War in Beirut & THIS Restaurant Stayed Open! Lebanon Travel Vlog

Good morning from Beirut.

We are devoting today's entire video to trying as much delicious Lebanese food as possible.

Yay. Oh, yeah. Super salty. Yummy.

Wow. Wow.

We have made two new local friends. Excellent.

Very tasty. This is the testicle. Okay.

I never thought I would be eating lamb testicles. It's delicious.

It feels very wrong.

So we walked pretty much all the way across town to get to what is supposed to be the best Arabic bakery and the best Arabic ice cream shop in town.

Maybe Sunday wasn't the best day to go on a food tour. So we thought we'd cheer ourselves up in this really cool cafe with some nice hot coffee. And they have free wi fi. So we're gonna do a little bit more research before going to our next place. Not complaining.

Okay.

We warm, we are caffeinated, and now we are ubering all the way back to the other side of town where this whole journey began for more food.

Apparently, our hotel is just right down the road from one of the most famous restaurants in the entire country. This is Barbara. The restaurant that you see behind me is the original. They started making, like, the Lebanese pizza, but it's grown and just pretty much taken over these entire two blocks. It's one of the most unique restaurants that I've ever seen. They have, like, a bar Bar falafel, and it's its own restaurant, but it's called Bar Bar, and it specializes in falafel. And then they have the bar bar grill, Bar bar, shawarma, bar, bar, juice bar, bar, ice cream. It's like eight different restaurants that have completely taken over these two blocks, but they're all like their own place spread out between, like, other shops. So we're gonna start with the original with the Lebanese pizza.

This.

But we've been calling it Lebanese pizza because it's basically this giant dough that they add toppings to and then throw it in this big, beautiful oven. Then after it's cooked, they add some fresh veggies on top, and then they roll it up like a burrito. And that's how you get it.

It's so good. There are a few different options for toppings, but I always get the halloumi and za'. Atar. Halloumi cheese is like, one of my favorite foods in the world, and za' atar is becoming one of my favorite.

Foods in the world.

It's bas.

And sesame mixture. So it's super herbal, but with those sesame seeds in there, it's nice and nutty. We actually found this place the first day that we were here, but we had no idea how big of a deal this place was. So this is like my fifth one of these.

Okay. And now we are going to travel from the pizza restaurant to the schwarma shop. And here we are. Completely different restaurant, completely different payment system. Wall dividing the two. Pizza over here, shawarma over here. Those Bar Bar.

So shawarma is definitely not unique to Lebanon. It is everywhere in this part of the world, and in our experience, it is all delicious. However, Barbar has claimed to have the best chicken shawarma in the whole country. So we're here to test that theory.

I've not tasted every chicken shawarma in the country. However, this is absolutely delicious. It's seasoned with cinnamon and caramel. There's some garlic sauce in here, fries, pickles. Oh, my gosh, this is the best. So Bar Bar is actually a lot more than just a really popular restaurant. They actually have a really cool history. So I wanted to tell a little bit of the backstory behind it. They say that these meat spinners have not stopped spinning since they opened in 1979, which is impressive in itself. But what makes it even more impressive is that they had a civil war here for, like, 15 years right here in Beirut, and they still didn't close. I read this article online that fighters from both sides would come here during the war, probably because it was one of the only restaurants open, and they would have a meal before going out and finding food. So to a lot of people around here, Bar Bar is more of a symbol of stability because they're always open 24 hours a day. They serve everyone, rich people, poor people, foreigners, tourists, locals. And I just think that's so cool. And it's super affordable and delicious.

Okay. It started raining really hard, but luckily, the Bar Bar Falafel shop where we're heading next is just right around the corner. So there was a watch shop. There is this little coffee bar. Neither one of them are. Hello. Hi. How are you?

Oh, wow. Hello.

So that was a sweet shop. That was not Bar Bar. But a few steps later, here we are at Bar Bar Falafel. We won't be eating here on this video because we ate here in the last video because it's just right around the corner from where we're staying. I just wanted to help you understand the unique layout of this place. So now we'll head maybe 20 steps across the street. We're going to go to one of the bar bars that we've never tried before. We're going to head to Bar Bar Snack. So if I just cross the road here, behind me is Bar Bar Snack. So Barbara Restaurant Bar Bar Snack.

