The Taste of Love

How members of the Lebanese community are spreading food and love throughout the Pacific Northwest.

What, you may ask, does love taste like? 

The mind immediately goes to Valentine’s Day, a holiday filled with rich, creamy chocolates, decorative cakes, and chemically induced candies that dye the inside of your mouth. Other minds may go a different direction, toward a favorite recipe or a meal made with, by, or for loved ones. Maybe love tastes like a forbidden kiss, or tart strawberries on a hot summer day. Regardless of what love tastes like to you, there is one thing each possibility has in common: the power to bring people together.

For anyone looking for a place to discover what love tastes like, try eating at a restaurant that treats you like family. When you enter, the owners greet you with a hug. They ask you about your family, naming each member and accusing you of not bringing them in often enough. They know your order, your children’s favorite dessert, and how you like your coffee. For Dr. Sylvia Daoud Kinzie, a chemistry professor at the University of Portland, this restaurant is Al Hawr. 

Al Hawr: The Dependability of Food

Located in Southwest Portland, Al Hawr serves a variety of different guests. These guests range from students to teachers, old to young, and lifelong Oregonians to recent immigrants. Though the range of guests is large, they all share one common goal: to have a good meal. They are never disappointed. Steaming plates of chicken schwarma fill the air with the intoxicating aroma of cumin and lemon, tingling the senses. Warm pita and chilled hummus fill empty stomachs, resting peacefully in the hearts of each consumer. The crunch of Baklawa echoes from each table, as the flakes of phyllo dough sprinkle like snow down each person’s throat, drips of syrup clinging to eager lips. This is what you can expect from a meal at Al Hawr.  

Zeina Mansour and Chadi Hassan, the owners of Al Hawr, opened the restaurant’s first location in the mountains of Lebanon. The restaurant was very successful, drawing in curious food-lovers from across the country and beyond. However, like many of those who call or have called Lebanon home, the threat of war forced them to move themselves and their children to the United States. They left the restaurant in the care of Chadi’s mother, but a war-time inflated economy forced the restaurant to close. This loss didn’t stop them. Filled with a passion for food, they opened a restaurant in Portland and embraced the community, welcoming guests in with open arms.  

Like Chadi and Zeina, Dr. Kinzie immigrated to the United States as a result of the ongoing war in Lebanon. She came thirty-two years ago, during the peak of the Lebanese Civil War, which left one-hundred thousand people dead and one million people displaced. Dr. Kinzie made the difficult decision to leave her hometown of Bierut after the war landed too close to her home. She describes feeling hopeless as the war continued, not knowing when or if the war would ever end.

For nearly five decades, Lebanon has faced constant conflict. With tension and war prevailing today, millions of Lebanese citizens have been displaced. Many of these citizens left on their own terms, but not by choice or free will. The war is out of their hands, and staying put only puts themselves in danger. Leaving is a matter of safety and the desire for a future without war.     

Dr. Kinzie stumbled upon Al Hawr by accident. In typical Portland fashion, she and her mother were soaking up the sun on a bright, spring day. While wandering the neighborhood, they happened upon a new restaurant, one they had never heard of before. What caught Dr. Kinzie’s eye was the name of the restaurant, called “Al Hawr.” “That’s Arabic!” she declared. Standing outside was Chadi, also soaking up the sunny weather. He waved Dr. Kinzie and her mother over, eager to meet members of the community and enticed by their shared Lebanese culture. He welcomed the two into his restaurant, making them coffee, then lunch, and even telling Dr. Kinzie to invite her father over. Dr. Kinzie remembers the situation fondly. “We were there for three hours.” What started as a simple walk instigated a long and fruitful relationship between the Kinzie family and Zeina and Chadi, a bond over a shared love of Lebanese cuisine, their country, and their culture.

Love and Chemistry

A spotlight dish in Lebanese cuisine is kibbeh. Kibbeh is a Lebanese dish made from bulgur wheat, onion, mint, and either ground beef or lamb. Like many recipes, there is a massive amount of chemistry present in each step, each reaction crucial to the outcome of the dish. 

First, you must soak the bulgar wheat in water for at least fifteen minutes. This allows for the alkaline phosphate to be activated. If, like me, you are not a particularly knowledgeable chemist, then you are probably wondering why this is important. According to Dr. Kinzie, the activation of the alkaline phosphate initiates the hydrolysis of starch, making the bulgur wheat easier to digest while maintaining the minerals that are present in the grain which risk being lost in the alternative boiling process. 

Next, you must prepare the meat. In many recipes, it is common to pulverize the meat. To this, Dr. Kinzie gives a passionate “No!” In pulverizing the meat, you lose the protein and taste. To combat this loss, Dr. Kinzie describes her grandmother’s method of making Kibbeh: “She would pound the meat on a big marble boulder.” This allows for the meat to be properly tenderized, while maintaining the flavor and the protein. 

The rest of the steps involve mixing, frying, baking, shaping, and seasoning. When making Kibbeh, you must not forget the onions and mint. These two ingredients are crucial to the dish’s signature taste. The result of following these steps is an egg shaped, round, brown patty that is bursting with flavor. It is soft on teeth and easily penetrable by fork and knife. 

Kibbeh is one of Dr. Kinzie’s favorite dishes to make for her family and to order from Al Hawr. I had the privilege of tasting the Kibbeh from Al Hawr during a field trip I took in Dr. Kinzie’s “Chemistry of Food and Cooking” class. She took the liberty of ordering for the table, eager to expose us to the food she had devoted much of class time to discussing. On tasting the Kibbeh, I was at a loss for words. It had a thick outer layer and soft interior, making for a captivating texture. The Kibbeh shared a plate with housemade Falafels, bursting with the flavors of garlic, cumin, lemon, and coriander- the perfect balance of tart and savory. 

A Definite Taste, An Indefinite Feeling

Food is a subtle form of love. This love is reflected in cooking for others, as it allows us to share a part of ourselves with the people who matter. To hold the responsibility of providing nutrients for loved ones is of the utmost importance, and it requires an intense level of diligence and care: love. To share a restaurant, to utter food recommendations, to realize you have the same favorite restaurant, these are all love letters to each other, a way of finding common ground in a world filled with differences. It reflects our culture and our history. 

Sharing food takes vulnerability, as it reflects our culture, history, and personal preferences. To share food with others is to open yourself up to criticism that strikes the deepest level of your identity. Yet, the intimacy is what attracts us and keeps us coming back for more. Dr. Kinzie showed love to her “Chemistry of Food and Cooking” class by inviting us to share a meal with her at a restaurant she holds very close to her heart, with food that is ingrained into her identity. Chadi and Zeina showed love to the Kinzies by inviting them in for a spontaneous meal, a shared moment that resulted in a lifelong bond. They show love to each individual who visits the restaurant, pouring their hearts into every dish in order to connect their two homes: Lebanon and Oregon. It is stories like these that highlight the richness of the food scene in Oregon. Though divisiveness is increasingly prevalent throughout the state, people are working daily to combat this darkness by laughing and crying, eating and drinking, and loving a meal together.   

Written by Mia Tierney