Yallah Middle East 2.0

[honeyblonde 0]

Don't worry too much. He can't possibly carry everything with him, so they will probably think he just brought the most recent letters.

[amal 4]

I didn't start sending letters.. Although, they may help.. one or two... You could have someone from your family write him that they are excited to be able to welcome him to the family soon. I was told by many people that that is a great form of proof.

I have officially turned my husband into a movie buff!!! He's not sure what to think. Before he came here, he NEVER watched movies. Maybe 3 in his entire life. Now that he's here and there's absolutely nothing to do BUT watch movies.. We've already watched maybe 6 or 7. Watched "fools rush in" last night and he actually laughed at some of the funnies. Then he said he is the master of the movies now. He's so darned cute sometimes.

QUESTION: Can falafel cause "stomach" problems?? I was fine yesterday until we ate falafel.. I have been in pain ever since. Its probably not that but I figured I'd ask.

JP, I would love to have that in my Jordan collection if you don't mind sharing.

amal

Edited March 31, 2006 by amal

[LebaneseMama 1]

We eat falafel alot ... and I have never heard of anyone getting stomach pain from it.

It's not gassy or heavy. Maybe you are just not used it ? I don't know ... hope you feel better though.

Mmmm you know what sounds so good right now ? You guys might not know what this is ... but some of you might. It's called "Sheesh Tawoo". We get it in Lebanon. It's a lafa (sandwich) with chicken, fries, corn, garlic, and anything else you can think of all grilled together in a lafa. That's our favorite food.

JessNgeorges ... go eat one for me OK ??

[Aymerlu 3]

We eat falafel alot ... and I have never heard of anyone getting stomach pain from it.

It's not gassy or heavy. Maybe you are just not used it ? I don't know ... hope you feel better though.

Mmmm you know what sounds so good right now ? You guys might not know what this is ... but some of you might. It's called "Sheesh Tawoo". We get it in Lebanon. It's a lafa (sandwich) with chicken, fries, corn, garlic, and anything else you can think of all grilled together in a lafa. That's our favorite food.

JessNgeorges ... go eat one for me OK ??

Sounds yummy to me! I have been TRYING to learn to cook Egyptian food. Notice how I say "TRYING" I think my poor habiby is gonna starve when he gets here.

[UmmSqueakster 54]

Mmmm you know what sounds so good right now ? You guys might not know what this is ... but some of you might. It's called "Sheesh Tawoo". We get it in Lebanon. It's a lafa (sandwich) with chicken, fries, corn, garlic, and anything else you can think of all grilled together in a lafa. That's our favorite food.

Oooo, goodness. One thing I miss about Cairo is that if you're hungry at 3 am, you can go down the street to the sidewalk restaurant and get fresh sheesh tawoo, tamiyah (falafel for you non egyptian people), koshari (only the best dish in the entire world), foul, shwerma (gyro like without the cucumber sauce) or whatnot.

My husband was insistant that we cook when we lived there. My thinking was, why on earth would I want to spend an hour in the icky little kitchen we have in our apartment, when we can go out and get food already prepared for the equivilent of 30 cents? That probably wouldn't have been sustainable if we lived there long term, but for an extended vacation, I'm all about the sandwiches.

Oh how I miss it. I can never replicate the tomato sauce or the crispiness of the onions.

[cbd2cai 0]

No eating out for Ahmed . . . he says that he doesn't do that. He can prepare some food and he did this every night in some fashion. One night he went to get the falafel mix (comes in a liquid form in a bag), added his own spices (little newspaper cones of spices were bought . . cumin, pepper and dried peppers of the hot variety), fried them for me! he also was good at making tahina (mashing the cucumber) PLUS he made a very good sausage and peppers dish. LOL, who knew??? Now I need to see if he will eat anything that I prepare . . . I can do some things but whether he will like is another story.

Here's one night's dinner . . . note the big plate of fries, LOL! AND ALWAYS salad (tomatoes, cucs, onion, pepper).

sorry this pic is wayyyyyyyyyy too big . . . so I will try to make it smaller and post again, LOL.

Edited March 31, 2006 by cbarrosmostafa

[cbd2cai 0]

Well, this is smaller (waaaaaaaaaaaaay smaller on my blog) but still rather large. . . . . you can really see our dinner now, LOL!!

[jordanianprincess 0]

Amal. I will e-mail you that pic today when I get home.

Ok, falafel can be very gassy! The core ingrediant is garbanzo beans, and if you beans give you gas then you will most likely get them from falafel too. If the falafel is old is can also make you sick.

I can't go near them at all, they make me feel really sick and everyone is different ofcourse but my body can't handle them. Amal I would'nt be surprised if it was the falafel that made you sick.

[~Jess~ 0]

We eat falafel alot ... and I have never heard of anyone getting stomach pain from it.

It's not gassy or heavy. Maybe you are just not used it ? I don't know ... hope you feel better though.

Mmmm you know what sounds so good right now ? You guys might not know what this is ... but some of you might. It's called "Sheesh Tawoo". We get it in Lebanon. It's a lafa (sandwich) with chicken, fries, corn, garlic, and anything else you can think of all grilled together in a lafa. That's our favorite food.

JessNgeorges ... go eat one for me OK ??

