Close to the Lebanese border one day we visited a Druse village. The Druse is a religious group that split from a sect of Shiite Islam a thousand years ago. Modern Druse rejects major principles of mainstream Islam in favor of an eclectic mix of Islam, Christianity, Platonic philosophy, and Gnosticism. An interesting feature of their faith is that no one can convert to being a Druse, your father and mother must be Druse or you’re out!

As a little boy, I remember the Druse on the news every night during the civil wars in Lebanon. They were allies of Israel then and many now live in Israel. Their sons are allowed to serve in the Israeli Army, which shows how close they are to the rest of the state.

The village is built on the top of high cliffs. It’s relatively modern, a tourist-town for Israelis like a ski town in New Mexico or Colorado is here.

In the café where we ate, the mother sat at the cash register supervising everything in the café. The father sat in the front of the café with a bunch of others playing dominos. The son, about thirty-five years old, waited on us and brought out fifteen to twenty dishes—until we made him stop. The Mediterranean dishes had a nice nuance that made them a little better than anything like it that we had the rest of the trip. Spicier.

The first picture shows a village built into the cliffs, much like the one we ate lunch at. The next two show the café including a picture of their master and the old men playing dominos. The last two include the outstanding food and a shot down the Druse street.