Work trips aren’t always fun. But when the trip involves eating and researching with Wassef and Racha Haroun, co-owners of Mamnoon, I have to admit that it sounds pretty damn awesome.
Last month, chefs Carrie Mashaney (Mamnoon) and Jason Stratton (the Harouns’ MBar)
spent a week with the couple touring—and, more importantly, tasting
their way across—Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. The trip was designed
as an opportunity for the head chefs to become further familiarized with
the authentic flavors of the Middle East: a tight schedule that
included a trip to a tahini factory, tours through markets examining
everything from grape leaves to za’atar, and many meals out at
restaurants that inspired the chefs to revamp spring menus. “There’s
only so far research alone can take you,” Stratton says. “We had some
really fantastic opportunities to interact with people who were excited
to show what Lebanese cuisine and culture was all about.”
Stratton
and Mashaney talked of the restaurant scene there, where most places
are preparing the same dishes very traditionally and a few chef-driven
spots are choosing to push the envelope a bit. They loved dinner at Al-Sultan Brahim,
an expansive seafood restaurant for more than 50 years with “a scene
like an American steakhouse,” Stratton says. There, they found
tried-and-true recipes for classic Lebanese dishes, but with a reverence
paid to Beirut’s coastal position and abundance of seafood. In that
way, it’s hard to ignore its similarities to the Pacific Northwest.
Stratton says his menu at MBar already heavily features seafood, and
Mashaney is open to experimenting more with it at Mamnoon.
The
aftermath of an explosion that took place at a Coptic church on
Sunday in Tanta, Egypt, April 9, 2017.
REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
by Reuters and Rebecca Harrington
TANTA, Egypt/CAIRO (Reuters) – At least 44 people were killed in
bomb attacks on two Egyptian Coptic churches on Palm Sunday that
included the seat of the Coptic Pope, the latest assault on a
religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, which
also injured more than 100 people and occurred a week before
Coptic Easter, with Pope Francis scheduled to visit Egypt later
this month. The first bombing, in Tanta, a Nile Delta city about 60 miles
north of Cairo, tore through the inside of St. George Church
during its Palm Sunday service, killing at least 27 people and
injuring at least 78, the Ministry of Health said. The second, carried out a few hours later by a suicide bomber in
Alexandria, hit Saint Mark’s Cathedral, the historic seat of the
Coptic Pope, killing 16 people, including three police officers,
and injuring 41, the ministry added. Coptic Pope Tawadros, who had attended mass at Saint Mark’s
Cathedral, was still in the building at the time of the explosion
but was not harmed, the Interior Ministry said. “These acts will not harm the unity and cohesion of the people,”
Tawadros said later, according to state media.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi condemned the attacks and summoned
the National Defence Council to an urgent session. Deflecting Western criticism that he has suppressed political
opposition and human rights activists since he won election in
2014, Sisi has sought to present himself as an indispensable
bulwark against terrorism in the Middle East, and he identifies
militant Islam as an existential threat. “The attack … will only harden the determination (of the
Egyptian people) to move forward on their trajectory to realize
security, stability and comprehensive development,” Sisi said in
a statement. US President Donald Trump expressed his condolences via Twitter
on Sunday morning. He and Sisi met at the White House on Monday,
April 3. “So sad to hear of the terrorist attack in Egypt,” he
tweeted. “US strongly condemns. I have great confidence
that President Al Sisi will handle situation properly.”
by dailystar.com.lb
Financial inflows to Lebanon in 2017 could jump by 20 percent thanks
to the positive political and economic conditions, Bank Audi said
Wednesday. “The improvement in Lebanon’s politico-economic
conditions could generate no less than a 20 percent rise in financial
inflows in 2017, following the noticeable double-digit growth that was
reported in 2016 and that was driven by the financial engineering
operations of the Central Bank. A net surplus in the balance of payments
would be realized for the second year in a row after the five-year
cumulative deficits that were realized between 2010 and 2015,” Bank said
in a report on the performance of the fixed income market in Lebanon. Lebanon counts heavily on capital and financial inflows to inject new
cash into the market as well as achieve a surplus in the balance of
payments. Most of these inflows are in the form remittances from
Lebanese expatriates in Arab Gulf states and Africa. The report also projected a growth in the money supply in 2017. “In parallel, we project a 7 percent growth in Money Supply for the
year, driven both by domestic money creation and the positive change in
net foreign assets. This moderate money supply growth is likely to yield
a deposit growth of close to $10 billion in 2017 (15 percent more than
the average of the past three years), with total banking sector deposits
exceeding the threshold of $170 billion,” Audi said. This expected rise in both financial inflows and would also increase loans to the private sector, according to the report.
“At the uses level, bank loans to the private sector are likely to
benefit from rising financing needs in a faster growth economy. We
forecast a circa $4 billion growth in bank lending to the private sector
(25 percent more than the average of the past 3 years), driven by
growing lending opportunities to finance new projects, corporate
expansion and working capital,” Audi said. It stressed that the expected rise in deposit growth and liquidity may provide some support for the eurobond market in Lebanon. “The
current year started with a sound reflection of an improving domestic
financial environment. Bank deposits grew by $1.4 billion over the first
two months of 2017 (against a net decline over the same period of
2016).
