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A Lebanese Blog

Category: Lebanon

  • Ahwet El Ezez to shutdown by the end of 2010

    2010 is parting in a few days and it seems like it is taking away one of Gemmayze’s landmarks with it!

    According to this article from The Daily Star, Ahwet El Ezez will soon shut its doors after losing a legal battle with the building owners regarding the continuation of pre-civil war rents.

    The premises will now return to the building owners, who have been embroiled in legal disputes with the café for years over the continuation of pre-Civil War rents.

    What will become of it now remains unknown. Building owners have assured conservationists that the site will not be demolished but speculation is rife over what will become of one of central Beirut’s last traditional cafés, with rumors circulating it will be turned into a new snazzy bar, maybe even a Starbucks or a bank branch.

    Do you think it is time for us to finally accept that those small pieces of Beirut’s heritage are not meant to last forever or at least survive the real estate boom in the city?

  • Lebanese recipes now on App Store

    This definitely doesn’t replace our favorite Lebanese cuisine blogs, but it’s cool to see our traditional recipes available on an iPhone application!

    Use this app and bring the delicious taste and richness of the Lebanese cuisine to your home – enjoy 100 of the finest Lebanese recipes and experience the flavor of the Orient. The huge variety of dishes includes among others traditional salads, starters, meat, chicken, fish and vegetarian dishes as well as famous desserts. It will allow you to prepare typical Lebanese menus and surprise your family and friends. All recipes are decorated with high quality pictures to give you an upfront idea of what you are about to cook.

    You can find more info about the application here.

    Via Beirut Spring

  • Lord of the Wings coming to Hamra

    I don’t know for how long this announcement has been there, but I didn’t see it until yesterday. Lord of the Wings will soon open in Ibrahim Abd El Aal street, near “3a Zaw2ak” cafe.

    I think Hamra is very close to becoming the ultimate destination in Beirut for food lovers since it almost has all kinds of restaurants now. What is still missing there?

  • ABC Achrafiyeh Christmas Tree

    … Yep, the same one that got Sietske into trouble when she was taking a photo of it. Fortunately no guards came to forbid me from shooting the tree though one of them saw me taking a panoramic photo using my cell phone, I believe it all depends on what gear you are using!

    It’s pretty cool to see, in addition to the decoration they set up on the 3rd floor.

  • Arz missile – Lebanese made surface-to-surface missile!

    Believe it or not, I just found out that Haigazian university and the Lebanese army have cooperated back in the 1960’s to produce a series of surface-to-surface missiles called “Arz-1”, “Arz-2”, and “Arz-3”.

    It all started with a project led by Professor Manoug Manuogian at Haigazian university in 1960 resulting in a single-stage rocket that reached an altitude of 2 kilometers. The Lebanese president at that time, Fouad Chehab, decided to finance the project with 25,000 L.L, which allowed the group to build tw0-stage rockets in summer 1962, and a three-stage rocket later in November 1962. By the end of this year rockets were able to reach an altitude of 20Km!

    However, the project was halted shortly after the French President Charles de Gaulle told President Chehab that the Lebanese abilities were proven in the scientific field, but the project might put Lebanon at risk if further researches are done! (WTF!!!) i.e. These missiles are a threat to Israel, and it will not remain silent towards the advancement of the Lebanese army in missile technology!

    That’s actually a summary of the article I found on Wikipedia.

    If we have worked on this technology back in the 1960’s, and if resistance movements in Palestine are currently using water pipes to produce the Qassam rockets, then we can definitely resume working on the project and come up with much more enhanced versions of Arz to arm the Lebanese army and make it capable of defending our land when necessary. But then again will Israel remain silent about it? This definitely leads us to the defense strategy issue that our buttheads have been discussing since 2006, Israel simply doesn’t accept Lebanon having any means of self defense, so how can we disarm Hezbollah and still be able to protect ourselves against any possible invasion..? Oh wait this isn’t a political blog! END OF POST!

  • Fishing and falling roses at Ain El Mrayseh on the independence day

    Thanks to global warming, the weather on the independence day in Beirut was just awesome! Warm temperature and -almost- clear blue skies made it perfect for a walk at Ain El Mrayseh.

    Fortunately the corniche was not congested with joggers and bikers, but fishers were just everywhere, and standing at the most bizarre places!

    … the guys above were actually standing right where sewage water is dumped into the sea!

    How can they still eat the fish they get from the sewage water is beyond my understanding, unless they sell them to other people like the man below was doing.

    However, I seem to have missed a cool initiative by the Lebanese army and Leo Burnett! At around 3:30PM, a military helicopter flew at low altitude over the Manara corniche, releasing thousands of red roses attached to miniature white parachutes, carrying a message “Bihimayat Al Jonoud, Tanmou Al Wouroud”, or “Roses flourish under the protection of our soldiers”. The operation was called “Roses from the Sky” (you can watch a video about it here)

    @chaftari from Leo was kind enough to share these photos with me.

    I personally had mixed feeling about this operation… what do you think?

  • Today’s sunset in Beirut

    I couldn’t resist taking a photo of today’s sunset when I saw how colorful it was, and wishing I was out of the office somewhere near the sea with my DSLR.

    November usually carries the best times to shoot sunsets in Lebanon, but unfortunately the sun sets so early at 4:30PM nowadays, leaving too few opportunities for employees like me who like shooting photos.

  • Got my invitation to the nightlife exchange party!

    I just got 2 invitations to the nightlife exchange party where Lebanon and Thailand will be swapping their nightlife habits/rituals!

    The event will be happening on Saturday November 27th at The Warehouse Zalka, let’s see how good is the nightlife in Thailand compared to Lebanon!

  • Happy Adha!

    Eid El-Adha is the time for Muslims to recall prophet Abraham’s obedience to god in his willingness to sacrifice his own son Ismail, before god intervened and gave him a ram to sacrifice instead. And so the act of sacrificing an animal later became a ritual for Muslims.

    That’s when it becomes normal to see sheep stored at very unusual places in Beirut, like rooftops for example.

    … and when it also becomes very normal to see butchers slaughtering sheep in the streets.

  • Possible way to avoid speeding radars in Lebanon

    If this device is too expensive for you, you may want to consider signing up for an account at Trapster, a mobile application that can alert you about nearby radars!

    How Does It Work?

    Users submit speed traps, enforcement cameras, and road hazards, that then alert all Trapster users in the area. A high-tech version of flashing your headlights to alert drivers of potential road hazards.

    I think it’ll be helpful if enough Lebanese users registered, don’t you think?

    Thanks to @jadhamdan for pointing me to the application via twitter.