Discovering Iraq: My Complete Journey Through Baghdad, Iraqi Food, People and Culture
Iraq was never supposed to be just another destination on my travel list. From the moment I first landed in Baghdad, I felt that this journey was going to be different. I came with my cameras, my curiosity and the same philosophy I have carried around the world for years: forget what you think you know, walk the streets, sit with the people, eat where they eat, listen to their stories and allow a country to introduce itself to you.
What started as a first trip to Baghdad became something much bigger. I returned again and again. March became Ramadan, Ramadan became another visit in May, and eventually the journey developed into seasons of “Samoun w Zaatar,” taking us deeper into Baghdad and beyond the capital to discover more of Iraq. What you will find in this collection is therefore not one travel documentary and not one food tour. It is a growing visual archive of my encounters with Iraq.
Watch the complete Iraq playlist here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdtvQKJL0GYdDQlLQd9vR6DDLVfoW9lkF
My first visit took place in March 2022. Baghdad immediately challenged many of the images of Iraq that had accumulated in my mind over the years. Instead of trying to see the city from the perspective of a tourist, I wanted to experience everyday Baghdad. We walked. We ate. We entered markets and restaurants. We stopped for street food. We met people spontaneously. I wanted to understand what Baghdadis ate for breakfast, where they gathered for lunch, what they bought from the souks and what made them proud of their city.
My First Visit to Baghdad – March Episode 1
https://youtu.be/T39x8RGbq70
Exploring Baghdad Street Eats – March Episode 2
https://youtu.be/z6tydh-HY_c
Exploring Baghdad Street Eats – March Episode 3
https://youtu.be/6NZpzWARPbs
Exploring Baghdad – March Episode 4 / Days 4 & 5
https://youtu.be/4-8rJWfPRFQ
We also collected the spontaneous vertical moments from that first adventure into another video, offering a different and faster look at a week on the streets of Baghdad.
Vertical Stories of a Week in Baghdad, Iraq
https://youtu.be/CnkRoYMcTe4
I left Iraq after that first journey knowing I needed to return. There was simply too much left undiscovered.
And so I did.
My second experience came during Ramadan. Visiting a city is one thing; experiencing it during one of the most important months of the year is something completely different. The rhythm changes. The streets change. The food changes. Families gather, restaurants prepare for iftar, the nights become alive and traditions become much more visible.
Ramadan gave me another window into Baghdad. We experienced iftar and suhoor, tasted Iraqi specialties and watched the city transform as sunset approached. Food was everywhere, but what fascinated me most was what happened around the food: families gathering, friends sharing tables, vendors preparing for the evening rush and an entire city moving according to a rhythm that has existed for generations.
Ramadan in Baghdad – Day 1
https://youtu.be/WsbocE_HDRY
Ramadan in Baghdad – Day 2
https://youtu.be/fRgpeGY7JZs
Ramadan in Baghdad – Day 3
https://youtu.be/GnWUfDmJ2qU
Ramadan in Baghdad – Day 4
https://youtu.be/___tawiAU7s
By then, Iraq was no longer somewhere I was simply visiting. I was beginning to recognize streets, understand dishes and reconnect with people. Returning allowed the cameras to go beyond first impressions.
In May 2022, I came back for another journey dedicated to traditional Iraqi food and everyday Baghdad. Iraqi cuisine deserves time. It cannot be reduced to one plate of kebab or one restaurant. There are breads, grills, rice dishes, meats, sweets, breakfasts and recipes carrying family and regional identities. There is also the theatre surrounding the food: the ovens, the smoke, the knives, the enormous pots, the markets and the people preparing recipes they learned from generations before them.
Traditional Food in Baghdad – May Episode 1
https://youtu.be/j1HluXBsPt4
Traditional Food in Baghdad – May Episode 2
https://youtu.be/XzR6FhS8Y-A
Traditional Food in Baghdad – May Episode 3
https://youtu.be/vWp5j1v0aRM
Somewhere along this journey, “Samoun w Zaatar” became the perfect name for what we were doing. Samoun represents Iraq, while zaatar carries something from my own Lebanese identity. Put the two together and you have exactly what I wanted this series to become: two cultures meeting around food.
The project continued growing. Baghdad remained at its heart, but later seasons allowed us to look beyond individual meals and increasingly document the real life of the city: its vibrant souks, street-food vendors, restaurants, businesses, neighborhoods and people.
