Guy Foran in Nuweiba Sinai (Photo: Guy Foran, Editor: Yardena Abudi Fuchs)
No matter how great the country may be, God forbid that it will always be possible to escape to Sinai time. Endless expanses of desert and amazing sunrise from the sea. A place of magic, where even completely secular people talk to God. Where the words end. The silence itself.
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We flew for 50 minutes and arrived at the "Sinai Maldives"
This is my fourth time at the Beirut restaurant, and this time too I cried with joy. This is a real culinary gem, so secret that even some of the taxi drivers of neighboring Nuweiba do not know. It is located on a breath-taking beach facing the sea in endless shades of blue and turquoise, as part of Camp Al Magara in the Al Mahesh strip - a magical and relatively pristine coastline, certainly compared to Ras a Stein (Satan) to the south and Bir Sawyer to the north. Tears of joy, as mentioned.
Disconnect, and connect. Camp Al Magara
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In the evening we eat outside, at a long table and under magical lights. In the morning and afternoon dine on the spotless and polished colored pillows that seem as if the sea sand refuses to rest on them because of respect for Rana
Beirut tastes and feels like a real restaurant, with a tight menu that shows a lot of thought and a must make a reservation, but on the shores of Sinai.
In the evening we eat outside, at a long table and under magical lights. In the morning and afternoon, you dine on the polished, polished colorful cushions that the sand of the sea seems to refuse to rest on because of respect for Rana, a Lebanese chef who brings to Al Megara's paradise her passion for food based on the best and freshest ingredients, and the memories of flavors from Lebanese villages and cities.
Beirut is unequivocally the best restaurant between Taba and Dahab, and maybe beyond. An act of culinary magic. Rana, in case you were wondering, is a powerful and captivating Lebanese magician who learned to cook in (original) Beirut and Dubai and now dreams of turning South Sinai into a culinary location.
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An act of culinary magic. Beirut (Photo: Suleiman)
"I wanted a name that immediately testified to the unique menu we serve and the Lebanese food, and I really wanted to hear Beirut playing on people's tongues, and in the air."
Here you start by looking deep into the turquoise sea, looking at the beauty and colors of the dishes whose freshness jumps off the plate, and only then taste and rest to digest the beauty and taste. It's love on the plate, in all colors and shapes. Maybe because this is first and foremost a family restaurant and camp that began with a love story.
Over a decade ago, life brought Rana from her birthplace in Baal Bek in southern Lebanon to the beach of Michaud, one of the most beloved camps in the Al Mahsh Strip. She fell in love with the place, and Michaud, and Sinai began to return her love. More and more diners came from the camps and hotels from the beaches of Bir Sawyer and Ras al-Shatan for dinner.
Rana began to cook her dream - memories of the flavors of home, with the residents and tourists of Nuweiba and the surrounding area. She worked for months on the concept and dishes on the menu, cooking and trying, until the coronavirus dissipated from the air, allowing the restaurant to open. "I wanted a name that immediately testified to the unique menu we serve and the Lebanese food, and I really wanted to hear Beirut playing on people's tongues, and in the air," she said.
In front of the water. Beirut
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"Companies send me spices from the villages or I bring them once a year on my traditional summer trip to Lebanon. Even friends from Israel occasionally bring me cinnamon, sumac flowers, vanilla and hyssop."
Rana defines her cuisine as "personal Lebanese," dishes she tasted and cooked at home and during her travels in Lebanese villages and towns from south to north, but with her own twist, and as she likes.
Taboola, for example, stars with cinnamon as she tasted only once in her life in a small village in northern Lebanon. The divine marble-shine, a masterpiece of dumpling stuffed with juicy mutton, is snorkeled in hot yogurt soup, and contrary to the Lebanese tradition in which the jewelry stuffed for a long time is cooked with yogurt, here they are added only two minutes before serving and kept crispy on the outside and intoxicating on the inside.
