ABSTRACT
THE Lebanon towards the end of the war was the favourite leave-resort of many British and American servicemen in the Middle East. The combined influence of French culture and a Christian majority in the population gave to homesick soldiers an illusion that they were once again in Europe. They could indeed visit restaurants where they ate better food than they could have found in most European countries at that time. This was due not only to the good French cooking in Beirut but also the fact that the chef had everything he needed—eggs, fruit, vegetables, butter, and cheese as well as plenty of meat, fish, and game. Here, too, the French had produced a better quality wine than was made anywhere else in the Middle East, from grapes grown on the sunny but well-watered mountains of the Lebanon.
