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I went skiing in Faraya yesterday for the first time this year, and it was really great with so much snow on and off the slopes.

Starting Faraya main square, the road was packed with the Sunday crowd but surprisingly there was not much people on pistes. And no I’m not complaining about it!

The Daily Star posted some very nice photos showing the aftermath of the recent snowstorm across many villages in Lebanon. Make sure you check them out here and here.

Baalbeck

Sawfar

Jabal El-Sheikh

All these white scenes make you crave lunch by the chimney at one of the restaurants in the mountains. Montagnou? Erzel? Any recommendations?

I was disappointed for having to skip an invitation to one of Le Paon Rouge shows last night at Whisky Mist as I was curious to check it out after reading a lot about it. But I was lucky enough to have Liliane sharing with me the photos she took from last night’s performance.

So there you go, a glimpse of Le Paon Rouge at the Mist!

These two photos, taken by Mr. Mohamad Machnouk at the same time and in the same parking lot, show different cars with identical license plates. As the plates color shows, these two cars seem to be owned by some Lebanese judge. Talk about abuse of authority!

I’ve always heard people talking about the Shouf cedar reserve, but I never knew it was really that nice until I visited it last weekend thanks to a couple of friends.

We were originally planning a visit to Maaser El-Shouf village but then got tempted to continue further to the cedar reserve, the largest nature reserve in Lebanon containing 25% of the country’s cedars, and to our luck there was some festival ongoing in Maaser and shuttle service to and from the reserve was offered for free.

Entrance tickets are at 5,000L.L, and once you’re inside you’ll get to choose among 3 hiking paths with different lengths and each showing you different parts of the reserve. We chose the shortest one, a 1.2Km walk that took around 25-30 minutes to complete with awesome views and feel. Definitely worth a visit especially if you’re showing some tourists around the country.

If you happen to be passing by Hamra some time and feel like craving some sugar, make sure to drop by Le Gustav at Antoun Gemayel street. The place is very small and cozy, with 2 friendly chefs, Khaled and Noor, who never get bored of explaining to you how everything gets done in their kitchen and the ingredients they use.

Their menu has a wide variety of items and I personally recommend you try any of these three: Chocolate Pavè, Red Velvet cake with cream cheese, and Fleur-de-lis.

I finally got to try the burger joint everyone has been buzzing about for a while now, “Burger Nation” located at end of Hamra street.

The menu is very straight forwards and offers either their selections of burgers or do-it-yourself, and while explaining about the burgers you can’t but notice how much the waiters emphasize on the fact that their patty is made of grass-fed Angus beef that’s imported from Australia.

Farah and I shared two burgers, the Nation’s Pride and the Swiss & Mushroom both 4oz and medium well, and I have to admit the patty is among the best in town, I mean you can easily feel the difference between others and what Burger Nation offers.

However, the sauces and toppings definitely need an enhancement, at least for the Nation’s Pride. With that holy beef patty, I was expecting a much better taste. And don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying it tasted bad, actually I’m planning to go there again to try their 6oz burgers, but I’m pretty sure BN can do better with the toppings.

Would I recommend you to go there? Yes, and do try their belgian fries.

I just came across a great website called “The Fouad Debbas Collection” featuring thousands of old photos and postcards from Lebanon and the region collected by the late Fouad Debbas, who according to the website used to run the lighting business of Debbas family.

The collection is really amazing and well organized, you can browse it by country, era, period of time, photographer, and even by photo orientation. I’ve seen some old collections before, but this one is unique.

LBC International started a cool new website called “Cheyef 7alak” aimed to track irresponsible drivers. The idea behind the initiative is very simple, whenever you spot some bad driver/biker/pedestrian, take a photo of him/her and upload it to their website or Facebook page, and leave it to them to publish it and give those douchebags the attention they’re seeking!

Given the quality of our driving here, including myself (yeah I won’t pretend I’m the prefect driver here), I’m afraid they’ll get overloaded with photos very soon!

I really can’t believe someone can be that bad in English… the menu items are just unreal!

Tabboush snack is a proof that sucking at translation is not exclusive to Egyptians and Syrians (with all due respect), apparently Lebanese too can do a terrible job sometimes. The place offers Urination, Bebse, Duonas, Zaluoaa, Flesh, Black chickens, and a lot more… check for yourself.

According to my friend who provided the photos, Tabboush made 25,000 copies of the menu… so there’s 25,000 copies of this thing possibly roaming the streets of Beirut and ready to massacre your brain at anytime!