Baghdad, Iraq: Season 3, Episode 2 – Street Food, Vibrant Souks & Real Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIy-rzPSlj8
Baghdad, Iraq: Season 3, Episode 3 – Street Food, Vibrant Souks & Real Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2og3cP6uZBI
Baghdad, Iraq: Season 3, Episode 8 – Street Food, Vibrant Souks & Real Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eylBPAPBN-g
The series continued into later seasons, returning to the places and flavors that had become part of the story while constantly finding new ones.
Lunch… The Iraqi Way!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsHayfYNzOI
Street Food in Baghdad, Iraq – Season 5, Episode 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVDsfw0T3Rk
And sometimes one place deserves more than a single visit. Abou Daoud became one of those experiences for me. I returned three times, not simply because of the meat but because places like this represent what I love about food travel: personality, generosity, craftsmanship and an experience that stays in your memory long after the meal is over.
3 Times at Abou Daoud: My Favorite Meat Shop & Experience in Baghdad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK9BNlxqZLg
But if you watch this Iraq series only for the food, you will be missing half of the story.
The strongest memories I brought home from Iraq are the people.
Again and again, someone would stop us, invite us in, insist that we taste something, tell us a story or simply smile at the camera. Restaurants became meeting places. Markets became conversations. Meals that were supposed to take twenty minutes became hours because somebody had another story to tell.
That is the Iraq I wanted my cameras to capture.
There is another Iraq beyond the images repeated for decades on international television. There is the Iraq of the baker waking before sunrise, the kebab master standing in front of his charcoal grill, the merchant who knows every corner of his souk, the family gathering around an enormous table, the young entrepreneur opening a contemporary restaurant and the elderly man carrying memories of a Baghdad that existed long before any of us arrived with a camera.
I wanted to show all of it.
Food became our way inside.
When you sit at someone’s table, barriers disappear very quickly. You begin talking about ingredients, then families, then traditions, then childhood, then history. Suddenly you are no longer filming a plate. You are documenting a culture.
That is what NoGarlicNoOnions has always been about.
I travel to eat, certainly, but food is the beginning of the conversation rather than the end of it. Behind every samoun, every kebab, every pot of rice, every sweet and every glass of tea is somebody with a story worth hearing.
Iraq gave me thousands of those stories.
It also reminded me why returning to a country matters. The first visit is discovery. The second brings familiarity. By the third, people recognize you. Eventually the destination stops feeling like a destination and starts feeling like somewhere you have memories.
That happened to me in Iraq.
Looking back at all these episodes today, I realize we created something much larger than I understood while filming it. Together these videos document Baghdad’s streets and souks, traditional Iraqi food, Ramadan nights, restaurants, street vendors, artisans, businesses and, above everything else, the Iraqi people we met along the way.
And the journey is there for anyone to experience from the beginning.
Start with my first arrival in Baghdad. Follow us through the streets. Come back for Ramadan. Return again for the traditional food journeys. Continue into Samoun w Zaatar and the later seasons. Watch Baghdad change from an unfamiliar city into a place filled with familiar faces.
Don’t watch only one episode.
Take the whole journey.
Pour yourself some Iraqi tea, find a comfortable seat and travel with me through one of the most memorable adventures NoGarlicNoOnions has ever filmed.
WATCH THE COMPLETE IRAQ SERIES:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdtvQKJL0GYdDQlLQd9vR6DDLVfoW9lkF
From Baghdad with love.
Iraq, thank you for the food, the stories, the generosity and, most importantly, the people.
We came to discover you. We returned because there was still more to understand. And through these videos, I hope millions of people around the world can discover the Iraq we encountered: generous, flavorful, energetic, surprising, emotional and deeply human. ????????❤️
I would title the blog page “Discovering Iraq: Anthony Rahayel’s Complete Journey Through Baghdad, Food, People & Culture”. That gives you a strong evergreen Google page around Iraq, Baghdad, Iraqi food, Anthony Rahayel,and NoGarlicNoOnions, while the playlist becomes the main conversion target. Your existing NGNO article establishes the project as Samoun w Zaatar and documents the three 2022 visits, while the Season 3 YouTube descriptions explicitly describe the expansion toward Karbala, Najaf, Babylon, Kurdistan and other Iraqi destinations.
I also think we should keep digging: there are clearly missing June/July 2022 episodes, Season 3 Episodes 1/4/5/6/7, and likely substantially more Season 4/5 material. Once extracted, this article could easily become a 30–50 video Iraq master archive, categorized by trip and year rather than one giant random playlist.
