Finding comfort in Lebanese food
The Swiss have their fondue, the Portuguese their bacalhau à brás, and the Vietnamese their phó. But we Lebanese, we have our zaatar.
Zaatar [zah-tahr] - a spice mix used in Levantine cuisine. The spice mixture zaatar is generally considered to be named for one of the mixture’s primary ingredients, an herb called zaʿatar in Arabic, usually thyme. Though there are several variations, zaatar often includes an amalgam of thyme, oregano, and marjoram along with other spices, such as sumac and sesame seeds.
Hand-mixed at home to each family’s often closely guarded recipe, zaatar is a food that transcends social, religious, and political boundaries among Lebanese.
If you’re Lebanese, zaatar has been part of your life since childhood. Wherever in the world you are, it is one of the iconic comfort foods that consistently delivers a direct emotional and nostalgic link to family, life moments, and home.
Mixed with olive oil and spread liberally atop Lebanese flatbread to create a man’ousheh, it remains the staple street food on Beirut’s sidewalks today.
A simple combination of carbs and lipids, adding the flavonoids and nutrients of other ingredients packed with thymol (an essential oil), and carvacrol (a phenol), creates a healthy recipe for the hungry or homesick Lebanese.
Long highly regarded for its therapeutic properties - much of which modern science has doubled down on and confirmed – there’s also talk of zaatar’s value as brain food.
Like many old wives’ tales, there does appear to be more than a grain of truth in this. Recent studies have indeed shown that carvacrol possesses favorable neuromodulatory properties in specific areas of the brain.
But let’s not allow scientific hypotheses to get in the way of a centuries-old Lebanese tradition.
The real reason you need to add zaatar to your diet is its flavor and versatility. When something tastes this good, you know it’s a Levantine legend worth getting to know. And anyway, generations of Lebanese can’t all be wrong, can they?