Just a normal weekend in Beirut....

On Saturday morning we went to Souk el Tayeb. This in an open air farmer's market at the Beirut Souks (which is pretty much an outdoor mall).  Our friend Dania took us and we had a nice morning. While we've been there before we have always been later and therefore much is already sold. We were quite surprised at how much was there and how busy it was! Here are some pictures!

This is the empty building behind the Souk.  I thought it was beautiful.

Our first stop was to get honey.  We always get our honey from Habib Honey. Their honey is incredible. Delaney and Janna are looking at the bees they brought in the honeycomb. They also have a centrifuge on hand and are making honey right there. This time we bought Cedar Honey. It tastes great in my morning coffee!

We then went to Dania's friends booth from the north near Tripoli.  They have all organic fruits and vegetables. We bought apples, tangerines, kiwis, pomegrantes (that were HUGE!!), carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

As you can see the food looks great here!

They sell all kinds of things at the souk.  There is a man that sells all things wicker and this lady sells clay cooking pots and trays.

We then went to purchase some great treats for later. These little pastries have "wild greens" in them. Not sure what they were but they were really good! Especially with Labneh  (something they have here that is a cross between sour cream and cream cheese)

They also had these pastries. On the left there some are filled with cheese and some are filled with thyme. The ones on the right have lamb. All quite good. In the background is my all time favorite! Kibbe!

The kibbe above is a stuffed kibbe. It is meat (usually a mix of beef and lamb) that is stuffed with spices and sauteed onions.  The one in this picture is made of chickpeas.  Yes, kibbe for everyone!
By the way, the woman who made these treats was named "The Queen of Kibbe" by Anthony Bourdain when he came here to make a TV show.

Next to the vegetarian kebbe were these sweet treats. I love how everything is made in these big round pans.

Here is another view of the end of the souk.

Here are more stands. Notice all of the canned goods. They have pickled mozzarella balls, olives, seasoned feta and all kinds of things! All of the cookies and pastries are boxed up as well. 

We then had some manouche.  The woman in the back is making fresh bread to go on the round grill. The woman in front is putting zaatar (thyme with olive oil and sesame seeds) on the one in the front. The one in the back has cheese. They then add vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumbers if you want and fold it up. It's the best street food EVER!

That was part of our Saturday. We then went to Wesley's, otherwise known as the Beirut Costco, to get food for Home of Hope. Home of Hope is an orphanage we have taken to donating to. Last week we had the ACS book fair. The middle school students and teachers created baskets to auction off. We earned 400,000 Lebanese Lira on our 5 baskets. (That's about 275 dollars) With that we bought food to donate.

We will take this up to the orphanage with shoes, books and other things tonight!

On Sunday, Janna and I also went on a morning walk along the Corniche.  Here are a few more pictures of this awesome place we walk along every day!

As always, there are people fishing along the Corniche. A lot of people were swimming as well.

Here comes Janna on her bike! They also had no traffic on the road because there was a triathlon going on. 

And the lighthouse towards the end of the Corniche.  If I walk from the beginning of the Corniche to a little past the lighthouse and back home its about 5K.

Overall, once again, a great weekend! It's always hard to think it's December here when it's 75 degrees and beautiful!