Every Village Has Its Own Kaak! Discovering Lebanon’s Incredible Dough | Kaak Al Manara – Day 2 Ep.1

Every Village Has Its Own Kaak! Discovering Lebanon’s Incredible Dough | Kaak Al Manara – Day 2 Ep.1 . Day 2 begins—and we’re heading north! 🇱🇧 After an incredible first day taking us from Beirut to Jezzine, Saida and the Chouf, our journey to find inspiration for 10 new Kaak Al Manara creations celebrating 10 years in Dubai continues. Today, our final destination is Tripoli and its extraordinary old souks, but I have a few surprises planned for Ziad and Chef Nour along the way. And we start early with something unforgettable: aged goat labneh. We tasted labneh in Jezzine yesterday, but this is another level—a goat labneh aged for around 12 months, yet still incredibly creamy and soft. Add olive oil and freshly heated kaak and suddenly one of Lebanon’s simplest combinations becomes something extraordinary. Then we hit the road. Before reaching Tripoli, we stop to discover completely different interpretations of Lebanese kaak. One of the fascinating things we’re learning on this journey is that there is no single “Lebanese kaakeh.” Travel from one region to another and everything changes: the thickness, sesame, saltiness, crunch, fermentation, oven, texture and even the way people eat it. At one stop, we discover a remarkably thin, crunchy, sesame-covered kaakeh produced in an oven with around 65 years of history. The oven itself tells a story. An old stone baking chamber, tons of sea salt underneath to retain and distribute heat, decades of experience and generations of the same family continuing the tradition. Then comes another kaakeh from the very same oven—and somehow it feels like a completely different product. Soft instead of crunchy. Light. Delicate. Layered. Slightly sweet rather than salty. Same oven. Same baker. Completely different experience. This is exactly why we came to Lebanon. We’re not simply looking for toppings for a new menu. We’re trying to understand dough. How does fermentation change it? How does the oven change it? What happens when you change thickness, hydration, sesame or baking time? And why can something made from such simple ingredients taste completely different from one village to another? Another surprise stop introduces Ziad and Chef Nour to an incredible woman who has been making saj and manakish for around 25 years. She started simply because she wanted to do something from her home. A small kiosk became a destination—and today her dough tells you why. Because dough is never just flour and water. It’s yeast, fermentation time, weather, water, temperature, experience—and, as she tells us, love and nafas. We taste her thin saj with zaatar and cheese and discover green kishk, a preparation many people outside Lebanon may never have encountered. Unlike the familiar reddish kishk mixture used on manakish, this version allows you to taste the yogurt, bulgur and fermented character much more clearly. Then come more village flavors: labneh, eggs, qawarma and ingredients produced locally. Even qawarma manages to surprise us. A flavor Chef Nour normally finds too strong suddenly tastes completely different when prepared properly and combined with the right dough. And that’s the purpose of this entire journey. Taste. Learn. Compare. Get inspired. From Beirut to Jezzine, the Chouf and now toward Tripoli, every stop is teaching us that Lebanon doesn’t have one flavor profile. Every region has its ingredients. Every baker has a technique. Every dough has a personality. And every discovery could inspire one of the 10 new Kaak Al Manara anniversary creations. The road to Tripoli continues… Kaak Al Manara – 10 Years Anniversary Culinary Tour Day 2, Episode 1