tangled intersections, and everywhere the jasmine
conversation, but they tell me how happy they are
bushes and dark pink bougainvilleas—my favorite
that I’m here, and this time not just for a quick flyby
Lebanese foods also rush like flashcards through
vacation. We exchange family gossip and tsk-tsk
my brain. The first thing I’ve always done, just
about the once-again-grim political situation.
before a visit to Beirut in summers past, or a visit to
“War is like salt and pepper here,” Josette says
any city for that matter, is to list all the foods I’m
to me, shaking her head and scooping up a mouthful
determined to eat while I’m there, even if it means
of tabbouleh with a lettuce leaf.
doubling up on lunches or dinners when time is
At the moment, the perpetual standoff between
tight. Now that I’ve managed to parlay this lifelong
the Hezbollah party and Lebanon’s southern
pathology into a career as a food and travel writer,
neighbor, Israel, is heating up again, in part over a
my whims have taken on the urgency of deadline
UN special tribunal investigating the assassination
assignments, even if they’re really just self-
of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and
indulgent missions I’ve dreamed up for myself—
other prominent politicians and journalists in 2005.
partly for sheer pleasure, partly for education, and
The tribunal is rumored to be about to implicate
partly as an excuse to disappear for hours on
members of Hezbollah in the killings, and
rambling adventures.
Hezbollah is blaming Israel for collusion. In the
But my fridge is so full right now, there’s no
past few weeks there have been skirmishes between
room even for the big bottle of water I’ve been
Hezbollah and the Israeli military along Lebanon’s
dragging with me since Rome, let alone for any
southern border. Other long-running political
immediate food-gathering I might do on my own
tensions are brewing around Beirut. Last week a
tonight. I spot the classic Lebanese dish of rizz
fight over a parking space among a group of Sunni
w’djej—strips of roasted chicken over rice studded
and Shiite men in a Beirut suburb led to a shoot-out
with golden raisins and pine nuts—along with the
that left several civilians dead. In Beirut, seemingly
creamy and thick yogurt-cheese known as labneh,
minor scuffles like this have, in tense times,
plus a plate of dandelion greens called hindbeh
triggered longer outbreaks of violence and even war.
sautéed with garlic and topped with thin strips of
Some are saying this parking space incident is an
sweet fried onion, and a basket of fresh Arabic
omen of a bigger sectarian war, yet another one, to
bread, and a bowl of bright-green lemony tabbouleh
come.
garnished with small lettuce leaves—all foods I
In a way, these worries are like warnings about
love, and enough to feed me for days. Since it’s
The Big One, the huge earthquake that will
nearly dinnertime now, I convince Josette and
allegedly hit California this century. It will happen,
Marcelle to stay and eat with me, and we take out
seismologists keep saying. The question is when.
the chicken and rice to heat on the stove, as well as
Now? Maybe. Maybe not for a long while. But it’s
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