Week 2: Lebanon in Harbor East and Fed Hill
This week is Lebanon week, and involved drinks at Lebanese Taverna, food at Byblos, and then an amazing show at Illusions.
First, a little bit about Lebanon.
Lebanon
After choosing Lebanon, I realized that I know nothing about that country. Honestly, I probably couldn’t even point to it on a map (I am pretty sure its in the Middle East, but it could be East Africa too). So first off..
Look around there. To the south is Israel which is best described by all of the dashed lines that are used as borders on that map indicating that they are disputed borders. Its other land based borders are shared with Syria, which has been in the middle of the huge civil war since 2011 that began with the Arab Spring. Lebanon has over a million Syrian refugees living within its borders.
This isn’t even the first time that that Lebanon has dealt with this type of conflict. They have had to deal with the home grown militant group, Hezbollah over the last decade. The Syrian Civil war threatened to spill over shortly after it started in 2011. Syria also occupied Lebanon from 1976–2005, which was during the Lebanese Civil War that split the country between Palestine, Syria, and Maronite groups, complete with a ‘Berlin Wall’ like Green Line. Before that, they were ruled by the French between the two World Wars, and by the Ottoman Empire from 1516 until 1918. And before that, there were the Romans and Phoenicians.
Lebanon has had a tough go of it.
Some interesting things I found about Lebanon:
- While Arabic is the official language, and the one that is spoken by the majority of citizens, 70% of secondary schools use French as a secondary language, and the other 30% use English. The French is due to their ties with France from between the World Wars.
- Again, unsurprisingly, Islam is the predominant religion. However, it only edges out Christianity out at a 54%-40% margin. The picture to the side was especially jarring to me. That’s a Christmas tree, with a large LED screen encouraging people to donate in dollars to light it up. This picture is a panoramic, and behind is a huge ‘Jesus is Born’ sign and a manger scene. Yeah, this is Lebanon.
- Between 2006 (the Hezbollah conflict with Israel) and 2011 (the Syrian Civil War), the Lebanese GDP grew by about 8% per year. Since the Syrian Civil War, that has dropped below 2% though.
Fed Hill, Baltimore
Fed Hill is south of the Inner Harbor, and is right around the hill. In fact, the iconic picture of the Baltimore skyline is taken from the top of Fed Hill. Its easy to lump all of the southern part of Baltimore together as being Fed Hill, but it turns out that that neighborhood really only covers the area around the hill, and some of the main drag of Light Street. Federal Hill is named for a parade celebrating the State of Maryland’s ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788.
Fort McHenry is right down the street, and is known as the fort that defended against the British in the War of 1812, and where the National Anthem was written. So I always assumed that the cannons that are on top of the hill were related to that. But these cannons are pointed at Baltimore. Turns out, these were setup during the Civil War by the Union as a threat for Baltimore so they would play nice with the Union after the Baltimore Riots of 1861. They stayed there through the whole war, and are now an, admittedly misunderstood, monument.
The Food
With all of the different influences, Lebanon’s food pulls from a little bit of everywhere. They get a bit of the Mediterranean influence where small plates (tapas) and used, some French influence with their flan and caramel custard desserts, and lamb based staples from the Ottoman Turks.
Arak is the traditional alcoholic beverage in Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. The restaurant we are going to for food does not serve alcohol, so we stopped by Lebanese Taverna in Harbor East. Its this cool Lebanese place right on the water, and actually looked like it might have had better food than Byblos. However, the purpose of Baltimore Around the World is to explore the city, and Harbor East is not a part of the I need to explore. I can buy overpriced things another time.
Lebanese Taverna is as nice as you would expect from a Harbor East restaurant. The food that we saw going by did look really good. We got the Arak, which is an anise flavored spirit that is really, really strong. So strong that the serve it with water to cut it.
In the picture to the left, the Arak is in the leftmost glass, followed by the water, ice, and the glass to mix it together in. Its interesting that two clear liquids make a milky looking liquid. I took a video, but Instagram apparently expects you to be a monster and take video in portrait mode. And it’s not that interesting.
