(Many of the fairs, festivals, and other wonderful food events that usually fill my calendar each spring have been postponed or cancelled. This post is based on a past year's festival.)
One of the best things since before sliced bread.
From time immemorial, the flatbread called manaeesh bi zaatar has been lovingly prepared, and consumed, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, in what's now Lebanon, Syria (home of the baker shown above), and their neighbors. Though the word "zaatar" also refers to several closely related herbs, here it was translated simply as "thyme" and blended, in typical fashion, with olive oil and sesame seeds. I've tried other such flatbreads that were doubled over against their will or that insisted on lying flat. By contrast, today's bread — prepared from fresh dough and then pressed, by hand, onto the dome-shaped griddle called a sajj — could be folded in two with a flick of the wrist and torn to pieces just as easily.
Also shown below: shish kabab paired with a triangular pie filled with moist, lemony spinach; kafta kabab garnished with scallion, accompanied by a square of baked kibbe fashioned from beef, bulgur, onion, and pine nuts; and a bird's nest pastry, made by a bird that loves pistachios and walnuts.
Food Festival at Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral
113 Remsen St. (at Henry St.), Brooklyn Heights
www.Facebook.com/Our-Lady-of-Lebanon-Cathedral-1598271980428215
(In recent years the full-fledged street festival has given way to smaller "Sajj Sunday" events; none has been publicly announced for 2020)
