Book review

"Food is also at the heart of Rami Zurayk's new book "From Akkar to Amel: Lebanon's Slow Food trail," published in November by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity.

Zurayk is a professor of Ecosystem Management and associate dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the American University of Beirut, a prolific blogger (www.landandpeople.blogspot.com) and a food activist; he approaches Lebanon with a literally ground-up perspective, what is known in French as "terroir." Each short chapter on a specific region and its specialty food product begins by examining its geology and soil conditions. These climactic features explain the exceptional quality of, for example, the orange blossoms that bloom on trees best grown at an elevation of between 150 to 200 meters above sea level in Maghdousheh."

Anna Sussman review of my book (and 2 other guides to Lebanon) in the Daily Star.