We’re at giveaway #8, and Tomatomatic is will be presenting two vouchers for two lucky winners (each voucher is valid for 2 pizzas). As you all know, Tomatomatic serves American style pizza and I personally have always been a fan of their mushroom and swiss specialty! The dough is thick and fluffy with a generous toppings, and their portions are usually fair at good prices.
Everyone and their mother seems to be upset about Jon Hamm’s new movie, titled “Beirut”, because of its bad portrayal of our Beirut city and all the stereotypes that appeared in the trailer.
The movie is written by Tony Gilroy (author first four films of the Bourne series) and tells the story of Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm a former U.S. diplomat who is called back into service to save a colleague from a terrorist group that was responsible for the death of his own family 10 years earlier.
And what are you expecting from Hollywood in the first place? A promotional tourism movie about Lebanon? In a world where everyone has a different point of view, why can’t we take their side for a second? We treat them as invaders but they simply regard themselves as our white saviors… Ever knew about the 1985 TWA Flight 847 that was hijacked by Lebanese people and rerouted to Beirut with 85 American passengers on-board? How about the 1983 barracks bombings in Beirut? Regardless what your political views might be, these are acts of terrorism to them and the average American had every reason to think of us as terrorists back then…
Even worse, back to our side, how do you label 15 years of civil war? We butchered each other, mass killings were nothing unusual over that period, and minors did join militias back then. Go read or watch some Lebanese war documentary to learn all about it… Do you only feel butthurt because an American is mentioning it now?
Instead of whining about the movie, just let it be and move on, if it’s really bad then it will eventually be a box office flop. If anything, you can probably brighten the country’s image by simply replacing the warlords that have been ruling the country since the civil war era and are the ones responsible for Beirut’s bad publicity everywhere!
P.F. Chang’s, the popular Chinese-American chain, opened in ABC Achrafieh around a month ago, and I decided to try it out last week because of all the positive feedback I heard from some friends who have tried it in Dubai.
The place has a really nice interior and is being almost always packed that you feel so lucky if you can get yourself a table, especially on weekends.
Anyway, back to food business, we were a group of 6 people and decided to share several dishes among which were Dynamite Shrimp, Chicken Lettuce Wrap, Crispy Honey Chicken, Mongolian Beef, Singapore Street Noodles, and a couple more seafood dishes.
The food tasted all great, and was much different that any other Chinese restaurant in town (especially Chopsticks). And best of all, the menu covers a variety of tastes from chicken to seafood to beef to vegetarian but is not dominated by the sauces you often encounter at other restaurants like sweet and sour, mushroom and others.
The appetizer I liked the most was the Dynamite Shrimp consisting of fried shrimp covered with yellow spicy sauce. It felt a bit too spicy for some, but it was really good! On the other hand, Mongolian Beef was my favorite main dish consisting of tender steak cooked with scallions.
And if you’ve got room for dessert at the end, try their Great Wall of Chocolate. It has 6 layers, and the below photo definitely doesn’t do justice to how big the portion is.
Overall, and even though it’s not the traditional Chinese cuisine we lack in Lebanon, P.F. Chang’s is definitely recommended to try at least once since it offers something totally new here.
Update:
Sareen brought to my attention that I forgot to mention how is the food priced at P.F. Chang’s. Here you go, starters vary between 9,000L.L and 21,000L.L (Dynamite Shrimp is for 21,000L.L), soups and salads are between 7,000L.L and 22,000L.L, while main dishes are almost all between 25,000L.L and 28,000L.L except for seafood dishes that are in the 30’s.
I’m pretty sure it’s not the real Costco, but it does exist, and it has the major American products you might be looking for.
The place is located in Jnah, and I went there last Sunday after a friend told me about it. They have a variety of products ranging between clothing, food and home goods. Part of these available products (especially food) can be found at other large supermarkets like Spinneys, at almost the same price if not lower, while other stuff cannot be found anywhere else and are a bit pricey.
Note that Costco is not the only store of its kind there in the area. There’s another place called “Amtrag” located just next to Costco, in addition to a store called “Brands for less” known for importing the German brand “Tchibo” located 100 meters down the road from TSC Jnah. I believe they’re all worth a visit!
Below is a map showing where Costco is in case you want to check it out.
