The Arab World You Ain't Seen

My favorite blog is the Angry Arab News Service and, as often, the author recently made an astute and enlightened observation:

I also want to mention a waitress named Yasar at Lina’s café in Hamra street. I will mention here only because I obtained permission from her to mention her. I was immediately fascinated that a woman is named Yasar (Left). Her father is a hard-core communist and he named her Yasar. You never see that part of the region covered: the secular/leftist part of the region. I mean, you don’t meet a woman named Left in the US. It would be more odd here than in Lebanon. In Lebanon, that part of society always existed.

I am myself often neglect in my covering on the Mideast. Perhaps too many of my stories concentrate on the politics. Of course, that is important. The plight of the Palestinians deserves extensive coverage. But I’ve also realized recently that I need to devote more time to showing that the region is more than such political conflicts and repression, and religious fanaticism in Saudi Arabia.

The daily Arab life is not political. It is no different from life elsewhere: family, friends, cafes, beaches, vacations, ect... And I am now determined to convey a more comprehensive image of the region. In that regard, this post continues that commitment.

First, desert riding in Tunisia. The Rally of Tunisia is not for amateurs:

Two days in to the week-long Rally of Tunisia and we have suffered two broken bones. It was confirmed yesterday that James West, my KTM-UAE teammate, has broken his wrist and will be forced to fly home to Dubai tomorrow, while my broken finger is causing me problems amid the stormy weather we are enduring in the mountains in the Tunisian desert.

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We have shortened the clutch on the bike so my little finger isn’t required to squeeze it, but it was very stormy yesterday and the vibrations and shaking coming through the bike’s shock absorbers was causing me real pain. It was very difficult for me to hold on, but I managed and drove for 288 kilometres.

I got lost once and rectified my mistake very quickly so I was pleased to learn I had moved up three places in the standings and now sit in the top 10. That has been my aim since day one.

I think there is about a four-minute gap between myself and the race leader, but yesterday was a prime example of how anything can happen. My teammate, Marc Coma, blew a tyre and lost 25 minutes.

The most difficult thing is not making up the time; it is making sure you do not to push so hard you throw it all away. I would rather race composed and finish fourth than try to finish first and crash out. I will push a little harder today, but I need to be wary of mistakes because I am representing sponsors and the UAE and really want to finish the race.

A special forum for Lebanese films:

Despite having no organized movie industry, Lebanon has produced a number of serious independent filmmakers. Much of their work examines the country’s strife, including the traumatic 1975-90 civil war. THE CALM AFTER THE STORM: MAKING SENSE OF LEBANON’S CIVIL WAR, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s new series showcasing Lebanese cinema, is a comprehensive survey of their work.

The series features the American premieres of several older classics, including Muhammed Selman’s noir thriller “The Black Jaguar” (1965); and examples of Lebanon’s 1970s war cinema, including Jocelyne Saab’s “Letter From Beirut” (1978), and three by Maroun Baghdadi: “Beirut Oh Beirut” (1975), “The Most Beautiful of All Mothers” (1978) and “We Are All for the Fatherland” (1979).

Mr. Baghdadi, who died in 1993, and Randa Chahal Sabbagh, who died in 2008 — both pivotal figures in the evolution of Lebanese film — are the subjects of special tributes. “Beirut Oh Beirut,” in which four young Lebanese try to figure out their places in a changed society and which anticipates the civil war that broke out during its editing, is considered by many to be the first masterpiece of Lebanese cinema.

Syria:

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Syria has such a multitude of impressive historical sites that it would be difficult to take them all in on a single visit, but Absolute Adventure has managed to prepare a packed itinerary for a 10-day trip starting later this month.

Since this is the Dubai-based company’s first activity in the country, it is offering a special low rate of US$1,892 (Dh6,950) per person that includes all accommodation, meals, transport and entrance fees.

The tour starts in Damascus on May 24, where the group will spend two days seeing the old city, including visits to the Ummayad Mosque with its tomb of John the Baptist, the nearby Hammadiyeh Souq and the National Museum, before setting off on a camel trek across the desert to see the ruins at Palmyra.

The journey involves an overnight stay at a Bedouin camp, and after spending the next morning exploring the magnificent ruins with a guide, the group sets off by vehicle to see the Roman water wheels at Hama, stopping on the way to visit the grave of Khalid Bin Walid, the Sword of Allah, in Homs.

After Hama come three days of trekking, camping en route, to see several of Syria’s famous Dead Cities, including Barra and Syrgilla, before being driven to Aleppo. There’s a stop on the way to see the Ebla ruins, considered the most important archaeological site in Syria, while the rest of the day can be spent exploring Aleppo’s famous Citadel and ancient souqs.

The next day begins with a visit to the ruins of the Samaan Citadel, where St Simon spent 40 years sitting atop a pillar, before heading back south to see ancient Apamea and on to a hilltop hotel with views of Mediterranean to spend the night.

Lebanese cuisine:

A L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon will closely replicate the Paris original when it opens in 2012.

Yannick Alléno, the chef with three Michelin stars at the Meurice in Paris, is building a casual place he’s calling STAY (Simple Table of Yannick Alléno), with a communal table, a pastry library, where desserts will be baked in long strips and sold by measure, and a tea room. It should be open next year.

Mourad Mazouz, who owns Momo and Club Gascon in London, and several small places in Paris, hopes to be ready by early December with a place that he is tentatively calling Momo at the Souks, and where the food will be a mix of Moroccan and French, with some Lebanese meze.

Zuma, a Japanese restaurant in London, plans a satellite. And Sophie Mitchell, a London chocolatier, will open a boutique-cafe, Coco and Cassia.

Antoine Westermann, with Michelin stars in Alsace and restaurants in Paris and Washington, is to open Relais Foch this year. Davide Bisetto, also Michelin-starred and working in Corsica, will have an Italian restaurant.

Relais de l’Entrecote, the French steak chain, already has two locations in Beirut. The Parisian baker Eric Kayser has also set up shop in Beirut. And a world-class, high-end global supermarket with everything from Italian potatoes to the finest Spanish cured hams, and even American Angus beef, opened in April.

A few Lebanese restaurants have been included in the mix, with the possibility that Chez Sami, a popular seafood place just north of Beirut in a coastal suburb, will open in the marina.

A mozzarella bar, M Cafe, is also in the works for this year.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten and his partner, Phil Suarez, have been invited to join this bandwagon and are considering it. Mr. Suarez, who recently spent several days in Beirut, was astonished by the kind of development going on.

Alain Ducasse, another globetrotting restaurateur, is not interested. “Not for now, it’s too unstable,” Mr. Ducasse said. “It takes a lot of courage to do something there.”

But Mr. Alléno disagreed.

“I get the feeling of joy in Beirut,” he said. “Right now it’s stable. A country going through a renaissance like Lebanon needs grand restaurants.”

That's enough for today.