and skim the froth every time it appears. Cover the pot and let the meat simmer for 1 hour over very gentle heat, making sure a few bubbles appear every now and then. Meanwhile, dice the tomatoes and set aside. Peel and dice the potatoes and place in a bowl with water. Pound the garlic in a mortar with a dash of salt and set aside. Chop the cilantro leaves and set aside. Add the potatoes and tomatoes to the stew after one hour. Let the stew simmer for 30 minutes longer; meanwhile, prepare the cilantro pesto (if desired) by heating 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small skillet and frying the chopped cilantro and mashed garlic for 5 seconds until fragrant; add the cilantro pesto to the stew the last 10 minutes of cooking. Serve the stew as is with some rice or bread. NOTE: You can make the stew without adding the cilantro pesto. The stew is usually made by frying the potato chunks prior to adding them to the meat mixture; this does make them tastier but it also makes it heavier (and more calorific). The US dollar is readily accepted by merchants in Lebanon; in fact, even if one pays with a credit card the cashier will immediately ask "Dollars or Lebanese?" and compute the bill in the corresponding currency. What is neat too is that if you end up being  shortchanged by the currency conversion, say your bill is LL31,000 (the equivalent of US$20.65)