Beirut

Thai monks lead their everyday lives keeping track of Buddha teachings, a set of 227 precepts that include not tickling fellow monks, showering only every fifteen days and forbidding transmitting Dhamma (truth in Buddhism) to people who wear wooden-soled sandals. The no-no list comprises cooking, hoarding food and eating after mid-day. Monks depend on the kindness of strangers, which means free food every single day, all year round collected from alms-tours.

Of the 30 rules regarding food which monks must obey, rule #28 (I will not eat licking my lips) will be broken just by looking at the menu; an elaborate variety of dishes fusing a mish-mash of ingredients and flavors from the obvious of the Far-eastern culinary to its most exotic --Coconut cream anyone? Other rules will be definitely set in the naught giving guilty pleasures to the foodies as they chomp on their lunch dishes. Warm up your gustatory tentacles with a starter and opt for the fishy Poa pie soa koong (shrimp rice paper with vegetables and rice noodles) or the chicky Satay Kay (chicken satay served with peanuts sauce) because if it rhymes right it tastes right.


Make sure to leave a small nook for the sweetest part of lunch: the desserts. Nothing is more toothsome than the heavenly Fondant au chocolat or the sweet banana whose name gives away the taste. For a natural tang, opt for the ice cream givré served in a frozen fruit shell.