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While Beirut’s old souk was demolished after the Civil War, pushing much of that wonderful character out of the centre of the city, Tripoli’s old souk is still bustling. Tripoli, the northernmost city of any size in Lebanon, is also home to some of the most beautiful old architecture in the country as it wasn’t as badly impacted by the fighting during the war. It’s here you also can still find the wonderful old handcrafted copper and silver, a small soap factory, and alley after alley of produce and fresh fish and meat. It’s such a shame Beirut did away with their market, but now between the delicious mograbieh and their souk, I have plenty of reasons to make the trip north.
Mograbieh is a semolina pearl couscous which is traditionally used in a brothy stewed chicken and onions dish scented with allspice and cinnamon. It’s deliciously festive and traditionally served for big family occasions. Apparently at some point in Tripoli's long history, a community of North Africans brought their couscous with them. The resulting mograbieh is Tripoli's version of it. The word Mograhb is the Arabic word for North Africans at that time, hence mograbieh. Since Tripoli is famous for it, I wanted to go to the source, Al Dabbousi in the bustling old souk. They’ve claimed to have invented this iteration of the dish, serving it for over 100 years in the same location, the same basic recipe. There’s not much atmosphere, just enormous round trays filled with the spiced stew ready to be stuffed into a sandwich with lots of pickles or into containers for takeaway. I asked the chef about this traditional dish. A man of few words, he had little to say except that they’ve been doing it the same way, rolling the tiny balls of semolina by hand, since the very beginning.
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