Lebanese Diaspora Cuisine

A few years after my great grandfather immigrated to West Africa 80 years ago, he had his heart set on eating Kibbeh. There was a problem though: He doesn’t enjoy eating Kibbeh without Baba Ghannouj, and good eggplant, the kind that is used to make Baba Ghannouj, was not available. Moreover, unlike borghol which can be shipped easily accross the world, eggplants perished on the road and couldn’t be imported. So his wife, my great grandmother, had to improvise: They used a readily available ingredient, avocado, to replace eggplants. 4 generations later, we still occasionally serve avocado Baba Ghannouj when he have Kebbeh, and we love it.

I was thinking of my great grandfather when I saw the photo above of raw Yellow fin Tuna Kibbeh in a Lebanese restaurant in Australia. It occured to me that there’s a whole world of Lebanese cuisine out there that was carried with the diaspora to all the corners of the world and, like the diaspora itself, organically evolved to fit local conditions while doggedly trying to keep the Lebanese heritage alive. I’m sure that a lot of it, like avocado Baba Ghannouj, is delicious.

Evolution, not fusion

Recently, fancy restaurants in Lebanon have been serving “fusion” Lebanese cuisine, which are modern interpretations of Lebanese dishes in form or ingredients. To me that is different from diaspora cuisine, because while fusion cuisine is a self-aware form of artistic expression with food, diaspora cuisine grew organically out of the evolving tastes and needs, accross generations, of the Lebanese who emmigrated.

I found myself wishing there was a way to document and acknowledge diaspora food. I can only imagine that it forms a rich lebanese culinary and anthropological treasure, which goes beyond superficial culinary stunts like the world’s largest Tabbouleh dish or crazy plans to “officially licence” Lebanese restaurants abroad.

We have a lot of problems in Lebanon and the government has its hands full, so I’m not holding my breath for an official effort. But perhaps someone can do the research and write a book? A website? A facebook page?

✒ Does this blog deserve an award?

I was happy to learn that Beirut spring was selected as a finalist in the “blog of the year” and “best news blog” categories in Beirut’s Social Media Awards.

If you believe that this blog deserves to be recognized as such, kindly vote for it at www.smabeirut.com. It will take two seconds and you’ll have my eternal grattitude..