As her children scampered excitedly around our knees, Mrs Twaissi soaked some rice and then, one by one, cooked off chicken pieces, potato, cauliflower, aubergine, carrot and onions in olive oil and a "secret" blend of spices.
Housed in La Mer's trademark rose-and-mint packaging, this sellout pale green salve is concocted of the company's "secret" blend of sea extracts and designed to keep lips in the pink.
A secret blend of spices and herbs is then added.
The chicken was juicy, falling off the bone and slightly spicy from the seasonings — the proprietors' secret blend — brushed on it during cooking.
A SECRET blend of 11 herbs and spices has drawn millions of customers to KFC (formerly Kentucky Fried Chicken) since the chain first opened in 1939.
Try a shot of Hausmischung, a secret blend of 19 herbs and roots (€2.10) or a warming glass of rum and orange punch (€3.40, all tipples distilled on the premises).
He perfected his recipe for "finger lickin' good chicken" in 1939 by using a secret blend of 11 spices and a pressure cooker to seal in flavour and moisture.
Each pig is stuffed with a secret blend of Balinese spices (I tasted garlic, galangal, turmeric and definitely chili) and spit-roasted over an open fire for about five hours while basted with coconut milk.
The best of the entrees include lamb fette, traditionally a breakfast dish, here layered with toasted pita and yogurt, chickpeas and mountains of meat flavored with Ms. Bishara's secret blend of Tanoreen spices (cinnamon, coriander, cumin, some nutmeg, dried ginger, rosebuds and pixie dust), with pilaf cut through with vermicelli.
Their brined and flour-dusted chicken is fried in a secret blend of fats then doused with paprika and cayenne pepper at levels which range from mild to "really f**kin' hot" in the style chef Morgan McGlone learned to cook in Nashville, where fried chicken is almost a religion.
I spent the quieter evenings peering over the shoulders of the chefs, watching as they hooked charcoal dotted naans out of the tandoor, tossed a secret blend of aromatic spices around a pan and flung samosas and pakoras into smoking hot oil.
