The big book of the Lebanese mezze - anthropology of a secular knowledge - Aida Kanafani Zahar

Description

The mezze, an assortment of cold and hot, raw and cooked non-meat and meat entrees, inaugurates an epicurean meal. It is characterized by an opening marked by the flavors of salty, acidic and fresh vegetable, and three tables: the reign of the vegetable, the meat announced and the meaty confirmed.

The variety of raw materials, preparation and cooking methods, generates a palette of colors, scents, flavors and textures of great richness. Whether from the interior or from the sea, mezze is part of a seasonal cuisine that celebrates plants and a timeless cuisine that comes from ancestral ways of preserving food: sun drying and fermentation. He stages the table of everyday life and celebrations and combines the most ordinary dishes with the rarest and most elaborate starters.

His visual and gustatory scenography obeys the representations of the culinary act: the 'breath' of the cook and the 'soul' of the eater. By interacting, each with its own sense, they lay the anthropological foundations of Lebanese cuisine.