Snack crawl
The Dumpling Crawl: Beirut
Start hungry and start early; the best stalls in Beirut sell out long before the guidebooks say they open.
- Stops
- 7
- Walking
- 7 km
- Budget
- Pocket change
Before you set off
Here the carrots is piled on with abandon and the chilli is not a suggestion. Carry cash, tissues and a bottle of water. Thank us later. Finish somewhere sweet. There is always room; it is a separate stomach.
Walk between stops. It is the only reason any of this is physically possible. Stop 9 is a hole in the wall with four stools and a queue. Join the queue. The queue knows. Finish somewhere sweet. There is always room; it is a separate stomach.
If you only have time for one stop, make it this one and order the thing everyone else is ordering. Start hungry and start early; the best stalls in Beirut sell out long before the guidebooks say they open. Here the red onion is piled on with abandon and the chilli is not a suggestion.
Stop 1: The market stall near the bus depot
If you only have time for one stop, make it this one and order the thing everyone else is ordering. Start hungry and start early; the best stalls in Beirut sell out long before the guidebooks say they open. It looks like a project, but most of the work is waiting, and waiting pairs beautifully with a drink. Walk between stops. It is the only reason any of this is physically possible.
We tested this 6 times in the Snack Crawl kitchen, and the version with tamarind won every single round. Every stop on a good snack crawl needs a headliner, and at our table it is usually this. We first ate something like this at a street stall in Beirut, balanced on a plastic stool, and spent the flight home reverse-engineering it.
We like to make the filling the night before, when the kitchen is quiet and nobody is asking what is for dinner. Every stop on a good snack crawl needs a headliner, and at our table it is usually this. If you only have time for one stop, make it this one and order the thing everyone else is ordering.
Stop 2: The family place near the river
It is weeknight-friendly if you are organised and weekend-worthy if you are not. Carry cash, tissues and a bottle of water. Thank us later. Stop 6 is a hole in the wall with four stools and a queue. Join the queue. The queue knows. The owner, Aroha, has been folding these by hand for longer than we have been alive and has opinions about miso paste.
Stop 5 is a hole in the wall with four stools and a queue. Join the queue. The queue knows. We like to make the filling the night before, when the kitchen is quiet and nobody is asking what is for dinner. We tested this 12 times in the Snack Crawl kitchen, and the version with kecap manis won every single round. Imani, who runs our test kitchen on Thursdays, calls this “the one that ruins other snacks for you”.
Look for the place with the handwritten menu and the a microplane that has clearly been in service for decades. We first ate something like this at a street stall in Beirut, balanced on a plastic stool, and spent the flight home reverse-engineering it. It is weeknight-friendly if you are organised and weekend-worthy if you are not. Order one portion between two at every stop. A crawl is a marathon made of sprints.
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