OMG I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE THOSE!!!!!!! i just had one yesterday!!!! i put cuccumbers on mine!! ohhhh next week ill have to eat another one! yummmmmmmmyyy. lol

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Nice pic Catherine !!! Haha my husband always wants to eat at home and "save money" too. It's hard to get him to agree to go to a restaurant. Ohhh those ubiquitous fried potatoes... I swear my husband could eat them at every meal. Even if he says he's not hungry, if I say "but maybe would you like a little bit of fried potatoes ?" he says "well maybe I can eat." I had to teach him to do the twice-fried thing here... otherwise Idaho potatoes turn into a grease bomb (they have the waxy potatoes in the West Bank... totally different effect.) But he's really good at making so many things.... mahshi malfuf, mahshi kousa, the cucumber with laban, even Arabic bread... and when I'm tired, he is always willing to whip up some shakshuka (fried eggs with tomatoes.) Blessed is a man who can cook !

I have to say I love felafel !!! It is my favorite when I'm in Palestine (they laugh at me 'cause it's like fast food there.) I make a pretty good substitute here, but it can't compare with the West Bank version... they have all these cool condiments we don't have here. (Even some of them I don't know the name of !)

Yes the garbanzos can be gassy, but if you do several water changes while soaking/cooking the beans it will take most of the gas away.

And it's true.... cooked beans that are old or not properly stored will DEFINITELY make you sick (the worst I ever had was from a Mexican restaurant... the frijoles refritos had apparently been left to sit at room temperature TOO long.... didn't taste bad when I was eating them, but I was horribly sick for 2 days.)

[dollface41601 0]

i agree, fallafel is known to be dangerous in the families house in jordan...it causes some severe gas (well for most) and you probably have some trapped gas in your tummy its funny to see all of your hubbys being non-fast food....weve been home 6 days and sofyan has only eaten arab food twice...he has devoured burger king, mcdonalds,chinese,mexican,and Chili's and he swears by it all! he loves dr pepper and root beer, chips and salsa...i swear he is american inside.....weve been trying to get out as much as possible...i want him to get a feel of everything before i go back to work....life is good right now....HE LOVES AMERICA...i havent seen a look of homesickness on his face yet....he is impressed with the weather...he cant believe it iisnt cold but its sooo windy....he even liked the gloomy weather....i guess because it can still feel so warm....he wants to get his license ASAP....hes so eager to get on the roads....his SS card should be arriving soon so...we shall see...

[jordanianprincess 0]

Hi Kelly! I'm so happy to hear that sofyan is adjusting well! Does he have family in chicago? That will probebly help with being homesick. The good thing is you can travel back whenever u want now, right?

LOL, by the way I forgot to mention how lucky all u gals are to have husbands that cook! I don't think my fiance would go into the kitchen unless there was a fire! I have spent the last year learning how to cook all kinds of arabic food from my mom, which is so time consuming but totally worth it when its done!

I have not had a chance to practice on him yet, but his family has been to my house several times and I have made some stuff for them and I was so relieved when they like it I do love to cook though and I think I'm a good cook (lol unless everyone is lying to spare my feelings) but I never focused on cooking arabic food. I figured since my mom always made arabic food that I would cook everything else.

I think my fiance is gonna be somewhat like kelly's sofyan, bcz he always tells me that he wants to try new things. We spent a day at the Marriot in the Dead Sea and I made him try quesadillas with guacamole and he loved it and has been asking me about the guacamole since then!

[cbd2cai 0]

Nice pic Catherine !!! Haha my husband always wants to eat at home and "save money" too. It's hard to get him to agree to go to a restaurant. Ohhh those ubiquitous fried potatoes... I swear my husband could eat them at every meal. . . . . . Blessed is a man who can cook !

I have to say I love felafel !!! It is my favorite when I'm in Palestine (they laugh at me 'cause it's like fast food there.) I make a pretty good substitute here, but it can't compare with the West Bank version...

I didn't wait for all the bread to be heaped on the table before taking the pic . . . but the order of building the food . . . bread, fries, maybe some meat . . . wrap up and scoop into the tahina!!! LOL, I don't think any of my friends here in the States will be eating at my house . . . I think they would have a hard time with the Arab style of eating. Ahmed laughed over my attempts to do it but that is because i didn't do it HIS way. You see . . . you have to hold the bread with these two fingers like this, then use the thumb to kinda push things along . . . LOL!!! Where are those paper towels???

Oh, and I got the nickname Mrs. Falafel from the last time I was in Egypt (when we got married) . . . it was an easy thing to run out to pickup while staying at a hotel in downtown Cairo. And I do like falafel . . . get them all the time from the local ME grocery, where they have a small restaurant attached. The falafel mix that Ahmed brought home was a liquid mixture in a bag which he put into the refrigerator . . . but don't know where they kept it before he bought it, LOL!

Edited March 31, 2006 by cbarrosmostafa

[honeyblonde 0]

Loved all your stories!

Abdel doesn't cook, but he keeps the kitchen spotless. I do love to cook and am finally to the point where i can make my own recipes, so it is absolutely wonderful to be able to prepare a new dish and then not have to go back into the kitchen and clean up after we eat. The only frustration right now is finding things since we're renovating and half the kitchen stuff is in bags in other rooms - go to the living room on top of the entertainment center for a cup or plate, then to the bedroom in the recycle bin for silverware. I can't wait to get things back to normal so I can really cook.

Abdel also loves eating out. I have to watch it because all I have to do is suggest it and he's all ready to go. When I realized that some weeks we've spent over $100 just in eating out, we decided to cut back drastically. Until he's working there is no way we can afford that, but he's made it clear that once he is working, we will start again. Once the kitchen is finished maybe we will enjoy eating in more, but right now we are sitting on barstools at the stove. No matter how good the food is the eating arrangements just aren't cutting it.

[kerewin21 2]

Once the kitchen is finished maybe we will enjoy eating in more, but right now we are sitting on barstools at the stove. No matter how good the food is the eating arrangements just aren't cutting it.

Yeah, I can definitely see how that would make you want to go out!!! Hopefully your renovations will be done soon.