Beirut's BEST Street Food - LEBANESE BREAKFAST at Al Soussi!! Street Food in Beirut Lebanon!

Welcome to another episode of Chopstick Travel and good morning from Lebanon. I'm Luke Martin and today I am so excited to announce that we are starting our new series here in Lebanon. For the next three days we are going to be exploring this country, taking you to a couple different cities and we're going to be doing it all with my friend Anthony. So Anthony is an award-winning street food blogger, he's a leading authority on Lebanese cuisine and there couldn't be anyone better to show us around the country than him. So today we are in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. We're going to be taking you for the ultimate street food tour of Beirut. I am so excited for this series and I am hungry. It's bright and early so let's go meet up with Anthony. So this is my buddy Anthony, he's going to be helping us out for the next couple of days and his blog No Garlic No Onions is in my opinion the best blog on Lebanese cuisine. You can check out his YouTube channel and Instagram of course, everything will be down below. So what are we having here Anthony? Before telling you what we're having here, you're going to leave in three days with more weight, with a bigger smile, and you're going to talk to the world and tell them about one of the most beautiful countries you've visited called Lebanon. We're going to start with our traditional breakfast called Manoucheh with zaatar, we're going to have several ones of them each every day, you're going to see the differences between big zaatar, small, thick, thin, etc. So let's enjoy Lebanon. Yeah I am hungry, let's go. So we have our breakfast here, we've got two different types of Manoucheh, and what do we have here? A mix of vegetables, all kinds of vegetables of which are green olives, tomatoes, and onions, which you're going to love. And this is a signature, which we call lahme ba'ajin, the Lebanese meat pizza, 100% meat, spices, a little bit of tomatoes and onions, you're going to love it. The signature of this Manoucheh is that it has the thinnest, most transparent dough, look how thin that is, and I have a surprise, the juice of our childhood, it is the juice of our childhood. It's in a triangular box. All of us, when we were kids, we had this. After you finish it, you put air into it, and we jump on it and it gives you a boom. Okay, very cool. Enjoy. Very interesting. Okay let's try this one, this is the one with the spices and the meat, so let's try that. Very thin, very delicate. Now let's chase it with some of this juice. I don't even know if you call this a juice box, or a juice pyramid. Let's try it. That's definitely sweet. And this has got a little bit of a spicy kick to it. The outer layers have more of a crisp than the inside, it's a little bit more doughy. And let's try the second kind here, with all the mixed vegetables, green olives, and some tomatoes on there. Oh man. Oh, there's green olives on there. It's got this sour, lemony kick to it. Perfect breakfast. Oh, wow. You want to try it again? Wake up the whole neighborhood. Alright, my turn. This looks amazing. Oh, yeah. That's nice and sour. I'm going to fold it up, because this part is nice and soft. And then I'm going to mix it with the crispy part. So Anthony was telling me they have 64 different flavors of the manoucheh here. This one is the classic zaatar, that wild thyme mixed with sumac, mixed with some sesame seeds and salt. And then there's a little bit of meat on here. So let me try this. Wow. That is strong. And we have another very interesting dish. This is called laban. And it is sort of like a yogurt, very thick. It's handmade in the village, as Anthony was telling me. So let me try it out. I'm intruding. You take your manoucheh. And dip. You do it like a bite. Yeah. You dig in and enjoy. I promised you, you would never eat that much in your life. Three days. So good. So we are finished up with our first breakfast. That was really good. Anthony just knows everyone, so it's making it a lot easier for us to find the best spots. And that was delicious. What did you think, Sabrina? Oh my gosh. That was amazing. And the chef was fantastic. Everyone was just having a great time. Good morning. Eating the most delicious breakfast. Yeah. Heading to the next spot now. We have made it to our next spot. This place is serving the same manoucheh, but it's quite different, apparently, Anthony has told me. And it has definitely a different feel to it. Very small, very local feeling. So let's go inside and check it out. So we are inside the shop now. The owner, Francois Lebne, has been cooking this manoucheh for 64 years. It's a different style than the last place we were at. The feel is