Ammouneh: Lebanese food at its best

Lebanese food like all other cuisines in the Middle East is essentially traditional. The recipes are passed from mother to daughter and cherished as family heirlooms. To this day, some of the best food in the Middle East is found in private homes.
The key to Ammouneh‘s success is that it prepares Lebanese home-cooked food at its best. A telling indicator of the restaurant’s success is easily observed by the number of loyal customers that keep coming back for more of the delicious dishes. If you drop by Ammouneh on Friday for lunch, we highly recommend that you reserve in advance, as the place will most likely be bursting with families hailing from Lebanon and other neighboring countries. They have all come to enjoy the best Lebanese home-cooked recipes served in a restaurant in Riyadh.
One of the most outstanding features of Lebanese cuisine is the large selection of hors d’oeuvres, known as “mezze”, which can actually constitute a meal in themselves. The “tabbouleh”, which originates from the mountainous terrain of Lebanon, consists of a refreshing mix of chopped tomatoes, parsley, green onions and cracked wheat. It is served with lettuce or tender cabbage and dressed with olive oil and lemon juice.
The “hummus bi tahina”, is another popular traditional mezze. This ancient dish is made with pureed chickpeas, tahina paste (crushed sesame seeds), lemon and garlic. It seems so simple, but the simplest recipes are sometimes the most difficult. The secret of this dish lies in the exact proportion of ingredients. Hummus is delicious as a dip eaten with raw vegetables; alternatively you can try eating it with bread, or as an accompaniment with fish, grilled meat and even falafel, also known as “ta’amia”.
Meat-lovers should try hummus with “kawarma”, which is essentially lamb preserved in its own fat, as well as hummus with minced beef and pine nuts.
Other varieties of “mezze” include “moussabaha”, which is made with pureed chickpeas and crushed brown beans mixed with tahina sauce, chopped parsley, lemon juice and cumin seasoning.
Another popular dip is “Mutabbal”, a smoke-flavored dip made with eggplant. The key to this dish lies in the searing of the aubergine, as the eggplant skin is blackened over a gas flame or roasted in the oven. The charred outside skins are then discarded and the smooth inner pulp is pureed with strong garlic and tahina. “Baba Ghannouj” is also made with roasted aubergines, but the tahina is replaced with chopped tomato and onion.
For the more adventurous food connoisseurs, the wide assortment of Lebanese “mezze” also includes fried chicken livers and lamb tongues.
No mention of Lebanese appetizers is complete without referring to the savory pastries stuffed with cheese and spinach, the fried or grilled “haloum” cheese, “fried kibbeh”, stuffed vine leaves, and the various vegetable stews such as beans, okra, and eggplant, to name but a few. However, please be cautious that though these delightful dishes are all merely entrées, they can spoil your appetite and keep you away from the delicious main dishes.
For the main course, I personally immensely enjoy a plate of “shawarma”; undoubtedly the most popular Arabic fast food, served in a sandwich with chopped lettuce, tomatoes and tahina sauce. This sandwich is unlike other wraps, as its unique taste originates from its lengthy marination in a concoction of vinegar, oil, cardamom seeds, mastic, cinnamon, nutmeg, red onions, bay leaves, garlic, lemon, cloves and salt. Slices of meat or chicken are then piled onto a long skewer, with a layer of fat every so often and placed on a vertical rotisserie. Incidentally, Ammouneh is the only restaurant, I know of which prepares, fish shawarma, a rare delicacy. Amouneh’s shawarma sandwiches are known to be the best in Riyadh!
Another popular fish dish is the “Sayadiah”, which is made of scrumptious rice cooked with fish. Sayadiah is found in Gulf States as well as Lebanon and other countries of the Levant.
Other daily specialties include the “kibbeh”, the great love of the inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent, which has many delectable variations. The infamous kibbeh is said to have been mentioned in ancient Assyrian and Sumerian writings and to have been served by King Ashur Nassir Bal II.
Back in the day, the meat and the wheat were pounded in a stone or metal mortar with a heavy metal pestle. Nowadays, an electric blender has replaced the mortar and pestle. Kibbeh is basically a mixture of fine cracked wheat or burghul, grated onion and minced lamb pounded to a paste.
The many variations of kibbeh includes “Kibbeh Bil Sanieh”, which is a layer of minced meat filling sandwiched between two layers of pounded wheat and minced lamb and baked in the oven. A raw version of this dish, “kibbeh naye” is also very popular; prepared with fresh lean meat and drizzled with olive oil. Another delicacy is the fried kibbeh, prepared in a torpedo-shaped shell filled with minced meat and nuts. The key to preparing this type of kibbeh is to keep the outer shell consistently even. An Iraqi version consists of a shell made with rice and raisins and minced meat filling.
Ammouneh prepares the best “manakish” or Arabic pizza, which are traditionally eaten for breakfast. Arabs claim to have invented pizza, since at the height of the Abbassid period they prepared it throughout the Islamic Empire from Southern Europe to Afghanistan. The word ‘pizza’ is in fact strikingly similar to the Greek ‘pitta’ and Turkish ‘pide’.
Amouneh is open every day for breakfast and serves food till 1 a.m.

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