My Favourite Dish

Photography_Tanya Traboulsi

The man behind Souk El-Tayeb, Kamal Mouzawak, loves his shawarmas

Kamal Mouzawak (pictured above) is the founder of Souk El-Tayeb, Lebanon’s first farmers’ market. The souk focuses on fresh, locally produced organic foods, and takes place on Saturday mornings in downtown Beirut. Kamal also holds cooking classes; see www. soukeltayeb.com.

I’ll go to Boubouffe in Ashrafieh and order a chicken shawarma at least once a month. It’s a very important ritual for me. I’ve been doing this for about 10 years now. I don’t eat much meat, but I make an exception for Boubouffe. For years I’ve struggled with the dilemma of whether to go for chicken or lamb, but I’ve finally reached a conclusion – the chicken is marginally better. Whatever you do, don’t mix lamb and chicken in the same shawarma. That’s just wrong.

In Lebanon we use high-quality chicken for our shawarmas – always breast and never minced meat. Boubouffe uses a charcoal grill, which makes the meat crusty on the outside and moist on the inside – textures that contrast beautifully with every bite. While other places in Beirut prepare a more traditional, spicier shawarma, often using cardamom, Boubouffe lets the meat do the talking. It’s not very spicy and they only use a splodge of garlic cream – one of my favourite foods – and a handful of French fries. The bread is really thin and doesn’t at all overwhelm the taste of the meat.

I love the restaurant’s decor. It’s so 1980s – very kitschy and colourful, with an aquarium full of fish. The clientele is typical Ashrafieh Beiruti – lots of old men dressed very smartly. It’s certainly not a

fast-food place; it’s perhaps the most expensive shawarma in Beirut. But it’s not really a restaurant either. Like everyone and everything in this country, Boubouffe seems to suffer from an identity crisis.

The owner of the restaurant, Michel Aramouni, studied hotel management in Switzerland and is a real stickler for detail. He’s somebody who really knows about hospitality and service, and quite the foodie, too. He’s part of a group of gourmands who meet every Wednesday for lunch; sometimes at restaurants, sometimes at each others’ houses. I’ve joined them on a few occasions.

Shawarma is an urban dish, a street food, and not something you’d find in the mountains. It’s a key part of the Beirut way of life, and Boubouffe’s chicken shawarma is as good as it gets.