much more local, much more traditional, and it's very hot in here, but it smells really good. So let's try it. We're gonna have zaatar, the traditional zaatar, thick, local, traditional Lebanese breakfast, which we can eat all closed in half, or rolled like a sandwich. Okay. Cheese. Crispy zaatar, which he invented 30 years back. It's like a biscuit. Yeah, it's like, whoa. Very crispy. And something he's proud of and very famous as well is the spinach fatayer. So this one is called manoucheh because it's rounded. This one is called fatayer because it's triangular. And inside, you have the spinach, tomatoes, and onions. And you're gonna love it. We're gonna do something very innovative. I'm gonna break half of this and half of this, and you're gonna taste something no one else does. It's cheese and zaatar together, and you're gonna give me your opinion. Enjoy! So this is very hot, fresh out of the oven. Very, very hot. I'm gonna rip some of this mixture that Anthony just made up for me, the cheese zaatar mix. Let me try it out. Mmm. It's quite salty. That zaatar is different than the previous one we just tried. It's much more oily, and it's stronger herbal flavor, more earthy, I guess. And then with that cheese, it gives it sort of that cheesy sort of sharpness. The bread here is much thicker. You can see it's almost like a pita bread. Let me try one more bite. This is so interesting, and this spot is so cool. Next up is the very, very crispy version. This is like paper-thin, but very crispy. Look at this. Whoa. And then topped with tons of that zaatar, which is an amazing mixture of herbs and spices. Mmm. That texture is incredible. So crispy. Perfect little snack. This would go good with a glass of beer. For breakfast? Why not? So this kind of thing has never been done before. This is innovation at its best, and I'm gonna give it a try. Mmm. Excellent. I love this type of food. So good. Mmm. Last up is the spinach mixture. This one has a similar feel to the manoucheh that we just tried, with this sort of thicker dough. And you can see there is quite a bit going on inside there. Oh. So juicy. Mmm. I can taste those onions in there, a little bit of tomato, I think. Mmm. Oh, and that bread. Very, very good. It is so hot in here, but the food is so delicious. Off to our next location. That was awesome. We are not slowing down. There is too much to taste here in Beirut. So we are at another restaurant. This place is called Baalbek, and they are serving something called spiha, which is only available in Baalbek, or at this little shop here in Beirut. And they are making this really interesting pastry, the spiha. And the way that they do it is they thin the dough out, fill it with a mixture of spiced lamb and some vegetables, and then after that, they put it into a pan, they bake it in the oven on a very hot temperature, once they start bubbling and start turning golden brown, you know they are done. And they look delicious, so let's try one. Mmm. Lemon. Mmm. Oh, it's hot. Mmm. Wow. That is amazing. It tastes almost like ginger or cinnamon. So the chef just made us a special one, he put a little slice, a little bit of lemon juice and some pomegranate molasses, which sounds very interesting, so let's try it. Oh. Mmm. The fruitiness of that pomegranate really cuts through. Really really good. Like this, and you eat it with the zaatar manoucheh, so if you want something sweet, you go on the bonjour, the juice. If you want something sour, you go on this one, a quart of our yogurt. Try it. Thank you. So, let's try it out. It goes very well with what you're eating. Mmm. That's quite salty. Very refreshing. Mmm. That's an interesting flavor. Let me feel its juiciness. You're unbelievable. Come on guys. Finish off with Baba Bak, that was really really good. All kinds of different pastries, Beirut is such an amazing city, we are moving fast and we are tasting lots, but having a lot of fun. The food here is so good. We bought some of the pastries for the owner of this restaurant, Tony, so we're just going to go give him the pastries now. This is for you. Bonjour. Okay, go. Okay, wow, we have some seriously delicious looking food in front of us. I see five different plates and I'm definitely going to need the expert's help identifying what we got here. So, what do we have, Anthony? Traditional breakfast, Foul Msabaha and Hummus, but what is unconventional and untraditional and only found at Abu Shadi is the eggs with lamb fat and eggs with Awarma, that is lamb meat with fat. So, you take a Lebanese bread, I'm going to tell you how, take a bite of it, you use it like a scoop, oh man, look at that, so this is the Awarma, yes, this is the Awarma, so with lamb meat and then those runny egg yolks, oh man, it smells so