They belong to the close expat community that knows where to shop – for tahini, pomegranate syrup and flower waters – and where to eat to satisfy nostalgic yearnings. As a nutritionist and food expert, she is a regular guest on programmes for the Middle Eastern Broadcasting Corporation and Al-Jazeera television, and is a household name in her own country."Every country with a tradition of meze would like to think they were the creators – the Turks, the Syrians, the Greeks, the Lebanese – when in truth no one knows, and in any case it is a very recent phenomenon," she explains. The word "meze" most likely derives from the colloquial Arabic "mazmaz" meaning a nibble. Lebanese meze came into being as a starchy aside to a glass of arak, the dry, assertive and lethal pastis. The original nibbles were kdameh safra, toasted yellow chickpeas that are still found in most Middle Eastern delis, and tourmos, the small yellow beans popped from their shell and eaten like peanuts.Today, while the number of dishes has swelled to dozens, restaurant menus stick to a standard score of hot and cold ones. There will always be a plate of dewy vegetables – peppers, spring onions, slivers of carrot and a whole lettuce, some olives and sliced tomatoes dressed with olive oil and sumac Warm cushions of flat bread are constantly replenished.

Only in the further recesses of London's Edgware Road, however, are you likely to come across nkhaat shankleesh, the whole lamb's brains boiled with spices and dressed with lemon, or kasbeh sawda, raw chopped lamb's liver and its fat, eaten with a grain or two of salt and pepper. Even then, you are unlikely to discover the small birds that appear on the tables of Lebanon in the summer, or the raw goat's meat, kibbeh, eaten in the mountains.Nevertheless, Nada says she has witnessed a sea change in the number and style of Lebanese restaurants in this country. The food of Lebanon is universally loved by Arabs and something of a yardstick by which others are judged. Omar Samaha, owner of the Fairuz restaurants (named after the Edith Piaf of the Levant), is Syrian and one of the leaders of the new wave. "I wanted to open a restaurant that was specifically geared up for the Londoner," he says. He has introduced more vegetarian dishes to the menu, such as his salad of shredded spinach, spring onions and pomegranate seeds, and little-known mountain meze like bantinjan bil laban, fried aubergine in a garlic yoghurt sauce.Noura, sister to the Paris restaurant of the same name and run by Nader Bouantoun, has also broken the mould.

Chef Yazbek Yazbek imports all his spices and flavouring ingredients from Lebanon, and makes staples such as yoghurt and labneh (yoghurt cheese) daily in-house. Though for the homesick ex-pat there's still a little way to go. "When restaurants start sending out a salad of thyme, purslane and rocket before any of the other dishes come out, then we're getting there," Nada says, laughing. "I live in hope." In the meantime we'll just have to cook from her book.