From KCRW, I'm Evan Klyman and you're listening to good food.

In 2009, Hannah El Hibbri took a trip, a trek through the Lebanese mountain trail.

She spent a month being welcomed into home after home,

experiencing hospitality and a cuisine of specialties

that are generations old, but that most people have never heard of. The result of that

experience is Melu, a book that's more than a cookbook. Hi Hannah.

Hi Evan. Tell us about this trip and about the trail.

Okay, so in 2009, I was invited to be part of the first team to hike the entire Lebanon Mountain Trail from north to south for the first time.

And this was a journey of discovery for me and the result of

which was my first book a million steps and there were many unexpected discoveries that I encountered that didn't have to do just with the nature and the sites.

My most intriguing discovery was actually so many dishes that I had never heard of before.

And that seed was kind of planted from that very first trip.

But what was also really wonderful for me in this experience

was the warm hospitality in the mountain villages

and the generosity of spirit, you know, accepting

strangers into your home and so on. So it was very heartwarming to have that feeling throughout the 30 days that it took to hike the 450 kilometers of the Lebanon Mountain Trail.

When I got the book, which I have to say your son hand delivered to me, which I loved, when I got the book and I, you know, I immediately kind of whenever I get a cookbook, I kind of just start flipping through the pages and I generally go from back to front. And what struck me was how simple and yet absolutely unusual so many of these dishes were.

And the way the interweaving of the stories of the people who are

living in a particular place and how they interact with the materials that they have on hand around them,

sometimes cultivated, sometimes wild,

is really so intriguing.

Can you talk a little bit about the forged material because it's throughout the book?

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