Cook Our Way » Personnal

Semsom

admin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:25:24 +0000

Semsom is lebanese for sesame which is a tropical Asian plant (Sesamum indicum) bearing small flat seeds used as food and as a source of oil.
Semsom is a Lebanese restaurant that opened in Achrafieh a year ago and that spread its wings recently to Citymall. This restaurant is characterized by a fun and interesting Lebanese menu. You can choose a platter or any sandwich done in the oven or on the “SAJ oven *” and pick with it 3 side dishes from a large variety of Lebanese “Mezza*”. Food is consistently delicious, the service is attentive and friendly without being too prominent and submissive.

Semsom managed to draw a different and distinguished path from typical Lebanese restaurants. It’s a nice spot for special occasions, the decor is a mix of Lebanese tradition and a dash of modernity. Finally let’s not forget that it is good for money !

Personally i liked the idea of this restaurant even before tasting its food. The fact of choosing three of you favorite Lebanese “Mezza” with your main dish is very original!
Now after trying Semsom, i really recommend it to you! So if you’re Lebanese or willing to come to Lebanon, head to Achrafiyeh or Citymall, and taste delicious platters from the Lebanese cuisine at Semsom.

	The saj is a concave oven on which delicious, enormous, thin rounds of Lebanese bread are made
	Lebanese mezza is Made from several dishes such as Fattouch, Hommus, Baba Ghanouj or eggplant and tahini, vines leaves wraps, Tabbouleh…

PS: I am gonna be posting about Lebanese mezza’s dishes for a couple of days, and i welcome any suggestion!

Schtroumpf

admin — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:32:34 +0000

Schtroumpf is one of the best places to eat in Lebanon. It has 3 branches: in Keserwan where Schtroumpf overlooks Jounieh, in the heart of Ashrafiye, and on the Dbayeh highway. So no matter where you are heading to, you can definitely have your place at Schtroumpf.

Schtroumpf Keserwan

In fact, Schtroumpf is unique with its ambiance, food and service.

Talking about the ambiance, we have to mention that any of the Schtroumpf places is a mix of cultures. A well decorated place and great music make food tastier.

Schtroumpf features an American menu with specialties such as plats du jour, salad bar, in addition to several events such as beer night, cheese and wine, and Sunday buffet where the food is special and exceptional.

Cozy up at one of the tables or seated at the bar. With the courses offered, you’ll have a chance to experience delicious food and enjoy the company of close friends.

Schtroumpf Ashrafiye

Schtroumpf is an inviting “territory” that provides one of the finest dining experiences.

Nature does the work, they just make it tastier!!

Schtroumpf Dbayeh

Applebee’s

admin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:48:08 +0000

Do you want to have a juicy burger? Or you’d rather only have a red apple sangria?
Whatever you eat at Applebee’s you definitely enjoy!
For those who know Applebee’s since it has first opened on the Dbayeh Highway in Lebanon, they have evidently noticed that their food portions are recently decreasing. In other words you’ll see that there is a lack of ingredients in some dishes while others has been reduced to smaller portions. This is unfortunately sad for a place that has been known for a long time for its big, delicious and well served dishes.

Applebee’s has been asked about the reason why those drastic changes are taking place, and the answer was that they’d rather decrease the amount of food they are serving instead of incresing their prices.
This is maybe a fair solution in order to maintain the same level of popularity and the same number of clients. In addition to and in order to make myself clear i would like to mention that Applebee’s is maintaining its food quality and its platter are still considered “big” and satisfying.

Red Apple Sangria

Il Vigneto

admin — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:48:36 +0000

Starving for italian food in Lebanon? There’s only one place to go ==> Il Vigneto.
Il Vigneto is an Italian restaurant located on the Dbayeh highway. The place is warm, calm, classy and finely decorated. The ambiance and the whole theme in Il Vigneto is pure Italian.
When it comes to food, i must say that it is VERY and EXTREMELY DELICIOUS!. I am not giving compliments or praising i am just giving my humble opinion.
I’ve been at Il Vigneto’s for a couple of time! and every time i left satiated. In fact the food is light and very tasty, you’d eat and eat and enjoy every bite.
I remember ordering the last time a “classico pizza”and some kind of “potato en el forno”as an appetizer, which is potatoes dipped in tomato sauce and topped with cheese and baked in the oven. I’ve no comments on how the food was decorated neither on their taste. It’s like Il Vigneto knows all the good rules about preparing and serving food!
So to sum up, Il Vigneto has on one hand a great Italian ambiance and on the other hand great Italian food. Those two combinations make this restaurant so complete.

