Yallah Middle East 2.0

[MaryandMian 1]

Mary.... when he says "chips" he may mean what we would call French fries... there is a big British influence in the way they use English in Pakistan.

I know and am trying to figure this out. LOL I have showed him bagels, english muffins and such in the camera and tried to explain that we have flat breads in the USA like the pitas and soft taco shells. Also, showed him loaf bread and he wanted to know if it is sliced already in the packages? This is a learning curve on both sides.

[Aymerlu 3]

My husband was completely aghast at the idea of iced tea

-MK

That makes me laugh! The last time I was with Khallid I asked him about drinking iced tea. He just could not understand the concept of it. We'll see if I will ever make an iced tea drinker out of him!

[cbd2cai 0]

I'm not so worried about the iced tea as I don't drink it myself . . . it is converting him from PEPSI to DR. PEPPER, LOL!!! OK, this is Texas and Dr. Pepper is my favorite surgary drink . . . but I'm actually not drinking much soda anymore as I try to drink water instead.

Oh, I did take a container of the General Foods International coffee suisse mocha flavor to Cairo this last time . . . A bit sweeter than I normally drink my coffee now, but I think I have a convert as I noticed he was using it once I opened it up! I left it for him to take home and I am sure it didn't make it too many days past my departure. LOL, his sister loves the chocolates that I brought too, so I think they all have that chocolate bug!

AND, I HATE HATE HATE nescafe or any other instant coffee . . . might as well not have coffee at all as far as I am concerned. Always happy to come home to my grind before brewing Ethiopian Sidamo beans from Starbucks, LOL! Good thing that I am not such a fiend over coffee anymore that I can't live without it!

Catherine

Edited April 1, 2006 by cbarrosmostafa

[honeyblonde 0]

Wow, I feel so incredibly lucky. Abdel loves Mexican, Chinese and Japanese - my favorites, and he doesn't expect any Moroccan food. He was excited to get to come here and try our food. He surprised me the other day by pointing out that we hadn't been out for BarBQ yet, and today we walked out to the Chinese Buffet for lunch. We would have stopped and had BarBQ, but they're only open Mon-Fri.

He eats anything I cook but I do cook very spicy. Once Abdel got here I found us buying our bread in the deli section now, not the bread aisle. He does like his croissants for breakfast, and fresh fruit for throughout the day. I have to watch him sometimes and make him eat or he'll just end up having fruit for lunch. After several hours of yardwork today at least he dipped a huge plate of meat dishes at the buffet. He loves my mom's meatloaf so I guess I should make that once in a while. I can't think of anything he won't eat except KFC and most southern cooking, which I don't like either. He doesn't like how greasy they are. He is pretty careful to try to eat healthy.

Thanks for the bread recipes. I'll have to try those if I can ever find our kitchen again. Today we spent almost an hour looking for the line to refill the weedeater when it ran out. I had no idea that renovating the laundry room which also doubled as our garage/storage room/workshop would make it impossible to find anything for such a long time.

[AInfante-Saraireh 0]

LOL So wonder I get so hungry when I come on VJ!

[Meriem_DZ 37]

Hello everyone from Algeria!!!! I have had a wonderful 3 weeks with my love. I cant believe I have only one week left. This man has treated me like a queen. He is everything I ever wanted in a man. It amazes me everyday that we found each other even though we are so far apart.

I wanted to tell you my ice tea story. I mentioned to Hachemi the other day that i missed my sweet ice tea. A little while later he came in with some lipton tea bags. So he found a pitcher for me and I made the sweet tea. They do not use ice cubes here so i put the pitcher of tea in the fridge. I told hachemi that I would drink it tomorrow after it gets cold. His mom did not understand that it is supposed to be cold and before I went to bed I looked on the table and his mom had taken it back out of the fridge and placed it on the table. He had to explain to her what it was and that it needed to be in the fridge.

I bought a beautiful Algerian dress to get married in when Hachemi gets to the USA. I have been looking all over Setif for one and finally found the one that I wanted.

I am hoping, inshaallah that we will get our nao2 soon. there have been several that have gotten theirs close to our noa1 date. Hachemi and I both have tried to be patient, but we are both starting to get anxious. I would love to get the 2nd notice before I leave Algeria. It is going to be so hard to leave and I think it would make it easier if we had the nao2.

