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WELCOME TO BEIRUT'S FALAFEL DISTRICT
The Daily Star, Lebanon
Nov 19 2014
by Marc Abizeid
It's a sunny Wednesday afternoon on Beirut's Beshara al-Khoury Steet,
and Falafel Abu al-Ziz is completely empty. After a few minutes the
only employee working that day emerges from the back room.
BEIRUT: It's a sunny Wednesday afternoon on Beirut's Beshara al-Khoury
Steet, and Falafel Abu al-Ziz is completely empty. After a few minutes
the only employee working that day emerges from the back room.
A thin, clean-shaven Egyptian man in his early 20s, Tarek Sleiman
wears a wide smile as he hands over a falafel ball to sample. The
outside is crisp, but not hard, and it's center is light and fluffy.
It's not dry, but not too oily either.
"After they eat here for the first time, people come back," Sleiman
said, admitting that business has been slow since the shop opened
less than a year ago.
Unfortunately for him, most people looking to get their falafel fix
are loyalists, and can be found crowding one of the two Sahyouns just
a couple shops down the street. Others are at Tabboush, a few more
shops down. As for the Armenians, you can find them at Arax.
The shops are concentrated on a short, island-resembling block facing
east Beirut that acts as a kind of barrier, separating upscale Monnot
on one side from the Amal heartland of Bashoura on the other.
In the warring years, the street was part of the Green Line that
divided the capital between east and west. But to the younger crowd
today, it's mostly just known as that one street with all the falafel
places between Sodeco and Downtown.
Until a few weeks ago there was a sixth option: Just Falafel, a
global chain with a trendy look, and the only one on the block that
uses Twitter. But social media couldn't save it, and for undisclosed
reasons the company shuttered all its shops in Lebanon last month
after about a two-year stint in the country.
But it's not like the competition was losing any sleep every time a
new falafel shop opened.
"No one can get in your way. Even if 100 places opened, I would welcome
them," said Zuheir Sahyoun, owner of the renowned Mustafa Sahyoun
Falafel, named after his father, who opened the shop in the 1930s.
Next door to him is also a Mustafa Sahyoun Falafel, opened by Zuheir's
brother and former partner, Fuad, about eight years ago after the
two had a falling out.
"I don't have any business with anyone else on this street," Fuad
said. "I come in the morning, do my work, and leave."
At their peak hours, both shops sell more falafel than they can fry.
Customers gloat that they bring their friends from America and Europe
to try their sandwiches. One man in a suit said he's been eating at
Sahyoun since 1975, when the original shop had temporarily relocated
because of the war.
"I prefer older customers because they know what they are eating. The
young just want something cheap to fill their bellies," Fuad said.
"This is vegetarian. It's healthy."
But the truth over the health benefits of falafel is more complicated.
Made from mashed chickpeas or fava beans, mixed with spices and deep
fried, falafel is high in fat, calories and sodium.
The good news is that falafel is also high in soluble fiber,
which helps lower cholesterol. And for a population wary over the
contaminated food scandal that erupted last week when dozens of
shops were revealed to be selling contaminated meat and chicken,
falafel looks to be a safer, and certainly more humane, alternative
to livestock.
On the other side of Zuheir's shop is Arax, the only falafel place
that also sells meat sandwiches. It's managed by Vrej Heybelian, who
said it opened about two years ago with half its sales being falafel,
and the other half shawarma.
A short man in his 50s walked in with two construction workers and
ordered them each a falafel. When asked why he chose Arax over one
of the others, Abu Garo explained bluntly: "Because it's Armenian."
But to its credit, Arax offered the largest portions. The sandwiches
were stuffed with the desired vegetables, or French fries by request,
and liberal amounts of tarator and hot sauce.
At the farthest end of the street, close to Downtown, is Falafel
Tabboush, owned by Fawaz, the founder's son. It was opened in 1956,
Fawaz explained. Like the others, he was unconcerned with competition,
insisting that there will always be a market for falafel. "Falafel
is for everyone," he said. "It's for the old and the young, the rich
and the poor. Lebanese, foreigners, Arabs."
A man driving a delivery truck popped his head out the window to shout
his order: One sandwich and a Pepsi. Tabboush got to work while the
driver took his vehicle around the block.