good, let me try. The other one is like chips, very crispy, it's lamb fat and eggs, wow, that yolk is so rich. So, this one is a little bit different, it doesn't have the actual meat in it, let me try this, wow, oh man, those eggs are cooked perfectly, oh wow, so we have all kinds of different pickles and herbs and different vegetables, you can see the whole plate here with some beets, some fresh mint, I see some tomatoes, some peppers and then over here, we've got a big plate of pickles too with some onions and some olives, oh man, this is such a good meal, this is a true Lebanon, what I imagined before coming here. And you have to continue on eating these, they are cooked for hours, the foul or fava beans are cooked for more than 14 hours, mixed with olive oil and tahini, they are fantastic, wow, I love it. Grab a little bit more bread and this bread is very thin, let me use my spoon to kind of scoop these fava beans in, you can see all of that olive oil on top, you can taste the lemon juice in there, everything has the same texture, it's all just completely cream, melt in your mouth, so good and there's more dishes arriving as we speak, wow, what is this one here? Labneh, the signature Labneh of Lebanon with meat and onions, and the best part of this breakfast is when Tony eats with you and he loves it, Abu Shadi, the king of foul. You cannot come to Lebanon and not have Labneh, you cannot say Lebanese not have Labneh, also with bread, try it, and Tony adds to it the meat and onions, Labneh is Labneh, Labneh is Lebanon, Labneh, Zaatar, Laban, these are things Lebanese and proud. I can see why you take this as a national heritage because that is seriously delicious, with those onions on top, a little bit crisp left of the onions and definitely some taste of the lamb meat, and then just check out that Labneh, that white, beautiful white gold. See how classy the food is, probably you're going to eat food around the Middle East, and proudly ours is smooth, gourmet, gentle, full of flavor, low in fat, and enjoyable. Very delicate. So we've got another dish that just came out, this one is very interesting, I can see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, maybe more, and these are quail eggs, so let me break one of these off, and I'm going to wrap it up in a little bit of bread here, and it looks like these have been spiced up nicely, those eggs cook perfectly. So one dish that we missed because there's so many on the table is this, it's the chickpeas with the tahini, so I'm going to give it a try, it looks like it's just covered in oil and I see a little bit of spices on top, wow. So this is Tony the chef, and he just seriously knows what he's doing here, you're cooking some incredible food, made with love, simplicity, but absolutely delicious. Finished off with that amazing Lebanese spread, wow, this country is blowing my mind how delicious the food is, so many delicate, simple, yet rich flavors, I'm in love. We are at our next spot, all I can see is a restaurant that is completely packed with locals, Anthony told me we're having kunefe, one of my favorite desserts in the world, so I'm pretty excited to try this out. Yalla, yalla, yalla, yalla, yalla, yalla, yalla. We've got our kunefe, and the way that they serve it here is quite different than anywhere else I've ever seen it. So they actually put it inside of bread, so it's sort of like a sandwich of kunefe, which is seriously hardcore, because if you've ever had kunefe, it is a very heavy dessert. You can see here, it is this beautiful, cheesy semolina dough, and very sweet, and then it's all tucked in this sort of sesame seed bread, very interesting preparation of kunefe. I am excited to try this out, but this looks seriously heavy, I can feel the weight in my hand. Oh wow, that is awesome. That is some seriously dense dessert, the cheese is so tightly packed, it really is just like a big glob, hunk of cheese, very sweet, and you can definitely taste that syrup, a little bit savory too at the same time, and I like it with the sesame seeds on the outside. This is a heavy snack, like seriously crazy. We haven't been at this shop for more than five minutes, and they've already sold at least three quarters of this massive pan of kunefe, so they are really packed out with locals here, and that was seriously good, really rich, really dense, but a nice snack. Definitely fills you up if you're hungry, which I wasn't, but it's still really good. They have all kinds of different desserts here, not only kunefe, lots of good looking sweets, you could definitely come here and spend the whole day snacking on some delicious Lebanese desserts. Beautiful. We are at our next spot today, and this is a place that I've been looking forward to coming for