Manaeesh

Every culture has a certain food that everyone just loves and eats. In Lebanon, waking up to the smell of Manaeesh is like waking up to a beautiful scent of a flower. Manaeesh is somewhat of a quesadilla look alike. It is freshly made bread; on top of it comes either fresh cheese, oregano, maybe even some grounded meat. Boy does it get my mouth watery just talking about it. With the oregano manaeesh, people would dip it with the Lebanese yogurt called Labni. After it is dipped in, we grab those fresh marinated olives and take a bite. Can you say wow? Not to mention how amazing it tastes with tea. With the Cheese, a person simply eats it without having to dip it in anything. Same goes with the meat. The cheese is a favorite. I have taken some to many of my friends and they fell in love with it. My friends being Mexican, they said it looked a lot like a cheese quesadilla. However, when the cheese melts in a persons mouth, nothing more need be said.
In the states, my mother usually makes it on occasion. In the last day celebration of the month, Ramadan, my mother wakes up early in the morning just so she can prepare some home made manaeesh for the family. We wake up, have our breakfast, and go to the park to barbeque with family. It has been done every year since I been alive; never has my mother taken a day off. Being Muslim, the religion states that an individual must go to the city Mecca in Saudi Arabia for their pilgrimage. Usually after this pilgrimage is done, we greet those who are coming back with manaeesh on the table and a huge sign outside of the house that says “congratulations” in Arabic. It is very popular to eat it on these two special Islamic occasions. It was said that one of our Great grandparents started this little tradition. For my family as well as the many families in the village of Yaroun it only made sense to eat it on such occasions.