Chef Benny Doro

Ok kids its been a long day and now I am stuck on the phone dealing with New York issues as it is 9pm here in Lebanon its still only 2pm in New York. Now what does a person in Lebanon make for a snack while he is glued to his computer and phone, does he send home for a nice box of Hot Pockets  ( what the hell are you supposed to do with them anyhow after you heat them up.. rub them on your body?) So I raid the fridge and I see my inspiration and it is this Cow Feta and Fresh sheep's milk cheese that we bought today and I am sure it will be my victim so lets see what I got up to tonight.

Lets start with a thin pita bread, this is not like the doughy small disk you get made from some company that also makes baby food Thompson or probably some amphibian landing craft spare part company these babies are made by a gigantic machine in the supermarket with all natural ingredients and are oh so perfect vessel to hold the making of my creation.

isn't it nice....I said! isn't it nice

ok now i would like to introduce you to Mr Cow and Mr. Sheep cheese. American has a blend of pepper jack and Monterrey cheese  (there is actually no such thing its marketing crap) and I have domestic sheep's milk cheese that is creamy, salty and tart it is snow white and I can taste this friggin sheep. The cow cheese is a feta and its adding another dimensional of tartness and flavor...can you say cheese please

At this point i would like to add that each of these nice blocks of cheese about 200-300 grams was about one dollar each?? that's right kids I am looking at at least 7-8 dollars for this in the USA and it either travel 5000 kilometers or is full of stuff you don't want

this is where cheese meets pita and now we stopped at a local place to pick up some falafels to go, in America you get 20 chicken nuggets for $6 and the possibility of stomach cancer and irritable bowel syndrome.  Here we get 20 falafel for 3 bucks , one has 87 ingredients and one has 5..........:) so I split them in two and added them to my pits.

and what better than some nice local tomato about 1o kilos for a dollar (ok this point I am getting aggravated at what I pay in New York) but the tomatoes are looking good

ok now if I was not aggravated about the cost of tomatoes lets talk MINT! lst time I went to Pathmark and I was desperate for some fresh mint for a recipe I was forced to buy basically 7-8 little leaved sealed in a thick plastic box about the size of a travel size Qtip box for $3.99!! here you can eat that much in the store before you buy and you can buy 3 kilos a grocery bag full for about 3 bucks. the leaves are amazing and its not even organic you know why...because they would not know how to hell to make a greenhouse here to grow this stuff. its fresh out of the ground and if its out of season tuff. Anyhow here it is in my pita.

Sauce, the final frontier... well not yet but that sounded pretty good,  had some tahini so I thought heck....if this was the states or Canada there would be a good old glob of jar mayo on this baby really lubing it up and crushing the flavor of the contents but my nice drizzle of tahini worked just fine. Oh ya the red stuff, dial the fire department hot sauce..don't try this at home kids

Now we have to hermetically seal the deal so I take a my cue from the folks at the local bakery and sandwich shop called "The Wooden Bakery" thanks guys it worked out great.

Here I will teach you via these steller photo of my precision  rolling job how to do a deli style performance for your sandwich which will impress your guests and land you great success with the ladies...I would not know about the last part as only my buddy Rafi was around and he can roll these better than me #goingtobedwithdelirollingshame

STEP ONE

STEP TWO

ok now we plate and eat, notice how I change to a white plate to compliment my aleady established plating style and try to bring some restaurant quality to the presentation. Well all I can say is I served this to myself with some hot pickled peppers and some stuffed grape leave in place of french fries and I knocked this back with a coke zero which seemed to go fine with the Chivas Regal that I had kickin around.

So there you have it what I ate tonight that was crunchy, fresh, luscious filling all vegatarian and probably wont kill me anytime soon! If you are not eating this for your late night snack I am sorry for you and I would experiences this as soon as possible .

Love ,

Benny