a long time, it's called Al Soussi, this is the chef, and he is 73 years old, been cooking breakfast in Lebanon for decades, and this has been voted one of the top 10 breakfast by CNN, the smells in here are absolutely incredible, the chef is just working double time, and everything looks so good, so we're gonna order up and have some breakfast. Well, not quite breakfast, but we're still gonna have it. So we are sitting down now to have our breakfast after five other meals so far today, but this place, I've been telling Anthony that I wanted to visit for a long time, and we have some really good looking dishes, so this one is the specialty, right? Bateh. Bateh, so it's sort of like a crisp bread underneath, and then, is this yogurt, or is it? Chickpeas, yogurt, Lebanese yogurt, fried nuts or almonds with ghee, and crunchy bread, toasted bread, but when you put the ghee with the bread, it turns, it's like, the bread looks like fried. Yeah, okay, so look at all those different ingredients on top, and all kinds of delicious spices, and then back here we have brain, this is lamb brain with ghee, all kinds of ghee, you can see it's still like bubbling on top there, and Anthony told me that this one is gonna be really good, and then we've got one more dish coming here, this is liver, right? With, looks like some onions and, is it tomatoes or peppers? Red peppers, onions, and pomegranate molasses. Pomegranate molasses, wow. And then of course, we've got all kinds of other things on the table, some vegetables, some pickles, and bread. Wow, this looks so good, so let's dig in. So I'm gonna start with the Bateh, I have my own here, this one is the regular version with garlic, of course Anthony ordered his without garlic, and I'm gonna make sure I get all kinds of, all the different ingredients there, I can see all those crispy pieces of bread and chickpeas. So rich and intense, so lemony, texture-wise, the crunch, the smoothness, cold and hot all together. Describes it perfectly, that is comfort food at its finest. I love how the bread has a little bit of a crisp to it, but it also is a little bit soggy from that yogurt that's soaked into it, and then a little bit of garlic flavor of course too. Wow, that is really good. Yeah, now we have to try the brains, this is lamb brains with all kinds of ghee, so I'll take a piece of bread, oh man I can feel really soft and really saturated with ghee. Oh, it's got almost like a bouncy texture to it. Alright, I'm interested to see. You're gonna be more intelligent in two minutes! So good, how the budgie has different textures, so we're gonna taste the brains, we're gonna taste, I'm gonna give you a piece of the liver, and the liver for example is chewier, firmer, so every part of, in Lebanon we eat all the lamb or the cow, and every part is different, and we're gonna have that in a couple of days, tasting the raw liver and the raw meat. Oh really? And you're gonna see the difference. Oh cool. That brain has actually amazing taste, it's really saturated with that ghee, and it feels bouncy in your hands, but it actually just completely falls apart in your mouth. So let me try the liver next. Oh, that is good. It is. That pomegranate molasses is awesome. A little bit more of a chew to it, not rubbery though, actually quite tender, that is really good. Let me tell you something, probably the simplest of things is just tasting the real flavor and texture of mint, and the real flavor, rich flavor, natural flavor of tomatoes, which few countries today have, because we proudly planted in the villages, our mint is so thin, not chewy, and very, very intensely rich. That is very intense. And for the tomatoes, the same. See how juicy it is? How sweet? So juicy. Oh yeah. That is the perfect combination. Wow, that is juicy. Exactly. So we have al-susi's version of awarma, this one's a little bit different, it's got pulled beef, and these eggs just look so good. That is just simply amazing. Just check out this thing of beauty, the finest Lebanese dish of hummus. One of my favorite things in the world. You definitely need to eat this with a little bit of bread, and just check out how there is a beautiful mint leaf. He is working so fast, yet he still takes the time to just make this look absolutely beautiful. So tahini, lemon juice, chickpeas, and olive oil. Check that out. Wow, let's try. If you think you've had hummus, and you haven't had it here, then you haven't had hummus. Because this stuff is the real deal. That is so velvety, smooth. It needs to be creamy, it needs to be smooth, it needs to be balanced. You don't have to feel the tahini, you don't have to feel the lemon, you don't have to feel the chickpeas, and the salt. So it's a combination of four ingredients that just have