This Cork food stall's Lebanese mezze boxes are great for a balanced lunch

Healthy and delicious, Lebanese mezze makes the ideal portable summertime lunch. Caroline Hennessy talks to Cork-based Rabih Farah about his Bia Beirut farmers' market stall.

Rabih Farah with the many culinary offerings from his native Lebanon at his Bia Beirut stall, Mahon Point Farmers’ Market, Cork. Picture: Chani Anderson

WHETHER you want to bring lunch into the office, eat in a park, or go on a picnic, summer is a time for lighter, brighter options. Soggy sandwiches or limp salads just aren’t going to hit the spot. Instead, we’re craving fresh ingredients, bold flavours, and bright colours to nourish us — body, mind, and soul — while the sun shines.

Someone who understands the power of uplifting food is Rabih Farah, known as the Beirut Baker — after his homeplace in Lebanon. He is the owner and cook behind Bia Beirut, a stall he set up with his Cork-born wife, Pamela Crowley-Farah, to bring traditional Lebanese food to farmers’ markets in Cork.

They started trading at Mahon Point and Douglas Farmers’ Markets in Cork last October, selling a range of mezze boxes, along with dips, spreads, breads, cheese, and their signature crunchy sourdough crackers or snaps. The popular takeaway boxes make for a balanced lunch, including an assortment of colourful dips, olives, pickles, breads, and snaps that Farah makes at his home in Glounthaune. That healthy mix is no accident.

“This is what we eat in Lebanon,” says Farah. “Our favourite [food] is mezze. On the stall, the whole idea is to keep it interesting and keep it nutritious and keep it authentic to Lebanon.”

Rabih Farah, the man behind Bia Beirut, prepares one of his colourful mezze boxes at Mahon Point Farmers Market, filled with Lebanese dips, olives, and handmade breads. Picture Chani Anderson

In her definitive A New Book of Middle Eastern Food, celebrated Middle Eastern food writer Claudia Roden explains that the word mezze comes from the Arabic t’mazza, meaning “to savour in little bites”. The tradition of mezze in Lebanon showcases a diverse assortment of small plates, which Roden describes as “a national institution that represents a convivial art of living”.

Mezze dishes are fresh and vibrant with diverse textures, incorporating chickpeas and other pulses, vegetables, nuts, herbs, and spices. These are all key ingredients of the Mediterranean diet, naturally high in plant-based proteins and healthy fats, fibre, and antioxidants. This light, delicious, and mood-enhancing food is exactly what we intuitively feel like eating in the summertime.

It’s also very portable.

Farah has noticed that the most popular of his mezze dip line-up is “traditional Lebanese hummus, focused on pure chickpeas rather than all these add-ons that you see in the supermarket. Muhammara [a roasted red pepper, walnut, and almond dip] is also very popular and the latest addition, our dip of the month, is bazella, a green pea, mint, and lemon dip. Everyone comments on the colour”, he says: “It’s green, fresh, summery, and people are loving it.”

Before Bia Beirut, Farah studied Arabic literature in Lebanon. He became an Arabic teacher and head of department at a school in Oman, which is where he met Pamela. They subsequently moved to the UAE where he worked in educational consultancy. In 2021, they moved to Ireland with their children, Liam and Ciara, now aged 14 and 12.

While Farah is still working remotely as a learning and development consultant, he’s also educating people through his food, which is labelled in Arabic. Experiencing a language through food offers customers an immersive and interactive opportunity to learn about culture and heritage.

“The feedback has been fantastic,” he says. “A lot of people look and, if they’re not sure what to eat or to take, I give them a taste and explain that a lot of dishes have a sentimental attachment to me and my family. For example, the teta bread [a thick focaccia-style bread, ideal for dipping] is my grandmother’s recipe, and teta means grandmother in Arabic.”

Although he only began cooking professionally in 2024, Farah started working in the family bakery in Beirut at the age of 12. When he was 13 years old, his father was shot and injured by a sniper during the Lebanese Civil War. 

Rabih Farah at Bia Beirut, his vibrant food stall at Mahon Point Farmers Market. Picture Chani Anderson

Farah took on more responsibilities at the bakery, his day starting at 4.30am when he prepared bread before getting the bus to school. It was difficult, but he has good memories from that time, making dough while listening to music by Lebanese singer Fairuz, known as the diva of the Arab world.

“It was very, very tough at the time but it made me who I am. I looked at the positive side of it,” says Farad.

The intense experience also gave him a clear idea of the importance of food and what he wants to do with it.

“I love good food. I want to educate people about [Lebanese food] and get them to enjoy it. I like to explain to people what’s in my food, and I don’t mind sharing recipes,” he laughs. ”It’s nutritious and has zero additives as it doesn’t need to last long. Good food should be eaten within two to three days maximum when it’s fresh.”

With his customer base actively increasing through markets and online orders, it seems that people’s interest in Lebanese food is only growing. Healthy, full of flavour, colour, and history, Bia Beirut mezze makes an ideal summertime lunch. For Farah, it’s simple: “Food doesn’t need to be complicated to taste good.”

• Find Bia Beirut at Mahon Point Farmer’s Market on Thursdays, Douglas Farmer’s Market on Saturdays, and on Instagram at @biabeirut.

Building a mezze box

• Mix flavours and textures: The top three Bia Beirut dips are hummus, muhammara, and bazella. On the stall, you’ll also find labneh — thick strained yoghurt — with zaatar or sumac, baba ghanouj (smoky, creamy grilled aubergine), and a special spicy yoghurt with chilli and garlic that Farah developed because of his father’s love of chilli.
• Add a salad: Farah makes traditional Lebanese shankleesh — balls of aged and fermented cheese — from probiotic-rich natural yoghurt curd that he rolls, spices, and ages. To serve, the balls are crumbled and mixed with chopped tomato, onion, and olive oil.
• Choose sourdough: Fermented food is good for the gut and Farah’s sourdough breads and snaps are made “using just four ingredients”, including a starter that he brought from the UAE when he and his family moved to Ireland in 2021.
• Fresh herbs: Lebanese food is characterised by the plentiful use of fresh herbs, adding flavour and nutritional value.
• Sprinkle some dukkah: An addictive mixture of toasted crushed nuts, seeds and spices — Farah includes walnuts, sesame, and sumac in the blend that he sells at markets.