Hammana
“I thought you might like to have some chicken
You could easily fill up, at any hour of the day or
and rice after your long trip,” she begins, in an
night here, on just a dollar or two, even if the
accent that mixes Beiruti Arabic with twinges of the
chicest clothes and shoes and hotels and restaurants
mountain accent of Aley, the town where she and
in Beirut will cost you more than they do in New
my dad, her brother, grew up. “There’s some
York. But I’m not complaining about finding
tabbouleh, too. And just a few different kinds of
shelves and shelves of food in my fridge and pantry
cheese. I threw in some fruits and vegetables also.
tonight. Fantastic luck to have such sweet,
Some bags of fresh bread. I think I put some yogurt
perpetually worried relatives.
and mortadella in there, too. Cookies also. Just a
few things you might like to snack on.”
Her worries are, particularly in Beirut, absurd.
Along with the flashing images that make up
my mental representation of Beirut, as it looked in
the 1970s and early 1980s and as it looks in many
The apartment is in the middle of the thumping
ways even now—the wide and crowded Corniche
Hamra district, packed as ever with countless
overlooking the Mediterranean, the crumbling war
restaurants, cafés, and late-night street food stops.
ruins all over the city, the shiny high-rises, the