The Donut Did Not Kill The Man2ouché

Annia Ciezadlo for the New York Times:

if you want to see how the new generation of Lebanese really wants to eat, […] You have to go to Roadster Diner […] Unlike the strenuously authentic Lebanese restaurants beloved by tourists and visiting food writers, Roadster’s nine retail franchises across Lebanon are always packed with locals.

Basically, she’s making the argument to her American audience that the Lebanese no longer eat Lebanese food. That somehow “Mediterranean cuisine” now only belongs in the heads of snobbish western foodies. What nonsense! This is like saying that since there are many packed Starbucks stores in Lebanon, people stopped drinking Lebanese (turkish) coffee.

The only reason Roadster’s is always packed with locals is because Roadster’s is where we find the food we don’t eat at home. It doesn’t make sense for me to have a meal in a restaurant if I regularly eat the same meal at home. I still have fool, man2ouch and labneh for breakfast and Shish Tawook, Kafta, Hummus, fattouch and tabbouleh for lunch (not to mention all the other home-cooked yummy lebanese meals).

Do I like the occasional Burger in roadster and Sushi in Scoozi? Of course, but that is the exception, not the rule.