It was an interesting drink. Anise is not really a flavor I go for, but it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t sweet, or sour; it was just the anise flavor and the kick of the alcohol. I did take a sip of the Arak by itself, and it had a serious kick. They had an Arak flavored drink on the menu, and I would probably go for something more like that if I did this again. But hey, this is about trying new things!
After a quick walk around the harbor, we got to Byblos, named after a small coastal town in Lebanon with only about 40,000 people. Byblos (the restaurant) does not seem to follow the small platter layout, but does have plenty of appetizers that are basically the small plates. The restaurant is just the width of a townhouse (probably 15 feet), and only has a tiny kitchen and nine tables. But they make magic back there.
The first thing we tried was Baked Kibbeh. Kibbeh is cracked wheat, minced onions, and finely ground meat with Middle Eastern spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice). You could taste all of that. It was easy to taste the meat (probably a mix of beef and lamb), and all of the spices. It was amazing, and nothing like anything I have had. Bready, meaty, and so tender and tasty.
It was basically comfort food that wasn’t too heavy.
Next was a Lebanese pie, which is not like what we have as pie. They were out of the meat pie, so we went with the spinach one. And it was amazing. The spices were hard to pin down, but there was a great lemon flavor used that really took it up a notch. The bread on the outside was also really good. White bread, that was so soft, and lightly crispy and buttery on the outside.
The stuffed cabbage was easily the weakest link in the dinner, not because it was bad, but because everything else was so great. Although, it might also be because it came out with the lamb, which was the best of the night. But the cabbage held its own. Again, it was lamb with plenty of spices wrapped in a cabbage wrap. The cabbage was done well so that it was not too soft. Not bad, just not my favorite (although the filling was really good).
The Lamb Tawook was amazing. Lamb on top of rice, with their freshly made hommous on the side. The hommous was great on its own. Lightly spiced, with that lemon flavor we had in the pie earlier, and a great consistency. Great homomus that could stand alone, but still didn’t overpower the meal. But when you are next to some of the best prepared lamb I have ever had, it just doesn’t compare. It was so tender, so well spiced without being over the top, and perfectly cooked. Getting a bite of the lamb with the rice, hommous and salad was a perfect mix of crisp, soft, and tender.
We also baklava to go. I have never been a fan of baklava, and while it was better than others I have had, its just not my cup of tea. But Maureen loves it, and this one didn’t disappoint. Sweet, flaky, and good taste.
Illusions
Our friends Kevin and Aleece went to Illusions Magic Bar last year, and said they had an amazing time. So I figured this was the perfect time to go. The magician is Spencer Horsman, who is a Fed Hill native that has performed all over the world. He has an amazing stage presence, is really funny, and most of all, is an amazing illusionist. One trick he did that was especially impressive involved getting a $20 from someone, putting it in an envelope, burning it, and then somehow pulling it out of an orange that he cut on stage. Kevin and Aleece liked it so much the first time, that they came with us to see it again. And they said they still couldn’t figure out how he did it.
He ended with an escape trick, that you can also see from America’s Got Talent. When he did it for us, he had more locks, and it took him about two and a half minutes to get out. And, did I mention he has asthma?
I thought that if I saw it up close that I could figure out how he was doing it. After the show, he sticks around and will chat you up until closing time. When things thinned out a bit, he grabbed everyone and a deck of cards. He had each person pick a card by dropping the stack from one hand to the other and asking you to say stop. You then see the card and he keeps going around the circle. After everyone had picked a card (with it still in the deck), he then went back around and show each person their card. Beyond it being impressive that he could do that with people standing all around him, its damn impressive he could remember 10 cards and then whip back through them.
There is no way I can describe this that gives him proper credit. It was an amazing show. Well worth the trip-highly recommend.
This week was exactly the kind of experience that I was looking for when I decided to do Baltimore Around the World. I have never had Lebanese fare before, and I never knew that there was such an awesome Baltimore gem in Illusions. But that’s why this is about trying new things!
Next week: Legend of Zelda “Breath of the Wild” comes out next week, and Maureen has made it clear that she is married to Link next week. So… we will do take out! West Indian Flavor, the Trinidadian restaurant, is in a less desirable part of town, and is a take out kind of place. So next week, we have Oxtail from Baltimore’s Middle East neighborhood!
