I always assumed that taking pictures of dinner tables is a Western thing, until I took this in the Phoenicia Hotel in Beirut. This was my favorite landmark in Lebanon: the dessert station at the Mosaic restaurant at the Phoenicia Hotel. The 1st level has Western desserts, while the 2nd level has Middle East desserts--notice that I did not say Arabic desserts because they are not. What people in Lebanon and the Arab world don't know is that Middle East food is a mix of different cuisines by different constituent groups through history representing the ethnic and national diversities of the population in the region. A manuscript of a cook book from the Abbasid era says this: the desserts come from the Persians, while the salt food comes from people in the east.