e. publishers’ unsold stock and therefore at a “bargain” price) jogged my Mid-east memory cells and I thought, “Yes, there’s an idea here for this week’s column”. It was in the 1960s. I was in a car on with […]

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