Street Food Saida! Lebanon has a lot of troubles from hyperinflation to constant power cuts, but the people smile as much as possible and there are a lot of cool places to see, point in case being the port city of Saida.
What the Saida?
Saida is the Arabic name for the town/city of Sidon. Located just an hour, or so from Beirut. It represents a fishing town with a famous souk- a Souk is a fancy word for market, which the Lebanese claim to have invented (along with soap).
There’s a whole heap of archaeological stuff here and the town was mentioned in the bible, much like many other places in Lebanon.
Sadly the town also suffered enormous sectarian violence during the Lebanese Civil War between the Sunni Muslims and Christians, the later largely moving to east Beirut until hostilities ended. They have though since returned and I can also confirm there is a football team here, whose stadium I took a photo in front of with my Next Step FC short.
To read about YPT sponsoring Next Step FC click here.
Street Food Saida!
So, history lesson over! Let’s talk Street Food Saida, or Street Food Sidon. We were visiting here as part of a trip to Hezbollah’s Disneyland and as such had manged to miss breakfast, for which I blame the best bar in Lebanon.
This led us to stop for Falafel at supposedly the best spot in town, namely at Falafel Abu Rami. Huge falafel lots of garlic sauce and at just a few bucks enough to keep hunger at bay.
Street Food Saida Souk
Not the best nor the worst souk I have been to, but certainly one bustling from a culinary point of view. Lots of fresh meats and vegetables here, fish throughout the market and by the seafront, but also some Lebanese delicacies.
One of the best we got to see, or try was Lebanese baclava, this dish exists throughout the region, but every country takes its own stand on it. The Lebanese baclava was pretty good.
There was also and much like Syria a plethora of sweets and candies on display, I did not indulge, but again it truly did look the part.
Street drinks in Saida? This was a real highlight for me! I love bottled coke, or pepsi, but I love even more when bottles have been repacked for something else. I enjoyed a carrot juice that due to its bottling had to be consumed on site. At 20 cents a pop it was not to be sniffed at!
Time meant we did not get to explore all that much more, but overall I was not just impressed with Sidon, but can now advocate a street food Saida stop-off!
