The cupboard is with no doubt the place which translates the best a people’s intimacy. Particularly that of the kitchen since inevitably, each one of us stores in it mainly, the family and cultural gastronomic heritage.

For the novice, the Lebanese cupboard is a sweet mixture of the cave of Ali Baba in its gastronomic version and a mysterious den where various products mingle, and which, even though unfamiliar, will make your mouth water.

Bags specifically made for cereals are filled with all kinds of seeds: medium or thin for the bourghol, cru-shed or whole for the wheat. Rice, lentils, chick-peas and beans, uncommonly used in the regions of Europe or North America, first appear on the shelves.

On the nearest accessible area, thrones the classic bottle of olive oil along with a small mysterious beige pot. It’s the tahineh (or the sesame cream). A little more to the back, some cucumbers and pieces of tur-nips marinate in glass pots. Prepared a few weeks earlier, they will be savored as condiments, alone or as side dishes.

When it comes to the sweets, fig jam or quince jam, often homemade, compete with two bottles filled with a transparent liquid, the orange blossom-water and the rose-water and to a multitude of dried fruits, going from nuts to pistachio, which evokes the huge variety of sweets offered by the Lebanese cuisine.

Talking about the Lebanese cupboard would not be complete without introducing another cupboard, in the open air this time, that of the traveling merchants which carry the sun-soaked fruits and vegetables, garlic and onion, mint and parsley… in short, a huge diversity of fresh products with shimmering Mediterranean colors

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