by middleeasteye.net The toll in two days of clashes in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon rose to five on Sunday, medics said, as local factions worked to implement a security plan. Clashes erupted in the camp late Friday as Palestinian factions participating in a joint security force began deploying throughout the area in […]
By Arwad Khalifeh – Article represents opinion of the author I watched Lebanese filmmakers Sophie Boutros and Nadia Eliewat’s new romcom, “Solitaire,” last week and I still get a warm fuzzy feeling every time I think about it. The movie is so beautifully written, combining a wonderful sense of humor with just the right amount of […]
by Victor Argo – yourmiddleeast.com
Can there be a fashion designer from the Middle East without a political conscience? Probably not. A little more than one month ago Your Middle East spoke to Lara Khoury, a fashion designer from Beirut, and learned about her opinionated views. Today it’s Cynthia Chamat’s turn to give her perspective about the fault lines between fashion and politics in Lebanon and beyond. Cynthia Chamat is a self-made entrepreneur, has majored in Law and Political Science and prefers to be called clothing caterer, rather than fashion designer. While Lara Khoury and Cynthia Chamat are very different personalities they have one thing in common that sets both of them even more apart from the crowd: their shaved heads.
Who do you have in mind when you design fashion?
I design for the marginalized. Mainly women going through post-pregnancy or menopausal physical and hormonal metamorphosis. It could be any woman really, not necessarily Lebanese, because the syndromes are global and inherent to women’s nature. But I do take into consideration Middle Eastern pear-shaped body features.However I’ve recently introduced a few unisex pieces to URBAN SENSE to test male waters and a few unisex brands with a confirmed younger crowd.
How have the markets that you create for changed over the years?
I first started off in the fashion business in
2012. In 2014, Boutique Hub was born with URBAN SENSE, the in-house
label, simultaneously. Today the market is still the same as when I started, but what has changed is customer behavior because of Internet
shopping which was not too widespread in Lebanon back then. So now, it
is just more challenging to convince my potential clients why they
should buy from my shop and support local production rather than
benefiting from seemingly more attractive offers on the net.
BEIRUT, April 8 (Xinhua) — Clashes at south Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh in Sidon, continued on Saturday between the Joint Palestinian Security Forces and the hardline Islamist Bilal Badr group, the National News Agency (NNA) reported. According to the NNA, Fatah commander Munir Maqdah said in a statement that “the situation at […]
The U.S. airstrikes on a Syrian regime air base Thursday night have yielded widespread praise from America’s Western allies, but reaction in the Middle East has been mixed, with both condemnation of the attack and approval from the major players. President
Donald Trump approved the strike as a response to a chemical attack in
Idlib province by the Syrian government against civilians. Turkey’s
health ministry confirmed that the attack used sarin gas, a nerve agent that was banned in the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. The Pentagon is investigating the extent of Russia’s role in the attack, according to CNN. America’s
escalated role in the Syrian crisis will directly affect members of the
Arab world, and the stakes are high. Many countries there are deeply
invested in working to resolve Syria’s six-year war, from funding and
arming different parties to sheltering displaced refugees. Here’s how leaders and civilians in several Arab nations have responded to the strikes.
Lebanon In
Lebanon, there has been a wide spectrum of reactions. The country is
currently hosting more than 1.5 million refugees from Syria ― a group
about one-third the size of Lebanon’s own population. A report from The Daily Star,
an English-language newspaper based in Beirut, shows a few different
responses from displaced Syrians there. Abudulkareem Raslan lives in a
village near Sidon, a city in the southern region. “The
American attack was an act of aggression against an Arab country that
refuses to be under American tutelage,” Raslan told The Daily Star. “All
[200] of us in this camp are with the Syrian regime.” “God curse everyone who took up arms and fought us. Why did Trump order to attack us?” he asked. Others,
who are opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, feel excited
at the prospect of American intervention in Syria. “Let
the American warplanes attack the regime forces, and send Bashar
[Assad] to hell,” said Abu Hafez, a refugee who lives south of Beirut in
Ouzai.
Lebanese
politicians, who are much more skeptical of the situation, offered
little praise for the airstrikes. Samir Jisr, a member of Lebanon’s
Parliament, had harsh words for the strikes and blamed Russia for the
escalation, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. “Americans
and Europeans intervene indirectly and disregard crimes committed by
the regime,” Jisr said. “They pretend that they are combating terrorism
while they created it and are paying the price.” Lebanese
President Michel Aoun responded by condemning the use of weapons of
mass destruction during a meeting with the World Health Organization’s
Middle East region director on Friday, according to NNA.
Aoun took the opportunity to urge international leaders to push Israel
to sign treaties restricting the use of these types of weapons.
Population Movements to Keserwan - The Khazens and The Maans
ما جاء عن الثورة في المقاطعة الكسروانية
ثورة أهالي كسروان على المشايخ الخوازنة وأسبابها
Origins of the "Prince of Maronite" Title
Growing diversity: the Khazin sheiks and the clergy in the first decades of the 18th century
Historical Members:
Barbar Beik El Khazen [English]
Patriach Toubia Kaiss El Khazen(Biography & Life Part1 Part2) (Arabic)
Patriach Youssef Dargham El Khazen (Cont'd)
Cheikh Bishara Jafal El Khazen
Patriarch Youssef Raji El Khazen
The Martyrs Cheikh Philippe & Cheikh Farid El Khazen
Cheikh Nawfal El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Hossun El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Abou-Nawfal El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Francis Abee Nader & his son Yousef
Cheikh Abou-Kanso El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Abou Nader El Khazen
Cheikh Chafic El Khazen
Cheikh Keserwan El Khazen
Cheikh Serhal El Khazen [English]
Cheikh Rafiq El Khazen [English]
Cheikh Hanna El Khazen
Cheikha Arzi El Khazen
Marie El Khazen