Lebanon

February 5, 2011

Cue the Camels and the Donkeys…and the Cool Cats

It’s time that we get our Middle East animals straight. The other day when I was watching men on camels and horseback charge through Tahrir Square in Cairo, whipping demonstrators, I felt like I was witnessing a bad Hollywood remake of Ben Hur or any other “cue the camels” movie depicting battle in the Holy Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, Arabs, Arts and Culture, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, Travel

animals, camels, cats, donkeys, Middle East
August 23, 2010

Recipe From The Night Counter: Kibbeh

For all special occasions, Fatima prides herself on the kibbeh she makes. That makes her like many women in the Middle East who have mastered the art of this rather complex food. In my family, like so many extended families, no party is ever complete without a platter of my Aunt Suad’s kibbeh, which is Continue reading

Arabs, Arts and Culture, Books, Food, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, recipes
July 16, 2010

THE PAPERBACK RELEASE OF THE NIGHT COUNTER THIS WEEK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Emily Lavelle (212) 572-8756 elavelle@randomhouse.com PRAISE FOR THE NIGHT COUNTER: “[Yunis] weaves a colorful tapestry…rich in character and spirit.” —Entertainment Weekly “Wonderfully imaginative…poignant, hilarious…The branches of this family tree support four generations of achievement, assimilation, disappointment, and dysfunction.…Their stories form an affectionate, amusing, intensely human portrait of Continue reading

Arabs, Arts and Culture, Author, Books, Islam/Muslim, Lebanon, Los Angeles, Middle East, Publishing

Novel, Random House Press Release, The Night Counter, Three Rivers Press
June 27, 2010

Outlandish Landless LandMine by Sami Zarour

Most of what I post on this blog are about the upside of life in the Middle East because most people living outside the borders of the Middle East, whether physically or mentally, are unaware that there is an upside. Plus I don’t really know how to write about the tragedies of the region without Continue reading

Arabs, Arts and Culture, Lebanon, Middle East, Palestine

poetry, sami zarour
April 21, 2010

Busted on Possession of Zaatar

I just watched a news story from Australia in which a Lebanese Australian called the confiscation of his mother-in-law’s zaatar by Sydney airport customs officials “a tragedy” and “a disaster” and when he still couldn’t convince the officials to release the vacuum packed zaatar, he told them he wanted to speak to a member of Continue reading

Arabs, Arts and Culture, Food, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, Palestine

Arabs, Middle East, zaatar
January 7, 2010

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

I’m opposed to making lofty new year’s resolutions–aside from the token and easily forgettable “I’ll try to eat less chocolate”—as they sometime trivializes a dream. But I’m happy to make resolutions for others, kind of like the UN. Here are my new year’s resolutions for the Middle East, and I know they’re laced with loftiness Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, Arabs, Dubai, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, Palestine

Middle East, New Year’s Resolutions
December 3, 2009

BEIRUT: CATS INSTEAD OF GUNS

When I used to look out at the Corniche from our apartment in Beirut in the 1980s, I’d see a lot of guns, partly because a makeshift military post had sprung up one night in the field in front of us, and partly because there was a war. People still found away to walk the Continue reading

Arabs, Author, Books, Lebanon, Middle East
October 1, 2009

Fatima’s Fig Tree

One of the last things I did before leaving Jordan this week was to go into the backyard of my family’s home to see if another fig was ready for the picking. It’s also the first thing I’d done when I arrived there, upon my mother’s insistence. We’re a family that gets pretty excited about Continue reading

Arabs, Arts and Culture, Author, Books, Food, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East

fig trees, figs, Jordan, The Night Counter
August 20, 2009

Mathematics and Olive Oil

In The Night Counter, Fatima is fixated on numbers and it is something that runs through the family for five generations. She thinks about math when’s she’s cooking, too, as any woman who raised 14 kids probably would—how much to make for each one, how much it was costing, and so forth. And how many Continue reading

Arabs, Author, Food, Lebanon, Middle East, Palestine

Author, math, Olive oil, The Night Counter
May 30, 2009

The Best View Of The Ski Slope In Dubai is at…

Dubai has now become the international destination for indoor wonders, but the Atlantis, Palm Jumeriah, the Burj Dubai (tallest building in the world), the seven star Burj Al-Arab, and all the other more recent developments don’t seem to come as close to the excitement that people seem to have at seeing modern Dubai’s first wonder, Continue reading

Arabs, Arts and Culture, Dubai, Food, Lebanon, Middle East

About Alia

Alia Yunis is a writer, journalist and filmmaker. She is currently producing and directing “The Golden Harvest,” a feature length documentary about how olive oil has shaped the Mediterranean culture, cuisine and history for 6,000 years, through war and peace. Her debut novel, The Night Counter (Random House) has been critically acclaimed by the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and several other publications. It was also chosen as a top summer read by the Chicago Tribune and Boston Phoenix. The Boston Globe has called it “wonderfully imaginative…poignant, hilarious.” Alia was born in Chicago and grew up in the U.S., Greece, and the Middle East. She has worked as a filmmaker and journalist in several cities, especially Los Angeles. Her fiction has appeared in several anthologies, including The Robert Olen Butler Best Short Stories collection, and her non-fiction work includes articles for The Los Angeles Times, Saveur, SportsTravel Magazine, and Aramco World. She currently teaches film at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi.