TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

1:47 AM
Posted by jodi rose

The National Lebanese Tabbouleh Day

Location: Beirut, Lebanon
Date: 07.01.2006

The 15th Paris Biennial which will take place from the 1st until the 31st of October 2006 in Paris (France) and abroad presents the National Lebanese Tabbouleh Day. This Day is celebrated each year, on the first Saturday of July. This year it will take place on the 1st of July, for the sixth consecutive year.

This gathering of the Lebanese community around a traditional meal is opened to everyone and without pretension. Its only ambition is to try to smooth the tensions and divisions suffered by a people bruised by a thirty-year-long war.

This simple and original approach was launched in 2001 by Ricardo Mbarak, artist and professor at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts, Beirut. Since then the celebrators have grown in number and have circulated the information via Internet and word of mouth. Thanks to this initiative more than 240 000 people in Lebanon, Canada, the United States and Europe have gathered in 2005. So it's up to you to spread the news and join us around this meal: all you need is the right recipe, a bit of friendliness and cheerfulness.

Recipe:
350 g bulgur or cracked wheat
5 minced bunches of parsley
2 snipped bunches of mint
3 diced tomatoes
1 sliced small green onion
1 sliced small white onion
A thin line of olive oil
Lemon juice, salt and pepper
Cook the bulgur following instructions on packet.
Slice the onions and add pepper and salt
Add parsley and mint
Pour olive oil and lemon juice and mix thoroughly
Add the tomatoes dices.

"The idea is not to eat the meal as such. It happens in your head, in the acknowledgement of this common link".
Ricardo Mbarak

Biennale de Paris
BP 358
75868 Paris cedex 18
France

T: + 33 (0)1 42 58 21 44
contact@biennaledeparis.org
http://www.biennaledeparis.org