"WHEN FASCISM COMES TO AMERICA IT WILL BE WRAPPED IN THE FLAG
AND CARRYING A CROSS." -SINCLAIR LEWIS

Monday, October 6, 2008

Buns And Guns

A quaint little eatery nestled in beautiful suburban Beirut:

At the "Buns and Guns" fast food restaurant, deep in Beirut's Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs, the chefs wear military helmets, the food is wrapped in camouflage paper, and the motto is "a sandwich can kill you."

The restaurant is done up like a military outpost, located in the heart of a neighborhood heavily pounded by Israel during its 2006 war with the military group, which fought the Israeli military to a standstill.

Sandbags cover the exterior - a grim, and perhaps inadvertent, reminder of what Lebanon's government buildings looked like during the 1975-1990 civil war - and the interior is festooned with camouflage nets, defused mortar shells, and live ammunition...

The glossy camouflaged menus feature burgers with names like "the mortar" and "the 155 mm howitzer," while grilled chicken sandwiches can be a "magnum" or a "rocket-propelled grenade."

A pizza topped with peppers, onions, mushrooms, olives, corn and tomatoes, meanwhile, is rather disturbingly named Claymore, referring to the devastating anti-personnel mines.

Lebanon's most common and popular weapon, the AK-47 Klashnikov assault rifle, is a beef steak sandwich served in long baguette-style bread.

It's probably a pretty good bet that your country is a shitty place to live if it has a "most common and most popular weapon" but it must be at least kind of liberating to know that no matter how bad your diet is, it probably won't be what kills you (their motto "a sandwich can kill you" is a reference to it's size but I have a feeling that it can't compete with American-sized portions). USA! USA!

1 comment:

Intrepid Californio said...

You know it is too bad that Beirut is what it is. When I had heard or read that it was once referred to as the "Paris" of the Middle East, I had some sort of romantic notion that I might some day like to visit. Forget it. I have no desire to come face to face with a deli worker baring an AK 47.