Lebanon’s Jebneh Darfiyyeh Cheese Heritage
ملخص
r/Lebanon shares a World Food Day feature on Lebanon’s food heritage, spotlighting Jebneh Darfiyyeh cheese made in Btelaya using a 140-year family tradition and aged in a cave. The story explores how documenting local cuisine helps preserve cultural identity and connect Lebanese people and the diaspora with their heritage.
Food Heroes detail | World Food Day | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Anthony Rahayel
“We are inventing more, exporting more. We are doing things we’ve never done before.”
Lebanon
On a recent sunny Tuesday, some 1 900m up a mountain in Northern Lebanon, Anthony Rahayel wound his way up a narrow road in search of cheese.
His destination was Btelaya, one of the last remaining villages that produce Jebneh Darfiyyeh, and home to a family that’s been making it for 140 years.
“I spent 24 hours with the shepherd, watching how the cheese is made from start to end,” Anthony says excitedly. “I even went to the cave they put the cheese in. It’s a one-month process of aging it, drying it.”
It was the first time the whole process had been documented on camera, he says.
It’s these moments he lives for, showing the cultural and culinary beauty of Lebanon to people around the world, including his compatriots. He loves to show locals new things about their own country, he says, and for the diaspora worldwide to take pride and interest in their heritage.
“It is the best cuisine in the world – no competition,” says Anthony, who credits the diversity of influences left by the Romans, the Ottomans and the French, and Lebanon’s key position along the old Silk Road.
“Our country also has many days of good weather, so we have the greatest veggies. Everything you eat here is natural and tastes amazing.”
Since 2012, the dentist-turned-food-blogger has built a loyal following showing that richness on his Youtube channel and website No Garlic No Onions. He also produces short features on Lebanese TV.
He’s keen to dispel Lebanon’s old image of a country marked by conflict and economic crises, he says. Still, crisis also shapes food culture, and not always negatively. Separated by Civil war, communities fostered unique food habits that reflect the religious and cultural roots of those who settled there, explains Anthony, especially in the villages.
The recent economic crisis, meanwhile, has given an unexpected jolt to Lebanon’s food industry.
“We are inventing more, exporting...
Post Author: /u/EreshkigalKish2
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