to melt under the mouth, and you can use it as a dip with meat, with bread, with lots of things. Four ingredients harmoniously put together. I honestly can't think of anything better than this. That is so good. What are you trying? I'm trying the brain next, and it's been cooked very interestingly. My last experience with brain wasn't so good, so I'm hoping that this will redeem itself, and I'm sure it will. I promise you it's better than the last time. Wow, that's a lot better than this time. That's delicious. Finished off with el sushi. That was just mind-blowing. This day has just been incredible so far. Lebanese food is just so much better than I expected. It's really like a refined version of so many other Middle Eastern cuisines with that Mediterranean flair, and it's just so healthy, filling, nutritious, and we're going to go get some dessert now. Behind me here, you can see we've taken a break to come visit Raouche Rock, or Pigeon Rock. It's these beautiful pillars coming out of the ocean right on the coast here in Beirut. A nice place to just take a little break and relax, and really beautiful views. So we are at a second generation traditional ice cream shop. All this stuff is homemade right now. We are trying to get a couple different scoops. They have only a couple different flavors here, and they're pretty unique, so we're going to show you what we're going to get. So it's all homemade, right? Yeah. I was cooking the milk. Oh, you're cooking the ice cream over here? Here is the milk. Oh, that's the milk. Okay. Now we choose what's good, what's not good from this, to put it with the apricot. With the apricot? Yeah. And if you see here, you have milk with mastica, pistachio, chocolate, caramelized almond. These are based milk. You have sorbet, lemon, rose water, apricot, strawberry. And today you have the chance to eat orange. Orange? Oh, very cool. Thank you. So we've got our first type of ice cream we're going to try. Actually, there's three different types, and it's already melting. We've got pistachio in the middle, almond on top, and then chocolate underneath. And then the cone, which is actually kind of square-shaped, is filled with milk. So I'm going to kind of get a bite of almond here. Wow, very delicate. You can tell that that is homemade, but also very milky and creamy. Oh man, this is so good. What do you think of the homemade ice cream, Sabrina? This is so delicious. This combination, the chocolate, the pistachio, and the almond, is a great combination. And the texture of the ice cream is kind of chewy, and I really like that. So we're down to the cone now. And actually, the cone is filled with a type of ice cream, which is just milk ice cream. It's village milk flavored. And you can see it kind of hiding underneath there. Let me take a big bite and try to get some of it. Wow. Very unique. It's like vanilla ice cream with the vanilla. Really interesting. We have our second set of flavors. This is more of the fruity combination. So we've got strawberry, orange, rosewater, lemon, and then underneath there's actually apricot. So these are all seasonal ingredients. You can't get them all the time. And just homemade. Like, this is serious ice cream. This is the real deal. So I'm going to try to get a bite of a couple different kinds. Whoa, that rosewater. That just punches you in the face with a floral kick. Oh, that is so good. That reminds me of my childhood. It kind of tastes like orange-icles. Oh my gosh. That is so, so good. My turn. I don't think you're going to like it. Yes, I'm going to like it. I'm going to like it. Come on. Let me try it. I love it. Try the rosewater one. It's white in color, so it doesn't look like it's going to be so flavorful. But it is really packing a punch. It does pack a punch. The rosewater is white. Nobody in the world can do that. You wouldn't expect it. It just punches you in the face. Wow. Amazing. It's snowy. Like, you're putting real snow under your tongue. It's so rich. It's got a frosty texture. It's not heavy. It's really amazing. Okay, guys. I am seriously stuffed after an incredible day of eating with Anthony. Thank you so much for showing me around today. It was incredible. Tomorrow, we have another full day of eating in Tripoli. So, we're heading north, right? Yes. And I'm really excited to do that. This series is going to be really great. So, make sure to check out Anthony. I'll put all of his information down for his Instagram, website, YouTube, everything down in the description box. Go give him a subscribe. Check him out. And thank you once again. Thank you. Pleasure. It was an amazing day of eating. And I'm going for Lebanese burger. I'm too full. He's going to eat more. I don't know how he's going to do it. Thanks, Roger. Bye.