Archive | Lebanon

Lebanese recipes now on App Store

By Rami on December 17, 2010 in Lebanon

This definitely doesn’t replace our favorite Lebanese cuisine blogs, but it’s cool to see our traditional recipes available on an iPhone application!

Use this app and bring the delicious taste and richness of the Lebanese cuisine to your home – enjoy 100 of the finest Lebanese recipes and experience the flavor of the Orient. The huge variety of dishes includes among others traditional salads, starters, meat, chicken, fish and vegetarian dishes as well as famous desserts. It will allow you to prepare typical Lebanese menus and surprise your family and friends. All recipes are decorated with high quality pictures to give you an upfront idea of what you are about to cook.

You can find more info about the application here.

Via Beirut Spring

Lord of the Wings coming to Hamra

By Rami on December 17, 2010 in Lebanon

I don’t know for how long this announcement has been there, but I didn’t see it until yesterday. Lord of the Wings will soon open in Ibrahim Abd El Aal street, near “3a Zaw2ak” cafe.

I think Hamra is very close to becoming the ultimate destination in Beirut for food lovers since it almost has all kinds of restaurants now. What is still missing there?

ABC Achrafiyeh Christmas Tree

By Rami on December 10, 2010 in Lebanon

… Yep, the same one that got Sietske into trouble when she was taking a photo of it. Fortunately no guards came to forbid me from shooting the tree though one of them saw me taking a panoramic photo using my cell phone, I believe it all depends on what gear you are using!

It’s pretty cool to see, in addition to the decoration they set up on the 3rd floor.

Arz missile – Lebanese made surface-to-surface missile!

By Rami on December 1, 2010 in Lebanon

Believe it or not, I just found out that Haigazian university and the Lebanese army have cooperated back in the 1960’s to produce a series of surface-to-surface missiles called “Arz-1”, “Arz-2”, and “Arz-3”.

It all started with a project led by Professor Manoug Manuogian at Haigazian university in 1960 resulting in a single-stage rocket that reached an altitude of 2 kilometers. The Lebanese president at that time, Fouad Chehab, decided to finance the project with 25,000 L.L, which allowed the group to build tw0-stage rockets in summer 1962, and a three-stage rocket later in November 1962. By the end of this year rockets were able to reach an altitude of 20Km!

However, the project was halted shortly after the French President Charles de Gaulle told President Chehab that the Lebanese abilities were proven in the scientific field, but the project might put Lebanon at risk if further researches are done! (WTF!!!) i.e. These missiles are a threat to Israel, and it will not remain silent towards the advancement of the Lebanese army in missile technology!

That’s actually a summary of the article I found on Wikipedia.

If we have worked on this technology back in the 1960’s, and if resistance movements in Palestine are currently using water pipes to produce the Qassam rockets, then we can definitely resume working on the project and come up with much more enhanced versions of Arz to arm the Lebanese army and make it capable of defending our land when necessary. But then again will Israel remain silent about it? This definitely leads us to the defense strategy issue that our buttheads have been discussing since 2006, Israel simply doesn’t accept Lebanon having any means of self defense, so how can we disarm Hezbollah and still be able to protect ourselves against any possible invasion..? Oh wait this isn’t a political blog! END OF POST!

Fishing and falling roses at Ain El Mrayseh on the independence day

By Rami on November 25, 2010 in Lebanon

Thanks to global warming, the weather on the independence day in Beirut was just awesome! Warm temperature and -almost- clear blue skies made it perfect for a walk at Ain El Mrayseh.

Fortunately the corniche was not congested with joggers and bikers, but fishers were just everywhere, and standing at the most bizarre places!

… the guys above were actually standing right where sewage water is dumped into the sea!

How can they still eat the fish they get from the sewage water is beyond my understanding, unless they sell them to other people like the man below was doing.

However, I seem to have missed a cool initiative by the Lebanese army and Leo Burnett! At around 3:30PM, a military helicopter flew at low altitude over the Manara corniche, releasing thousands of red roses attached to miniature white parachutes, carrying a message “Bihimayat Al Jonoud, Tanmou Al Wouroud”, or “Roses flourish under the protection of our soldiers”. The operation was called “Roses from the Sky” (you can watch a video about it here)

@chaftari from Leo was kind enough to share these photos with me.

I personally had mixed feeling about this operation… what do you think?

Today’s sunset in Beirut

By Rami on November 23, 2010 in Lebanon

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of today’s sunset when I saw how colorful it was, and wishing I was out of the office somewhere near the sea with my DSLR.

November usually carries the best times to shoot sunsets in Lebanon, but unfortunately the sun sets so early at 4:30PM nowadays, leaving too few opportunities for employees like me who like shooting photos.

Got my invitation to the nightlife exchange party!

By Rami on November 23, 2010 in Lebanon

I just got 2 invitations to the nightlife exchange party where Lebanon and Thailand will be swapping their nightlife habits/rituals!

The event will be happening on Saturday November 27th at The Warehouse Zalka, let’s see how good is the nightlife in Thailand compared to Lebanon!

Happy Adha!

By Rami on November 17, 2010 in Lebanon

Eid El-Adha is the time for Muslims to recall prophet Abraham’s obedience to god in his willingness to sacrifice his own son Ismail, before god intervened and gave him a ram to sacrifice instead. And so the act of sacrificing an animal later became a ritual for Muslims.

That’s when it becomes normal to see sheep stored at very unusual places in Beirut, like rooftops for example.

… and when it also becomes very normal to see butchers slaughtering sheep in the streets.

Possible way to avoid speeding radars in Lebanon

By Rami on November 9, 2010 in Lebanon

If this device is too expensive for you, you may want to consider signing up for an account at Trapster, a mobile application that can alert you about nearby radars!

How Does It Work?

Users submit speed traps, enforcement cameras, and road hazards, that then alert all Trapster users in the area. A high-tech version of flashing your headlights to alert drivers of potential road hazards.

I think it’ll be helpful if enough Lebanese users registered, don’t you think?

Thanks to @jadhamdan for pointing me to the application via twitter.

Speeding radars in Lebanon – A profitable business

By Rami on November 9, 2010 in Lebanon

I was listening to the radio on my way to work today when I heard that the internal security forces issued a total of 5,000 tickets after 24 hours of activating the speeding radars.

Given that each ticket costs 50,000 L.L, a quick calculation shows that we now owe the Lebanese government a total of 250,000,000 L.L (~$166,000) in just one day! And at this rate, the government will be generating $5,000,000 a month from these radars!

Assuming that the cost of the radars + installing them is $10,000,000, it will take 2 months to cover this amount and start generating profit! Now that’s a business I wish I can invest in!

Still, I have some question marks about collecting these fines from violators. In a country like Lebanon where people can drive a car with defected number plates on their cars and still get away with it when going through the yearly car inspection, how will the police identify the car number in such case? And what about all these foreign cars with Khaliji number plates? Is there some mechanism to force their owners to pay the fines before leaving Lebanon?

← Previous 1 … 81 82 83 … 97 Next →