Bhar

Last week, I finally had the opportunity to try downtown Beirut's latest hotspot and cafe, Bhar (or spice in Arabic), a few steps past pub row on Uruguay Street. I popped in around mid-morning and noticed a breakfast buffet, evocative of the ones you see at hotels, featuring jams, cheeses, deli meats, veggies, and dried fruit. Not really fancying breakfast, I made my way to the dessert display, three racks of dainty French treats, upon which my eyes beheld an enticing French-Lebanese fusion: circular disks of Turkish delight (or Lebanese lokum) adorned with crumbs of crushed cashew and delicately arranged on a bed of sweetened cheese inside a buttery sablet tart. The pastry was as delicious as it appeared, so rich and delectable that I cut it up like pie and enjoyed each exquisite triangle.

The American coffee I ordered came in a ceramic cup molded in the form of a flimsy polystyrene plastic cup, the kind you use at water dispensers, that had warped from the hot liquid it contained. It was quite creative and surprisingly ergonomic to hold.

I can't wait to go back!

                                       

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beirutista Featured on "Malini Angelica" YouTube Travel Documentary About Beirut

Image
A little over three months ago, on October 1, 2022, I met with video creator Malini Angelica at L’Appartement terrace in Beirut. Malini, visiting from London to film a YouTube travel documentary with her partner, had come across my blog Beirutista and wished to meet in person. We agreed to a casual rendezvous at a venue of her choosing, and conversation flowed naturally as we sipped on Qanafar rosé from the Bekaa region. Among a number of things, we spoke about my Lebanese-American upbringing in southern California, the transition to Lebanon over one decade ago, the birth of Beirutista, whether or not there is a real Lebanese identity, and the current state of affairs inside these borders. The videotaped exchange lasted an hour or so and would be incorporated in a travel doc destined for Malini’s eponymous YouTube channel. Three months later, exactly on New Year’s Day, the video was released, and you can see it here (jump to 21:30 to catch my segment). Only a few short minutes of
Read more

Lebanon's Retail Landscape In Need of Customer Service Overhaul

Image
Last weekend, I found myself visiting two different retailers with which I’d previously been unfamiliar. We received housewarming gifts that I wished to exchange for something of more utility, and after being repeatedly reassured that swapping would be effortless, I embarked on said mission. The first retailer has two branches: one in Jdeideh, north of Beirut, and another in Ballouneh, in the Ajaltoun district. The gift was purchased in Ballouneh, and I was going to attempt the exchange in Jdeideh, which is considerably closer to our home. I entered the shop and presented the item – a half dozen set of tumblers – to the two ladies seated behind the cashier desk. Almost instantly I was greeted with, “that’s an old item.” “Excuse me? This was purchased 24 hours ago from your other location,” I retorted. As though we were duking it out on a tennis court, the cashier swiftly shot back that she had to check whether they even carried this item in Jdeideh, because if they did not, she wou
Read more

Wondering How Best To Send US Cash to Lebanon? Try Sendwave.

Image
Updated: March 26, 2023 For the Lebanese, remittances have always been a hard fact of life. With a vast diaspora often quoted to be upward of five times the population inside Lebanon, it is not uncommon for Lebanese expats to send money to family members living in the motherland. But now more than ever, that fact has become a deepening necessity. As the country battles a multi-faceted crisis promising no clear resolution, the Lebanese find themselves struggling to make ends meet, and their reliance on remittances from abroad grows unabashedly. The real question, however, is how to channel funds safely, cost-effectively and directly into the intended recipient’s hands. I finally found a surefire answer, and I could not recommend it more heartily. Now more than ever, the Lebanese are relying on cash remittances from abroad to survive ( Getty images ). What is Sendwave? Sendwave is an app born in 2014 out of a desire to slash the high fees and minimize the inconvenience of sending
Read more