Tag Archives | food

Grace in Small Things #3: Food, Flowers, Sunsets

Grace day again.  It’s beautiful here – I finally understand what people have been talking about for the last nine weeks, about what happens when the humidity breaks: clear blue skies, soft air, light breeze. Perfect. It’s finally possible to walk outside for more than five minutes without developing a thin film of sweat from head to toe.

Grace notes? The first is extraordinarily simple:

1. Toast with butter and fresh honey, which I had for breakfast. I may, in fact, head back for a third piece. (It’s very small bread!)

2. The fresh honey comes from Food Queen Honey and we buy it from Suhil, from Yemen:

To amuse Caleb, Suhil did a dramatic pour:

3. Fresh naan bread, baked in a clay oven:

Finished:

We bought 3 plain naan and one filled with minced potato and onion, for 6 dihram. That’s about…$1.50.

4. Sunsets.  Our apartment faces south and west, and every evening, I watch glorious slow sunsets.  Even through my grimy windows (a natural filter of salt, sand, and dirt films the outside of all the windows. There aren’t enough window washers in the world to keep the windows of all these glass-clad skyscrapers clean):

5. Bougainvillea. Not so much the flowers themselves as their color. This city’s color scheme, aside from the color of the water, is generally…dust. Dusty brown, dusty green, dusty dust.  So the shock of scarlet against a blue sky hits deep:

Hmmm: I wonder if Proflowers can match that?

 

full disclosure: I was compensated to include the link to proflowers, but the ideas, photos, and experiences in this post are completely my own

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Read full story · Comments { 3 } on October 23, 2011 in Abu Dhabi, expat, food, grace in small things

Monday Listicle: (Not) The End of Summer

This week I remembered that it’s Monday! Stasha’s prompt is quite seasonal: the end of summer recap.

But you know what? I can’t do it.  It’s 100 degrees out there, with a breeze blowing hot from the east and the air feels like soup.

So…nope. No end of summer here.  I’m going to do the reverse of this prompt, I guess you could say: a list of what I’m NOT doing during these end-of-summer weeks.

1. I am not forcing kids to try on last year’s winter jackets so that I can order new ones if needed before everything sells out and we’re left with only with hot pink coats trimmed in fluiffy fur.

2. I am not wondering when the rain is going to stop.

3. I am not gathering up every late-summer vegetable I can find to make vats of tomato sauce, ratatouille, pesto…things I usually freeze to use in the wintery months when I can’t stand the sight of another root vegetable.

4. I am not experiencing the shock of socks after months of bare feet…but that also means I am not reuniting with my worn-to-perfection Blundstones and my beloved motorcycle boots.

5. I am not living in an apartment filled with discussions about the World Series…

6. …and I am not living in an apartment filled with the gnashing of teeth about this season’s iteration of the disastrous NY Mets.

7. I am not getting ready to “switch my closet.” In New York, where ample closet space is as rare as a Mets winning season, I can’t keep all my clothes in the closet. So the off-season wardrobe stays in plastic tubs in our storage space and at the change of seasons I spend a few weeks with clothes spread all over the bedroom–one day it’s 85, the next it’s 40. How’s a gal to dress for that?

8. I am not urging the boys to GET OUTSIDE AND PLAY at every sunny moment.  Starting in late September I feel as if we’re racing against the clock: at any moment the cold wet bowl of winter will close over our heads and everyone will be inside getting in each other’s way.  Boys are a lot like dogs: they need to be walked on a regular basis and they’re a lot happier after a game of chase-the-stick.

9. I am, ironically, waiting for it to cool off a little bit so that we can go hang out on the beach.

10. Well, don’t laugh but you know what I’m still doing? I’m still having to shave my legs. I hate waxing (actually it hurts and I am a big ol’coward); Nair and things like that stink to high heaven, so I shave. But in New York, come the end of bare-legged season, I mostly stop and let my legs exist in their au naturel state.  Here? No such luck. Maybe if I start wearing an abaya, I could give up on the shaving here, too…. hmm.

So that’s my not-end-of-summer list about the end of summer. Before you go read the other lists, you should maybe click over here and look at Stasha’s beautiful photographs, on her new professional photography website.  Probably you’re going to want one of her prints for your own…so you might want to pay attention to the give-away she’s doing on Friday!

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Read full story · Comments { 11 } on September 26, 2011 in Abu Dhabi, Monday Listicle, NYC, UAE

Monday Listicles: Food (mostly 16th century style)

Stasha strikes again! Just before we left for a day exploring Hampton Court Palace, she posted the topic for her Monday Listicle: Food!

Hey. I can do food. I have a LOT to say about food. Mostly about how my kids don’t really eat “food” in any sense of the word. Watermelon? Nah. Strawberries? Ptooey. Cheese sandwich? Gagh!

So the first item on my list of “what’s to eat?” is this:

Exhibit 1: A little morning snack on the train to Hampton Court: Krispy Kreme Donuts. Yet another quality US export.

But let’s leave my sugar-soaked children behind and consider the 16th century cook, shall we? At Hampton Court, we went through the palace kitchens, which were capable of preparing food for 1200 people at a pop.  The kitchens of the palace have been set up to show us how 16th century cooks worked:

Exhibit 2: Finding a cut of meat to prepare for dinner:

Exhibit 3: Perhaps a shishkebab sort of preparation might be tasty?

Exhibit 4:  Getting the oven the right temperature can be tricky.

Exhibit 5: The finished product (bit of a bummer about the skewer holds, but that can be covered up with a sauce?)

Exhibit 6: No part of the animal will be wasted: anyone fancy a little kidney pie?

Exhibit 7: Need to have a non-carnivore option for our guests.  Perhaps a bird of some sort? Feathers optional.

Exhibit 8: Maybe you’d like to have some bread with your dinner?

And now back to the present day: Dinner for my youngest child: NO noodles. NO chicken tikka. NO hot dogs. Sandwich, please (at least I got a please). NO CRUSTS.

Exhibit 10: My own dinner. Um…perhaps I shouldn’t chastise my youngest son?  Here’s what I had:  two kinds of cheese, a lot of tomatoes, and a glass of rose.  Bliss.

 

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Read full story · Comments { 8 } on August 8, 2011 in Children, family, Travel

Gabrielle Hamilton’s Memoir of Food and Family

Click on this link to go over to Blogcritics and read my review of Hamilton’s brilliant memoir. Then click over to Amazon and get yourself her book…it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year. Then probably you should go to her restaurant and order yourself a drink and her version of egg-on-a-roll.  Sit at the bar, soak in the atmosphere.  I’ll meet you there.

 

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Read full story · Comments { 0 } on May 13, 2011 in Books