Kind of seems like the Lebanese Subway with some more interesting ingredients. I see a sandwich with three brains squished in the middle of it.

There are lots of options.

One day that will be on Subway's menu and you'll know that it started here in Lebanon.

So this isn't actually a food that I'm excited to try. Our friend Nano, who is from here, told us that we had to try it because it's super Lebanese. But it sounds kind of weird. Apparently it is Asian chicken. So like chicken with soy sauce. They're supposed to be corn and mayonnaise. He's also added some lettuce and pickles and smush it like a panini. So here it goes.

Wow.

Apparently I left out cheese. That's super good. It's like Leva Chinese panini.

I really can't taste the soy sauce. It doesn't taste super Asian. Maybe I didn't get enough chicken in my bite. What is in it?

Yeah.

So I'll try soy sauce, mayonnaise, chicken.

It does taste Asian. Chicken is soy. Saucy. I like it. If you're in the mood for a quick sandwich, come to Barbar Snack and try Chicken Francisco.

Or maybe try the delicious pizza in shawarma. And then if you still have stomach room, then come try the Chicken Francisco.

You haven't even tried it yet.

Yeah, but the pizza in Shawarma was delicious.

Okay, we have one more Bar Bar restaurant to eat at before we conclude this food tour. So I'm crossing back over the street. Oh, my toes are very wet now. Passing past the swarmest shop, past the pizza shop. And then I'm going to walk about 10 more steps and I will be at Barbara Ice Cream. There's actually two more bar bar shops that we haven't even touched. There is the grill and then they actually have like a nice sit down restaurant. But we're both stuffed at this point. So we're ending the night with ice cream. Because who doesn't want to end the night with ice cream when it's 50 degrees outside and pouring rain?

This is our famous.

Wow. Okay, so what is this called?

This called the fruits with the cream.

Thank you, Farat.

Okay.

It's like a fruit cocktail. It's more like art. So since he told us that they were famous for this, we decided to get this instead of ice cream.

Thank you.

To wipe your hands because it's very sticky.

Shukron the next layer is this fresh cream. Like, it's not like canned whipped cream. This is freshly whipped milk cream.

That's really good. I don't even like sweets that aren't chocolate. But this is amazing. Then there's a bunch of fruits, and I honestly have no idea what this is. So it's juice, fruit, fresh whipped cream, more fruit, honey, pistachios, and it's called.

Thank you.

Nice to meet you.

Very nice to meet you. Sorry, my hand is sticky.

That's okay.

It's not the easiest dessert to eat, but it's delicious.

Okay. That is going to conclude today's food tour. It is dark, it is cold, it is raining, and we're heading back to the hotel.

Lebanese food has moved up to the top of my favorite foods in the world. It was such a fun day of eating. There's so much variety and flavors. We didn't even scratch the surface of Lebanese cuisine.

I feel like we kind of left like, one big thing out of this food tour. Like, this is not encompassing all of Lebanese food. There are probably a hundred mezzy dishes, like small dishes that you eat as like, a part of a bigger meal that we didn't include in today's video. But we've kind of, like, been eating that since we've been in the Middle East.

Everything we ate in Jordan was actually Lebanese. So today we tried to focus on new foods that we hadn't had before, and we hope you enjoyed watching it. I still can't believe we ate testicles today. Okay, let's go.

Cristiano.

Thank you, man. It's funny, every time I get a new nice haircut is when that starts happening. I'm not going to be able to touch anything the rest of the day. I don't have a napkin, and my hands are so sticky. The syrup just oozed everywhere.

Sticky hands are like Nate's biggest pet peeve in life.

You want the testicle, right? Yeah. Testicle with eggs. Yes.

And the fatty m. Pine nuts.

The olive oil. The Lebanese olive oil is the best in the world. From 35 years, Australia came and take all the olive oil from Lebanon to Australia to use it by chemistry.

Wow.

Yeah. Okay, we're going to switch up.

For YouTube. Hello.

Nice to meet you.

Okay. It's just like if Subway squish their sandwiches like a panini.

I didn't get your joke. I'm sorry.

So I keep trying to look at you, and I can't see other.

Of that.