SoMe letters of the alphabets have Many Many Meanings, soMe are siMply Magical, they transforM and take different forMs, they also can transforM and enhance an experience… You don’t believe Me? Okay, let’s take per exaMple the letter M… M stands for Many things in language… It seals your lips when you’re unable to express yourself in front of beauty… It can be a French onoMatopée: Mmmmmmmm to express how good the food was… The letter M sounds like “love” in French… “AiMe”… In French as well… M is the initial of the word: Maison (hoMe)
Now, coMbine the love, the M, the food, the word in a cataract of passion and eMotions beautifully presented on plates, on a large wooden table, in a place so coMfortable, you could call it hoMe…
…You’ll siMply find yourself in Maison M… A restaurant in Naccache…
Convinced? no ? keep on reading…
You see, Gaston, (Moi), beside My faMily & friends, love two things in life: Food and criticizing food…
IMMagine how difficult it was for Me not to find anything to say about what was served to us that night… My lips were sealed…
It is nearly iMpossible for Me to describe each and every food iteM, because it wasn’t just the iteM or its taste that i was experiencing… it was a whole Micro universe… the colors of the restaurant, warM and natural, the teMperature level, just perfect, the Music genre and it’s voluMe, enough to enjoy, soothing to the ears, coMpliMenting each bite, enhancing its flavors on our palets, iMprinting their uniqueness in that part of our brain where the pleasure is…
Everything was so traditional in taste, so siMple, yet Meticulously Made… you could feel the passion of the Maestro in the kitchen, you could feel the quality crunching gently under your teeth, sliding on your tongue, accentuating the pleasure before it sinks deep down in your heart…
You could swear that the plates on the table were following a MatheMatical algorithM, they were fitting next to each other Making a beautifully colored puzzle on our table… or was it the head waiter who was serving us… it was Most probably hiM… such professionalisM… such courtesy, he was there, standing tall, proud of his iMMaculate uniforM, proud of his role, filling it to perfection, a real Maitre d’Hotel froM the old Beirut of the 70ies.
The food was Modernly presented, yet, soMehow, it didn’t clash at all with any Lebanese tradition… I think it was because of our host… he Made everything sound so natural…a siMple person, down to earth, in harMony with life, appreciating the siMple things… those very siMple things that Made the whole difference, those siMple things that Made Maison M a unique restaurant froM the basis of a very siMple one. Un vrai chevalier des teMps Moderns… (a Jedi for friends)
We tasted all, accoMpanied with a tall… real tall glass of arak hoMeMade in B2a3kafra… light and sMooth to the taste, the perfect drink with the right food.
The hoMMos, the Mtabbal, the chanklich, in the regular version and in the M version, (trust Me you will want to taste the M version)… all was so yuMmmmm …
The vine leaves, specifically looked like they were Made by the hands of a fairy…
The Tabbouleh… The Fattouch… fresh and appetite opening as they should be… you only stop eating froM theM because of the call of other iteMs begging to be tasted… and here… I’M sure My heart skipped several beats at the sight of the selection of raw Meats plates… Tebleh, Kebbeh nayyeh, kafta nayyeh… Habra nayyeh… and Sawda nayyeh… I just can’t begin telling you about theM… My laptop battery will die before I’M done… (sorry, inspiration stroke while I was outside… no power plug)
The hot Mezzeh was equally aMazing, and by the tiMe we had arrived to the “grillades” we were full and sincerely wanted to stop, however the aroMa of those Macheweh was way stronger than our will, and tasting theM left us with no regret that we did… In fact, we ended up thankful we did… the Meat was so tender, so perfectly seasoned… a Meal cooked by the nyMphs for the gods high up on Mount OlyMpus…
I would like here, before I save this file, to salute Teta M and her absolutely delicious recipes for rez b7alib and Meghleh… you don’t want to Miss out on theM when you go to Maison M…
Tell Me… are you convinced yet? M is Magical… just count the M’s in the text…
Even the initial of Gaston starts with M (for those who know…)
Gaston M
Leave a Reply