Mayylu!: Discovering Lebanon’s Hidden Culinary Heritage

Hana El-Hibri was born in Alexandria in 1958 and, being a Lebanese diplomat's daughter, was raised variously in Egypt, Italy, Australia, Ghana, and Algeria. Frustrated by the often-stereotypical view of Lebanon by the rest of the world, she set out to change perceptions. A Million Steps (2010) was a pictorial diary of her trek through Lebanon from north to south, highlighting the country's natural beauty. Now in its third print run, the book has subsequently lent its name to preserving Lebanon's hiking trails. Mayylu! has been inspired by a similar wish to showcase a rural way of life and the ingredients that feed it. It is, she says, "a mosaic of fragments that piece together the beautiful tableau that is Lebanon's culinary heritage." Hana lives in Beirut with her husband Bassem. They have three grown boys.

No visitor will travel far through the Lebanese mountains without hearing Mayylu!, that warm invitation - a prelude to making new friends and to sharing good food and company. This ancient invocation of welcome captures the very essence of life in this rugged terrain. The spirit of Mayylu lies at the center of this heart-warming food book which is, in many ways, the embodiment of that shared experience. Lovingly told, with close step-by-step visuals of the preparation processes, a great many of these secrets of Lebanon's ancient culinary heritage are published here for the first time. The ingredients are frequently garnered wild from the mountain slopes nearby, following bygone values of sustainability and love of the environment that enjoy a renaissance in the modern world. The wisdom in these rich personal accounts has been handed down from generation to generation, part of an oral tradition that, if not recorded here in this book, runs the risk of one day being lost to us forever. Mayylu! is far more than a cookbook - it is a window into a vanishing world and a celebration of a whole way of life. "Mayylu! Come and join us!" Includes dual measures.