Lebanese Lunch (and Farewell)

GA's Hoummous

I had been hoping to attend a number of Lebanese and other lunches at GA's in the coming year - until the call came suddenly for her family to move to Beirut courtesy of Tetra Pak. This way I found myself (with Hub) at her private farewell lunch feast for a few friends last Sunday. It was a marvelous meal - and a sad one. The only thing that stopped me from crying was the knowledge that we would still be around in July and could see them before they leave Modena for good.

Fatteh

Aubergine and chickpeas

Bulgur

Lebanese salad

We were 4 lucky families to be invited to lunch and there were moments when nobody talked because we were so focused on the food. GA spent 2 days cooking from the look of things and if I may say so, it was well worth the time and effort :-).

The table of lucky guests

Persian rice

Kibbeh

That Sunday there were also the F1 Grand Prix and World Cup match between England and Germany playing on the flatscreen. Ferrari didn't win so it was another bad weekend for us (goodbye bonus for another year), but our German friends were ecstatic with their team's victory which would only translate to more boys' nights out in the weeks to come...

Men usurping Mario Kart from the children

At one stage, the men went to get the kids off Mario Kart on the Wii so that they could watch the football match - and next thing you knew, said men were racing cars on the Wii instead. Sigh...

I wish I could say with confidence that we would meet up in Beirut in the years to come, but I haven't gone back to Rochester (NY), or Jaén (Andalusia), not even Stuttgart (except for 2 days last X'mas), so Beirut seems really too exotic for us.

2 desserts

But Ghada (if you're reading this) you know that you have a special place in my heart and I hope that we would be able to stay in touch and meet again in the near future. In the meantime, thank you for such a wonderful lunch and for being such a good friend in the past 3 years!