Taste of Beirut: The Day Beirut’s Best Foods Were Meant to Be Together
ArabNet, the ultimate hub for entrepreneurship and e-commerce, hosted its annual digital conference in Beirut this week with the addition of a delightfully delicious bonus: Taste of Beirut. The event brought together some 200 plus attendees and over a dozen Beirut restaurants for aromatic herbs, grilled meat, and relaxing Oriental tunes. From BRGR Co. to Al Hindi, the diverse offering of restaurants from the city showcased incredible gastronomic dexterity. Here’s a look at some of our favorite dishes from the night.
We started out at Jai’s stand, an entire cosmos of Asian cuisine camouflaged in the body of a humble kitchen in the outskirts of Hamra. Our favorite from the mouthwatering stand was the Chinese vegetable spring rolls, filled with bits and pieces of steamed vegetables, noodles and fresh mushrooms that we delicately dipped into a subtle sweet and sour sauce. We also couldn’t help but have two servings of the fried Indian samosas that were stuffed with different herbs and curried potato and served with a side of mango chutney.
Along the same row of food restaurants, we savored the sweet Belgian taste from the Holy Chocolate Fountain of Dip n Dip.
After indulging in all that chocolate, we made way for the much lighter Qi juice cleanse, a delicious organic juice that can be delivered straight to your house. Our favorite juice was Red Magic, an energizing, cold-pressed drink composed of beetroot, carrots, apple and ginger. And guess what? It tasted nothing short of splendid.
French restaurant Couqley was a clear crowd favorite (understandably), with everyone piling their plates high with their signature steak and fries. Meanwhile, BRGR Co served medium cooked mini burgers that had a juicy, tender feel to them that we loved oh-so-very-much.
The different Arabic cuisines, from Barhoum to Mezyane, took us on a self-appreciating journey with every cherished bite of Levantine kibbeh naye and Morrocan couscous. However, our favorite dish of the night by far had to be the salmon filet, grilled to perfection and tossed in sweet, creamy white sauce, from Crave, the fusion bistro in Monot.
The end of the night was marked with – take a wild guess – a group of people sidesplittingly dabke-ing to the sound of our favorite Lebanese tunes.