Fattoush Salad

Holy God do I love Fattoush salad.

Fattoush, if you've never experienced it, is a salad made of romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers (sometimes), olives (sometimes), feta (sometimes) and these ridiculously delicious broken up pita chips and is all smothered in this super delicious lemon vinaigrette that is seasoned with something called sumac.

It is incredible.

What a lot of people don't know is that my hometown (Wichita) has a ton of great Lebanese restaurants. Totally random, right? I mean most people would expect us to have nothing but ground beef and cream of mushroom soup or a big pot of beef scraps from the butcher boiling away, but it's really not true. Since there isn't a whole lot else going on (i.e. concerts, theatre, or culture in general) what most people do for fun is go to restaurants... so we have a lot of restaurants. And a lot of them are Lebanese... or if not specifically serving Lebanese food they are, at least, owned by Lebanese people.

But the Lebanese restaurants aren't even my favorite places to get Lebanese food.

Nope... that's because every year in October a local church ( St. George Orthodox Cathedral) has this giant fundraiser where they serve a Lebanese meal for $15 a person. It's pretty much the highlight of my year outside of my birthday and Christmas... in fact, it's like Lebanese Food Christmas.

Anyways... this year my mom got me 3 tickets.

That's 3 tickets... JUST FOR ME. I'll be eating cabbage rolls and kibbe and pita bread and baklava morning, noon, and night this weekend.


I'm so effing jacked.

Jess' Guide to Great Lebanese food in the Wichita Area

1. Bella Luna Cafe (the best fattoush ever)

2. N & J's Cafe (authentic and they have belly dancers!)

3. Nouvelle Cafe

4. Cafe le Monde

5. M.I.F Deli

6. Po Boy Pizza (this place doesn't serve Lebanese food, but it's a pizza place owned by the nicest (Lebanese) people in the entire world. Try the pizza roll... it'll probably change your life.)