Lebanese in Ohio

It's my spring break and our first stop was in Toledo, Ohio to visit my grandparents. One of the best parts of going to Toledo is eating at Byblos, which is a Lebanese restaurant. I haven't found any Lebanese food that's as good in Boston (Although there is also a restaurant named Byblos in Norwood, which is the best Lebanese food that I've had in Massachusetts. Maybe I'll blog about it someday!) It seems that there are many Lebanese restaurants named Byblos. I think that is because Byblos is a very old city on the Mediterranean coast in Lebanon.

At the Toledo Byblos, we had delicious tabouli. Tabouli is a salad with a lemon dressing that is made with chopped parsley, bulgar wheat, onions and tomatoes. I like this version because it is mostly parsley and tastes very fresh and tangy. We had another salad that I loved called fattoush. Fattoush is a salad made with cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, onions and pieces of toasted pita. It also has a lemon based dressing and is flavored with sumac, which is a spice used in Middle Eastern cuisine. The fattoush was really good, but the tabouli was my favorite.

I think that the texture on this tabouli is very good. I like it plain or put into a pita!

This is the fattoush. We got this one without tomatoes because my mom likes it better this way. If you look closely, you can see the sumac!

We also got hummus. It was garnished with paprika and parsley. It was very creamy and you could taste the tahini, which is made from ground sesame seeds. It's sort of like sesame peanut butter! But their hummus had less lemon and garlic than we use when we make it at home. I like both versions!

Doesn't this hummus look creamy?!

My second favorite dish was artichoke hearts with garlic, lemon and olive oil. The lemon made them very tart, but I still liked them. I've never had artichoke hearts prepared this way anyplace else, so I liked that this dish was unique.

After all the starters, we had shish tawook, which was boneless skinless marinated chicken breasts served over white rice. The chicken was very very good! The marinade and the grilling made it very flavorful. The rice was very buttery and had chopped carrots in it.

I love eating at Byblos and highly recommend it if you're ever in Toledo. Our next stop was in Colorado and we had lots of great food, so stay tuned!!!!