USEK students on the fast(ing) track!

 Marale Zeidan

 Georges Rahame

 Semaan Boulos

Nathalie Bechaalany

Dissatisfied with the current crop in the market for fasting meals that international and local restaurants offer, I have given a brief to my students in Esquisse I at USEK to create a new fasting meal, name it, and advertise it.

The results exceeded my best hopes - the students (within simply less than two hours!) had rummaged the Lebanese cuisine repertoire, came up with the most compatible finds: fattoush, tabboule, potatoes and onions, moujaddara, lentils and citrus (3adas bi hamod), makhlouta, hummus, baba ghannouj, kebbet batata (kebbe but done with potatoes and ground wheat or burghol rather than meat), etc.... Each student organized those finds into a meal the same way you can find it in restaurants (ex: you can upsize any one of those meals, you can take off the cheese if you are fasting on milky products)...

Above are some of the most catchy results:

Marale Zeidan named her meal "1,2 eat" because Crepaway would deliver this combo at 12 O'clock on the dot to your office. Naturally, "1,2" is a reference to noon but also to the speedy way the meal is going to be delivered.

Georges Rahme came up with a stunning mix and match of dishes that suit Zaatar W Zeit perfeclty, he invtes his customers to "tabella 3ala tari2tak" - "tabbil" is our local verb to add lemon, oil and spices to a dish according to one's taste. "3ala tari2tak" is very close to ZWZ old selling line "3ala tari2ak" (on your way)... The principle of the meal is that you pick it up on your way to work in the morning.

Semaan Boulos came up with this incredible find for Burger King - KeBe but done with potatoes or pumpkin instead of meat... The meal's name is KB/BK....

As for Nathalie Bechaalany, her McDouse or in full Arabic makdousé (stuffed and pickled aubergines) is a dish straight out of the "Mc" family it is a crime for it not to have made the marquee!

If you wish to encourage these students, please do not hesitate to tweet, facebook and whatever else you do for this post!! Spread the word!