Roadster Diner… THERE GOES MY HEART!

admin — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:37:37 +0000

Together forever? Or there goes my heart? Which slogan is better to use for Roadster?
Roadster is a Lebanese restaurant serving mainly American food. For those of you who do not know it, you absolutely have to try it! The food there is amazingly delicious!
In addition to the great meals, Roadster succeeds in maintaining its QSCV. In other terms Roadster diner’s mission is to maintain a high level of Quality in food, with an incredibly fast and friendly Service, a great Cleanliness not only in the kitchen but also with the way the food is served and decorated, and finally the Value for experience where the team shows commitment and hard work to deliver service.
There Goes My Heart, this is the slogan I’d choose to use for roadster! In fact that’s how we’ve known this restaurant for a long time.

Gilgamesh…

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:23:54 +0000

Gilgamesh is a Lebanese restaurant located on a pine hill in Antelias and serving American food. The place is peaceful and calm. In fact it is ranked as one of the delightful restaurant in Lebanon. It is obviously clean and organized. The platters look appealing as they well served delicious and well decorated.
The only inconvenient I find in that place, is that the ingredients written on the menu does not match with the food ingredients once they’re served. It happened once that my boyfriend and i ordered chicken fajita and chicken avocado sandwiches. The surprise was that the sandwiches tasted so much alike as the ingredients were almost the same with not a single trace of avocado in the chicken avocado sandwich!!
It’s unfortunate that such a restaurant treats this issue foolishly…

Living Colors…

admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:38:30 +0000

A new restaurant opened 2 months ago on Dbayeh Highway, Living Colors… Actually the place is warm , sophisticated and its colors really match. I’ve been in that place twice. The first time the food was absolutely amazing, which was not the case the second time! I ordered fish and chips, the chips were delicious unlike the fishes which were not crunchy at all!
The place attracts mainly families as it contains a variety of games for kids in the second floor and in the backyard! That’s one of the reasons why it becomes overcrowded during the weekends. From this perspective, I believe that this restaurant should maintain a certain level of quality in order not to keep its clients especially that it was recently opened.

Is CHOPSTICKS the place to eat?

admin — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:58:27 +0000

Chinese food is becoming widespread in many parts of the world. Each Chinese meal is prepared in bite-sized so it would be easier to pick up using chop sticks. Traditionally, every individual gets a bowl of rice while main dishes are served in common plates.
If you ever wanted to have Chinese food in Lebanon, there is one place to go… CHOP STICKS!!!
This restaurant knows all the rules about good hospitality. It is the place to eat!
I had the chance to visit three of its branches: Dbayeh, Dekwane, downtown Beirut.
The service in the first two branches is excellent! But I was disappointed when I experienced the Beirut branch. The service was very poor although the place was not overcrowded. Our welcome drinks arrived 10 minutes late; we waited about 30 minutes to order, and another 30 minutes for our food to arrive:
The food was good but not as good as it was in the other branches!!
When it came to desert, it was UNFORTUNATELY one of the worst deserts I’ve ever had in my entire life! I guess it was made about two days earlier, not fresh at all with a weird smell and taste!
I was wondering if that was the result of a lack of staff, but rumors has been flying since then that they had probably changed their staff… I hope they worked on improving their service.

Serving and preparing food

admin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 07:01:14 +0000

Inviting people to dinner is a considerable responsibility. Lots of measures have to be taken… Here are some tips that if you respect, you would have served a very successful dinner.
1)    Guests have to be pleased by the way the table is decorated and organized.
2)    Occasionally, if you’re having a formal dinner at home, you have to make sure that the table is dressed with a white or Beige tablecloth (the fabric has to be soft and thin). If it’s a family or close friend’s dinner the table can be dressed by any tablecloth, or a (single color) tablecloth with sub-dishes.
3)    A very common tradition says that knifes have to be placed on the right of the plate, and spoons on the right side of the knife. When it comes to forks, those have to be placed on the left side of the plate. Finally, cups are placed on the upper right of everyone’s dish.
4)    Colors are very important matters when serving dinner. You can make your food look more delicious by adding colors to it such as mint petals, cherry tomatoes/tomatoes slices, parsley, red pepper…
5)    Use a variety of spices in order to make your food tastier, but never use too much of it, neither use the same spices for all the served dishes.
6)    You must add the sauce to the salad just a minute before serving it or else it would lose its freshness.
7)    During wintertime, better to serve a soup before serving the main dish.

Cook Our Way, Eat Your Way

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:25:48 +0000

When I first came with the idea of this Blog, I was afraid that my project isn’t going to work! It’s a pretty hard thing to come up almost every day with a new and easy recipe. In fact I believe that preparing food and serving it is an art. When it comes to me, I am just an ordinary person who works regularly in the business field, but passionately likes to cook. Through my blog you’re also going to read reviews about restaurants.
I really hope you guys will enjoy my recipes; they are brought to you from all over the world, and really wish that i can help you choose the right place to eat…