Rana believes in freshness and maintains it on the plate with understated elegance of flavors and plates. The shrimp, the most expensive dish on the menu (550 liras, about 60 shekels), is pinkish, fleshy and sweet, peeled except for the fire-orange tail, which causes tears to fall again on their own.
"Opening a restaurant near Nuweiba is not easy," she smiles. "The biggest problem is the shortage of fresh raw materials, which we solve with our farm. Lebanese spices and raw materials are also very difficult to find in good quality. Friends send me from the villages or I bring once a year, on my traditional summer trip to Lebanon. Even friends from Israel occasionally bring me cinnamon, sumac, vanilla and hyssop. Even employees who know and want to cook are hard to locate here. There is a high turnover, almost the same as yours," she said with a laugh, "but I'm optimistic."
Cook in silence. Mohammed (Photo: Suleiman)
She came, and fell in love. Rana (Photo: Suleiman)
"I never forgot my roots and I wanted to bring these flavors here as well, into dishes that also have an indirect connection to Israel."
A look at the menu reveals more and more food caches. Haswhe, for example, is a traditional Lebanese rice and meat stew, used to fill festive dishes and smell cinnamon from afar, and the exquisite mezes – cold or hot, from hummus and spinach pattair to okra and amazing mushrooms in coriander – will fill the table, and the stomach.
"Growing up in Lebanon, food has always been an essential part of our culture and family gatherings," she recalled, "I decided to continue my passion, I studied cooking and after 15 years in Dubai I came here and decided to open a restaurant to bring new food to the area. I never forgot my roots and wanted to bring these flavors here as well, into dishes that also have an indirect connection to Israel."
Israel?
"Where I had in Lebanon, I served mostly soups, sandwiches and salads. I was less interested in mezes and opening a table, until I came across a book by Yotam Ottolenghi during a trip to India, and fell in love. He 'pushed' me to research Lebanese mezes and their raw materials, and was my biggest inspiration."
Aruch table, and long. Beirut
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"My food reflects culinary traditions from around Lebanon. Like tomato bulgur, for example, a dish that Grandma prepares for lunch for her grandchildren in the southern villages, but doesn't even reach Beirut, the capital."
Alongside Rana, this culinary kingdom is also run by chef Mohammed Al Ghazali. Born in Alexandria 30 years ago, he began burning with a passion for food at the age of 15 while working in the kitchen of the Baron's Hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh during school holidays, and has since continued to other resort cities in the region, studying culinary sciences at the Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management in Cairo (EGOTH).
At the age of 19 he won his first cooking competition, and a few years later he won Master Chef South Africa. "I had more than one job opportunity abroad – Italy, Russia, France, Germany and more – but my personal life prevented me from traveling," he said.
This quietness allows it to frame a culinary paradise here for vegetarians and vegans, who usually find it difficult to eat well in Sinai. "My food reflects culinary traditions from around Lebanon," he explained, "like tomato bulgur, for example, a dish that my grandmother prepares for lunch for her grandchildren in the southern villages, but doesn't even reach Beirut, the capital."
And what about Tel Aviv? Beirut (Photo: Beirut Restaurant)
Worth every lira, and a penny. Beirut (Photo: Beirut Restaurant)
All this goodness is worth a special trip, including from Eilat, the price - about 85-150 shekels per person, with a minimum order of 700 Egyptian pounds per person - is considered high relative to the environment, but worth every lira, shekel or dollar. Payment in cash, dinner takes place without children and requires a WhatsApp order by 12:00 on the same day, but this fine print is further reduced in relation to the value.
Everyone who ate here stopped on the way out and asked Rana to open Beirut in Tel Aviv. I don't know if it will work without the coastline and blue water, and without Sinai, but it's always worth dreaming.
Beirut Restaurant, Al Mahesh Strip (between Bir Sawir and Ras a Stein), Al Magarra Camp (المجرّة.), 201014871909
Shlomi (Suleiman) Mintz is an organizer of culinary trips to the Sinai Peninsula
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