Dolly’s: A Lebanese ketchup with American taste

There’s a joke from the classic cult film Pulp Fiction: “Three tomatoes are walking down the street – a papa tomato, a mama tomato, and a little baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind. Papa tomato gets angry, goes back to the baby tomato, and squishes him…and says, ketchup.” It’s the champion of condiments, and Dolly’s ketchup evokes nostalgic memories among some Lebanese. Through casual conversations with Executive, they talked of blissful summers past eating hotdogs and homestyle french fries drenched in ketchup piled high atop a red checkered picnic table on a sunny, cloud-free day near the coast. These are wistful Americana summers to remember. Ketchup does not easily mix with traditional Lebanese cuisine. It is a rare sight to find a bottle of that fine red sauce served with mezze, unless there are also french fries on the table. So it is not wrong to perceive ketchup as