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.