Beirut Breakfast
One of the first things that happened when I came back to Doha was my friends took me to breakfast at the Beirut. When they invited me, I was puzzled. The Beirut, as I remember it, was a place on Shara Kharaba (Electricity Street) where you drove up and guys in baseball caps came to your car and your ordered and they brought the food.
My friends are conservative, and fully covered, abaya and niqab. I could not imagine them sitting in an all-men kind of place.
But no, they took me to the NEW Beirut, down in the Souq al Waqif, and oh, what a treat! Everything, all the good foods they always had at the Beirut, only now you could sit at a table and eat! There is a family area upstairs (with a very nice restroom, by the way) and downstairs all the bachelors eat (meaning any male without a female with him) and then there is outside seating which is great when you are meeting up with western friends.
Today I was meeting up with one of my very best friends, a souk buddy, who enjoys just roaming and experiencing as I do. Actually, she had an agenda, and that will be the next blog entry, but we have been friends for a long time. Partners in crime. We egg each other on.
Most of the time we would order felafel (little balls of cooked ground chickpeas – garbanzos – and parsley, deep fried – sort of like hush puppies) and fool – beans, and hummous, with oil or yoghurt or meat. I would see guys eating bowls of stuff, though, like cereal bowls, only it wasn’t cereal, it looked maybe like oatmeal. We asked what it was, and they said it is like breakfast chickpeas and hummos with fried bread – fattoush – with yoghurt over it. So it sort of is like oatmeal, only it isn’t oatmeal. It is called Fatta.
Oh. My. Friends.
All my years in this part of the world, and I didn’t know about Fatta. Instead of forcing myself to eat oatmeal, I could have been eating Fatta.
This is SO delicious. So delicious that I beg you, if it is horrifyingly fattening, please don’t tell me. It has beans, and the fried flatbread, and toasted pine nuts, and slivered almonds, all covered with a coat of yoghurt and a drizzle of really tasty olive oil. It is so unbelievably delicious; if it were equivalent of oatmeal, this is what I would eat every day for breakfast for the rest of my life, it is so good.
But I have the bad feeling that anything so delicious is probably not so good for me. I have the feeling that it is called Fatta because it will make me big and fatta if I continue to eat it and enjoy it as I did today. Oh YUMMMMMMM.
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All these years going on trips to Damascus and you haven’t tried fattah?!?! I am genuinely surprised. It’s THE staple breakfast of the champions in Syria, hehe!
I haven’t been commenting a lot lately, I know. School is keeping me way busy.
Congratulations on the Grandson, I can’t imagine how it must feel but I am sure it is the best feeling in the world (or so my grandma tells me anyway š )
Good luck with the move my friend. You always have my best wishes š
Thank you Kinan. When we used to go to Damascus, for some reason, I just remember continental style breakfasts with croissants, which we loved. There was still a lot of French influence in Damascus, back in the early ’80’s. Until recently, fattah was not even on my radar. I never saw it, never noticed it, never knew it existed. Ah, what I was missing! š
I am glad you are busy in school. It’s the way things are meant to be. Live your life, dear friend, the real life. š
Butootee started watching your post over my shoulder… asking where is this where is this :p
how can you not know about Fatta all these years?! It is one of my favorite dishes!!!
but it’s not necessarily a breakfast dish… infact i never knew it is being served as a breakfast dish… no it is not an equivalent to oat meal… it is popular … more like hmmm say macaroni and cheese in the USA
There r several versions of the dish
some add parsley and tomaotes
some add grilled eggplants
it is one of my favorite lunches… esp when i come home from work tired and all i want is a bowl of hot food…
try it this way it takes 5 minutes and totally worth tasting..
get a cup of yoghurt, beat it with some lemon juice, salt and pepper… if you do not mind garlic much add one clove crushed garlic but it’s not necessary … low fat yoghurt is better
get one box chickpeas from the Co-op guy who sells it hot -are there any in qatar?-
get 1/2 a bread, toast it in the toaster until its crunchy
now put some chickpeas in a small individual bowl, make sure its without the water… dont drain the water though
add the bread.. break into bite sized cubes
now add 2-3 spoonfuls of chickpea water on top to make the bread a bit softer
add the yoghurt on top… it should be enough for 2-4 individual bowls
wait for 5 minutes… dig in and voila š
WOW! Danderma, thank you! Now I know how to do it (except in Pensacola, I don’t think there will be the bean man at the grocery store, but I can cook beans) and even better – now all my readers also know how to make it!
This is what I mean when I say there are things you don’t even know you don’t know. I didn’t know that I didn’t know about FATTAH because I didn’t know fattah existed!
Now I know! And I know how to make something that might remotely resemble what I ate at the Beirut. Thank you! Thank you! I think I will serve it to house guests; you and BuTootie must come enjoy . . . š
lool you are most welcome :*
but my version is a quick very low fat version… totally not for guests… if you want to produce it to guest i will give you my moms recipe that includes grilled aubergine, parsley, tomatoes, pomegranate, and the bread is done up in a more fancy way!
There is a remote chance we might go to the USA this year… if we come we will pass by i promise š
I want your Mama’s recipe, please! š
Even better . . . come show me. š
I can visualize you behind the wheel of the RAV4 with Adventure Man dosing off in the passenger seat at 4 Am on saturday mornings heading out of Pensacola towards the closest lebanese resturant in Atlanta to have Fatta .
LOL, Daggero, we love your vision, and you have started us on a whole new web search, trying to find Arabic food in the deep South. Atlanta is FIVE HOURS from Pensacola! I know there is a large Arabic community in Panama City; I will look for that. Maybe Mobile. Maybe Louisiana . . . ?
what a great morning! love from your biggah fattah friend š
LLLLOOOOLLLL, we did have fun, didn’t we, LLLLOOOLLLL!