Anissa's Blog

I hear the weather is rather sad in Europe. Cold and wet in Paris, the same in London and just as cold in Milan. I can’t say that I am loving Dubai but at least it is summer here, with a lot of fresh produce and herbs piled in the markets including purslane (baqleh in…

It’s green almonds season again. In full flow now but they were really expensive at the beginning — I paid  $7 for 200 g about a month ago in Beirut which is a large amount of money for so little. Fortunately, when I went to Damascus a couple of weeks later, they were more plentiful…

It is not every day that I travel far to meet people I have never met before (except by email, that is) but, with some apprehension, that is exactly what I did when I went to Karachi on business last week. The most dangerous city in the world, a friend warned, another pronounced me mad…

The day started badly. I couldn’t find my moulds for the Easter cookies. I was teaching a class that evening showing how to make Lebanese Easter cookies. I searched everywhere, except of course where they were. I did the class. Had to, improvising with a tea strainer and a crinkly cookie cutter. The pastries were…

Last month, I fell in love with a beautiful child in the middle of Byzantine ruins in Syria. A couple of months previous to that, it was katmer, a typical breakfast pastry from Gaziantep, Turkey, that had captured my heart. Sounds fickle, I know. Perhaps it’s my nature, or perhaps it’s all the traveling that…