With its hilarious knock-offs (think Canal street with a Lebanese touch), to fruit colors that will knock you off your feet, to colorful characters of all ages (think old men sipping Turkish coffee & smoking shisha at local cafés with the colorful Hamra-shopping local fashionista walking by) Hamra street (Hamra means in English the red one) may be shunned today by the Beirut fashion snobs as a destination for the masses, but I certainly recommend a stroll through it to tourists as a way to get a more local feel of west Beirut and a taste of a stretch that has not wavered throughout all the Lebanese turmoil as one of Beirut’s main commercial streets. You’ll note that there is an efforts being made to bring back some lost glory and prominence to Hamra and that it certainly looks nothing like its dodgy depiction in Homeland.
Tag Archives: pomegranate
Burst of Antioxidants
As I shopped this morning through the produce section of my neighborhood’s market I saw these fresh bursting red pomegranates and my taste buds started a dance! I can’t wait to introduce my little girl to this juicy mosaic so we can become pom-buddies! Pomegranates rush you burst-by-burst into a heavenly state of mind. In fact, the pomegranate is an ancient fruit mentioned in almost every religion symbolizing various positive concepts and has also historically appeared in art and medicine for centuries. Today there’s a renewed focus on researching and studying the health benefits of this fruit and the juice made from its seeds and white membrane (an even higher source of antioxidants), especially in the western world where it’s still an exotic and relatively unknown fruit in opposition to the Middle East and some Mediterranean regions where it’s taken for granted for cultivation reasons. By virtue of its antioxidant richness, the pomegranate is considered very healthy for the heart and an anticancer food. It’s also a good source of Dietary Fiber and Folate and a very good source of Vitamin C and Vitamin K. In season starting September to February, you can indulge in these sweet and tart little red gems full of juice, nutrients and energy!
SilhouettEtiquette 