The Caracalla Dance Theater Will Liven up the Auditorium with the musical Performance "A Thousand and One Nights"
September 26 is the National Day of Lebanon at Expo Milano 2015. The country will celebrate by offering the public a grand show featuring dances and music at 20:30 in the Auditorium of Expo Milano 2015 courtesy of the Caracalla Dance Theater, entitled "A thousand and one nights". The National Day will be preceded, on September 24 from 20:00 to 22:30, by a tasting session at the Bio Mediterraneum Cluster, where the country is exhibiting "East meets West - Poems, opera and wine". The evening will include an opera performance by Eliya Francis, poetry readings by Talal Haidar, all against the backdrop of artistic paintings by Jamal Kadamani. The tasting session will be preceded by an explanation of the characteristics of Lebanese wine by Zafer Chaoui, President of the Lebanese Wine-makers' Union (UVI).
A homeland worth choosing
"If Lebanon hadn't been my Country, I would have chosen it anyway" wrote the poet Khalil Gibran, author of The Prophet. The charm of this narrow strip of land, overlooking the Mediterranean on one side and climbing up the first Middle Eastern highlands on the other, lies precisely in the contrasting cultures, landscapes, architecture and food generated by the Country's role as a bridge between East and West.
Food is a fundamental element for this population, a concept clearly expressed by the theme chosen for Expo Milano 2015: "Cuisine: the Lebanese Art & Soul". Hummus, a chick pea pure'e is the best-loved, most commonly eaten dish. Other specialties served together to form the mezze' - the course that traditionally precedes the main meal - are babaghanouch, made with eggplant, taboule', a salad made with bulgur, raw tomatoes, cucumbers, mint and parsley, manaqish, a flatbread seasoned with thyme and filled with mince, and kibbehs, fried meatballs made with mince and cereals. Not forgetting the shish taouk, a must in every respectable Lebanese restaurant: chicken skewers in a marinade of yoghurt and spices.
Instead, some lesser-known products, which for this reason are preserved by the Slow Food Ark of Taste, are Lebanese cheeses. In the inland areas, where the Mount Lebanon mountain range stands proudly and the Baladi goats graze among the last centuries-old lime cedar trees, their milk is still used to produce darfiyeh, left to ripen in a cleaned and salted goatskin and then preserved for several months in a damp cave.
Ancient flavors and modern technologies in the Pavilion inside the Bio-Mediterraneum Cluster
Lebanon is participating in Expo Milano 2015 inside the Bio-Mediterraneum Cluster. Its exhibition space recalls the colors of the national flag: red, white and green. The arched roof bears the words of the national anthem in Arabic characters. In the center, a large table displays the typical dishes of Lebanese cuisine. Thanks to a technology of augmented reality, visitors can see the relative recipe being made by framing the card on the plate with a tablet or a smartphone.
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