Meriem

[dollface41601 0]

Meriem...sounds like you are having a wonderful time.....enjoy your last few days girl!!!!

about ice tea...in safeway in jordan they had canned lipton and sofyan and i loved it.....and even when i made it homemade at the house...he didnt love it, but he drank it.....im a big ice tea fan...even unsweetened....so it works....and catherine i know how u feel about dr pepper...although ive been watching my sugar and caffiene because of my stomach...i had to indulge in an ice cold dr pepper the other day...sofyan was shocked by it...he said it was sweet..but oh so good....which doesnt surprise me...we havent found anything he didnt like yet....he ate a boston creme chocolate donut this morning and was in heaven...we had steak burritos for dinner last night and he coudlnt get enough...he is so easy to please and its perfect...tonight i plan to cook Kefta with Lebon...he loves it, i love it, and i figure after eating out this week...some good ol arabian food might make him feel close to home....well all...gotta run....i only have 2 mins a day to sit down and this is where i spend it....I have never been so BUSY!

Kelly

[MaryandMian 1]

Meriem...sounds like you are having a wonderful time.....enjoy your last few days girl!!!!

Loved the iced tea story. Glad to hear that your enjoying yourself with your love.

Kelly,

Sounds like hubby is not hard to please. Love reading the updates on how everyone is adjusting. Keep posting when you get the chance.

Mary

[tnh9479 1]

Well...my husband is far from all you guys. The only American food he would eat at first was Chili, pizza, and chocolate ice cream. We have now expanded to steaks and this wood-fire roasted chicken. Oh...and don't forget my mom's potato salad. This was by far his harded adjustment to the US.

There is always some Morocco food cooking in our house...tagines, kefta, coucous, etc. I have to be a little more proactive this summer with learning how to cook. I have left it to Hicham as he likes things VERY flavorful and he does an AWESOME job.

Twila

[MrsAmera 41]

Youssef is also on the "hard to please" side of things. I wish that he liked a wider variety of things however that doesn't seem to be the case. Makes me sad sometimes because he won't even try things. So I guess I've gotten use to always eating Moroccan food. We're just lucky our little guy likes it too!!

[Aymerlu 3]

Meriem, have a great time with you man! ENJOY!!!

[jordanianprincess 0]

You guys are so funny with your food stories

Meriam, I am so happy that you are having a great time, treasure these days!!!

I have no idea what to expect when my fiance comes here. On one hand he tells me that he will kick my butt if I make him mjaddarah (lentils and rice) because he is so sick of it and all the other food he has all the time. And on the other hand, he says that I need to learn how to make arabic food and that I need at least a week in the kitchen with his mom.

men....

[amal 4]

My husband will eat many many things.. just not my favorites. He is always telling me how he likes almost all of the american food and I now just sit and listen and nod my head. Inside though, I'm like.. ok "mr." you like hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, pizza (sometimes)..... thats about it and doesn't even scrape the top of the foods I prefer. My son.. HATES HATES HATES HATES rice, pasta, most meat, most vegetables, most fruits, most spices, and mashed potatoes so we all have a very interesting time at the table. We usually fix whatever Noor cooks and then I make something different for my son.

As for the iced tea thing... hehehe.... I had told Noor about iced tea and he was completely blown away. He told me that I was mistaken because nobody would ever drink tea with ice in it. I made him promise to at least try it when he got here and yes I made sure he kept that promise. I fixed a glass of very sweet very icy tea and he just looked at me as if lobsters were crawling out of my ears. He took a super tiny sip and said...ehhh... then i said.. no, you take a good drink. He did and was so surprised that it didn't kill him!!! Now he LOVES ice tea more than hot tea!!.. He also is learning how to gulp water. He very seldom drank water before coming here so thats a very big step for him!

I'm so proud....

amal

Edited April 3, 2006 by amal

[Bosco 1]

My husband prefers Moroccan food too, but he never directly complains. When he doesn't eat much I know what it means. He once expressed his respect for the Prophet in reference to this hadith "The Prophet never criticized food at all. If he liked it, he would eat it, and if he did not like it, he would leave it and not say anything". So, if my husband doesn't eat much, I know what it means

We eat halal, and it does limit our choices in going out to eat. Certain cuts of meat are hard to find, and I have yet to find turkey locally.

Rebecca

[tnh9479 1]

It took us about 7 months to find a store in the area that sold decent halal meat. Zabihah.com did not have the store listed online that we found. (They are listed now. ) In addition, we did not eat halal meat for a time because we were literally too financially strapped to afford it. Now that Hicham is working at a well-paying job we can afford to.