"Our ancestors have been making falafel before our time. The Israelis
say they invented it, but we are the proof that they didn't."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Life/Lubnan/2014/Nov-19/278083-welcome-to-beiruts-falafel-district.ashx#axzz3JY6UDud7
From: Baghdasarian
The Daily Star, Lebanon
Nov 19 2014
by Marc Abizeid
It's a sunny Wednesday afternoon on Beirut's Beshara al-Khoury Steet,
and Falafel Abu al-Ziz is completely empty. After a few minutes the
only employee working that day emerges from the back room.
BEIRUT: It's a sunny Wednesday afternoon on Beirut's Beshara al-Khoury
Steet, and Falafel Abu al-Ziz is completely empty. After a few minutes
the only employee working that day emerges from the back room.
A thin, clean-shaven Egyptian man in his early 20s, Tarek Sleiman
wears a wide smile as he hands over a falafel ball to sample. The
outside is crisp, but not hard, and it's center is light and fluffy.
It's not dry, but not too oily either.
"After they eat here for the first time, people come back," Sleiman
said, admitting that business has been slow since the shop opened
less than a year ago.
Unfortunately for him, most people looking to get their falafel fix
are loyalists, and can be found crowding one of the two Sahyouns just
a couple shops down the street. Others are at Tabboush, a few more
shops down. As for the Armenians, you can find them at Arax.
The shops are concentrated on a short, island-resembling block facing
east Beirut that acts as a kind of barrier, separating upscale Monnot
on one side from the Amal heartland of Bashoura on the other.
In the warring years, the street was part of the Green Line that
divided the capital between east and west. But to the younger crowd
today, it's mostly just known as that one street with all the falafel
places between Sodeco and Downtown.
Until a few weeks ago there was a sixth option: Just Falafel, a
global chain with a trendy look, and the only one on the block that
uses Twitter. But social media couldn't save it, and for undisclosed
reasons the company shuttered all its shops in Lebanon last month
after about a two-year stint in the country.
But it's not like the competition was losing any sleep every time a
new falafel shop opened.
"No one can get in your way. Even if 100 places opened, I would welcome
them," said Zuheir Sahyoun, owner of the renowned Mustafa Sahyoun
Falafel, named after his father, who opened the shop in the 1930s.
Next door to him is also a Mustafa Sahyoun Falafel, opened by Zuheir's
brother and former partner, Fuad, about eight years ago after the
two had a falling out.
"I don't have any business with anyone else on this street," Fuad
said. "I come in the morning, do my work, and leave."
At their peak hours, both shops sell more falafel than they can fry.
Customers gloat that they bring their friends from America and Europe
to try their sandwiches. One man in a suit said he's been eating at
Sahyoun since 1975, when the original shop had temporarily relocated
because of the war.
"I prefer older customers because they know what they are eating. The
young just want something cheap to fill their bellies," Fuad said.
"This is vegetarian. It's healthy."
But the truth over the health benefits of falafel is more complicated.
Made from mashed chickpeas or fava beans, mixed with spices and deep
fried, falafel is high in fat, calories and sodium.
The good news is that falafel is also high in soluble fiber,
which helps lower cholesterol. And for a population wary over the
contaminated food scandal that erupted last week when dozens of
shops were revealed to be selling contaminated meat and chicken,
falafel looks to be a safer, and certainly more humane, alternative
to livestock.
On the other side of Zuheir's shop is Arax, the only falafel place
that also sells meat sandwiches. It's managed by Vrej Heybelian, who
said it opened about two years ago with half its sales being falafel,
and the other half shawarma.
A short man in his 50s walked in with two construction workers and
ordered them each a falafel. When asked why he chose Arax over one
of the others, Abu Garo explained bluntly: "Because it's Armenian."
But to its credit, Arax offered the largest portions. The sandwiches
were stuffed with the desired vegetables, or French fries by request,
and liberal amounts of tarator and hot sauce.
At the farthest end of the street, close to Downtown, is Falafel
Tabboush, owned by Fawaz, the founder's son. It was opened in 1956,
Fawaz explained. Like the others, he was unconcerned with competition,
insisting that there will always be a market for falafel. "Falafel
is for everyone," he said. "It's for the old and the young, the rich
and the poor. Lebanese, foreigners, Arabs."
A man driving a delivery truck popped his head out the window to shout
his order: One sandwich and a Pepsi. Tabboush got to work while the
driver took his vehicle around the block.
"Our ancestors have been making falafel before our time. The Israelis
say they invented it, but we are the proof that they didn't."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Life/Lubnan/2014/Nov-19/278083-welcome-to-beiruts-falafel-district.ashx#axzz3JY6UDud7
From: Baghdasarian