Manakish, also manaqish, manaeesh or manakeesh or in singular form man'ousheh ( manāqīsh; sometimes called معجنات mu‘ajjanāt 'pastry') is a popular Levantine

Lebanese cuisine

Lebanese cuisine includes an abundance of starches, fruits, vegetables, fresh fish and seafood; animal fats are consumed sparingly. Poultry is eaten more often than red meat, and when red meat is eaten it is usually lamb on the coast and goat meat in the mountain regions...

 food consisting of dough topped with thyme

Thyme

Thyme is a culinary and medicinal herb of the genus Thymus.-History:Ancient Egyptians used thyme for embalming. The ancient Greeks used it in their baths and burnt it as incense in their temples, believing it was a source of courage...

, cheese, or ground meat

Ground meat

Ground meat is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife. It is called minced meat or more usually mince outside North America....

. Similar to a pizza

Pizza

Pizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...

, it can be sliced or folded, and it can either be served for breakfast or lunch. The word manaqish is the plural of the Arabic word manqūshah (from the root verb naqasha 'to sculpt, carve out'), meaning that after the dough has been rolled flat, it is pressed by the fingertips to create little dips for the topping to lie in.

Traditionally, Levantine

Levant

The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...

 women would bake dough in a communal oven in the morning, to provide their family with their daily bread needs, and would prepare smaller portions of dough with different toppings for breakfast at this time.

Classic toppings

• Zaatar (Arabic: زعتر, za'tar, manaqish bi'l za'tar). The most popular form of manakish uses zaatar as a topping. The zaatar is mixed with olive oil and spread onto the bread before baking it in the oven. It is a favourite breakfast preparation in Levantine cuisine
  Levantine cuisine
  Levantine cuisine is the traditional cuisine of the Levant, known in Arabic as the Bilad ash-Sham. This region shared many culinary traditions under the Ottoman Empire which continue to be influential today...
  
  . It is also served by Palestinian
  Palestinian people
  The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
  
   and Lebanese cooks as part of a mezze, or as a snack with a glass of mint tea and feta cheese on the side. Popular also in the Arabian Peninsula
  Arabian Peninsula
  The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
  
  , it was likely introduced there by Palestinians making the pilgrimage to Mecca
  Mecca
  Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
  
  .

• Cheese
  Cheese
  Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
  
  (Arabic: جبنة, jubnah). There are two main types of cheese manakish: ‘Akkāwī (Arabic: عكاوي), and Kashqwān (Arabic: قشقوان). People usually mix cheese
  Cheese
  Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
  
   with zaatar, chicken
  Chicken
  The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
  
  , or meat
  Meat
  Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
  
   when baking manakish to give it a better taste.

• Minced lamb (Arabic: لحم بعجين, lāḥm bi-‘ajīn, "meat with dough
  Dough
  Dough is a paste made out of any cereals or leguminous crops by mixing flour with a small amount of water and/or other liquid. This process is a precursor to making a wide variety of foodstuffs, particularly breads and bread-based items , flatbreads, noodles, pastry, and similar items)...
  
  ", sfiha
  Sfiha
  Sfihah or lahm bi`ajin , also known as Arab or Chaldean Pizza, is a pizza-like dish originating from the Levant , and introduced in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina by Levantine immigrants ....
  
  ). Other manakish are served for lunch because of their heavier contents. This popular manakish has lamb topping. The minced
  Mincing
  Mincing is a food preparation technique in which food ingredients are finely divided. The effect is to create a closely bonded mixture of ingredients and a soft or pasty texture. Flavoring ingredients such as garlic, ginger, and fresh herbs may be minced to distribute flavor more evenly in a mixture...
  
   lamb is mixed with tiny pieces of diced tomato and vegetable oil, and this manakish is optionally served with ground pepper or pickles and yogurt.

• Chili
  Chili pepper
  Chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The term in British English and in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries is just chilli without pepper.Chili peppers originated in the Americas...
  
  ( or فلفل حر).

• Kishq .
• Spinach
  Spinach
  Spinach is an edible flowering plant in the family of Amaranthaceae. It is native to central and southwestern Asia. It is an annual plant , which grows to a height of up to 30 cm. Spinach may survive over winter in temperate regions...
  
  , Swiss Chard .