Figgy Figgy

I have never appreciated 'seasonal' fruit. Things seemed to be available year round growing up in Colombia. Or if they are seasonal, our messed up unsustainable planting systems are now making things available year round.

In Gaza I have truly started to appreciate seasonal fruits and vegetables. I miss them terribly while they're gone- such as avocado. There isn't an avocado in town, yet the veggie stores are booming with figs and mangoes right now. I've eaten more mango than I could ever imagine, and now I have a stock of figs in the fridge. The lemons are also disappearing-- and so are the sweet potatoes. WAAAAA!

My friend Inka was telling me the other day that she was trying to buy some figs with her colleagues. They insisted that she buy the ones with the broken skin, whilst Inka couldn't fathom buying those and preferred buying the ones that looked 'whole'. I guess the riper the sweeter, this one in my hand was just lovely.

DUST!

BE PREPARED!

And be forewarned! If you ever decide to move to the Middle East you will forever live in a filthy house and you will eternally combat dust which will coat your entire house on a daily basis.

Dust is an incredible phenomenon here in the Middle East. First- you have khamaseen or 'fifty days of wind'- which means some days will look entirely hazy and yellowish because there is so much dust in the air. Even when you don't have that miserable phenomenon, you will still have dust blowing into your house non-stop. Every counter top-table, decorative item, Kleenex box will eternally have a layer of dust on it.

You will clean it, and the next day it will be there again.

You will clean it again, and two hours later you'll notice that it is still dirty.

My new technique is baby wipes. I'm going through them like they're going out of style. This is the result after cleaning my bedside table:

And your windows will eternally be dusty, so if you would like to see the view outside your window, you have to open your widows and let more dust in. Otherwise you can look through the murky glass as you can see below:

As you can tell..I'm not a fan of the dust. Beside the fact that it makes me sneeze 258720958 times a day.

Passiflora Edulis

I grew up drinking "Jugo de Maracuya"-- Passion Fruit Juice. When I first came to Gaza I discovered that it grew here. Recently it seems to be back in season, and later I found out there are 2 seasons for passion fruit in this region. I have gone wild buying up the Passion Fruit while it lasts- since I have to say it is one of my favorite fruity delicacies- and at least it is a flavor from home.

In Arabic they call it "Flora"- but other than farmers, nobody seems to know what it is. I tell them it grows in Gaza, and people refuse to believe it. I brought some in to work to share and explained then people in Gaza seem to believe it has aphrodisiac effects. I told them, I'm not going to explain that word-- google it. So they did on handy dandy Google translate and the jaws that dropped were priceless.

Someone left a bag of mint and passion fruit on my desk this afternoon, not sure who it was, but it was certainly a special surprise.

Curiosity spurred, and wanted to look up passion fruit and see what the deal was behind the name.

Turns out the name "Passion Fruit" comes from a religious background that came from Catholic Missionaries who believe that parts of the fruit bore religious connections, it was a way of illustrating the Crucifixion:

• "The three stigmas were to reflect the three nails in Jesus's hands and feet.
• The threads of the passion flower were believed to be a symbol of the Crown of Thorns.
• The vine's tendrils were likened to the whips.
• The five anthers represented the five wounds.
• The ten petals and sepals regarded to resemble the Apostles (excluding Judas and Peter)."

Funny huh?

It was first documented in Peru in 1569 by a doctor named Monardes who took it back to be used for herbal tea.

An Easy Treat

Today we were chatting away about garlic and all the magical thing you can do with it. Here's an easy one, I have yet to try it, but it is on my to-do-list:

1. Fry cauliflower

2. Make the dipping sauce: Lots and lots of crushed garlic + lots of lemon juice+cumin (it is the exact recipe for cuban mojo, except for no olive oil, but then again you are eating it with deep-fried cauliflower.

Zeaki! Delish!

Makdous

Today my colleague G brought a VERY tasty treat to work. Actually this may have been one of the finer delicacies I have yet to try in the Middle East as it is a complicated dish- and also requires a wealth of olive oil making it a truly rich dish.

Makdous are oil cured eggplants. Here is how you make this tricky wonder:

1. Boil in water until they turn soft, boil it with the stem. After boiling the stems will come off easily
2. Cut them open, fill with salt
3. Put them in a jar and turn it upside down. Allow for drainage (put them on the edge of the sink.
4. The eggplants will have white bits around them, try to clean all of it off with paper towels. This has to be a very thorough process to avoid fermentation. Clean the jar, put them in the jar again and leave them for the night again.
5. If the water release has stopped, clean them again

Prepare the filling:

1. Mix together crushed walnuts, crushed garlic, crushed fil fil (red pepper- depending how spicy you want it.
2. Stuff them with the filling. Put them back in the jar.
3. Re drain them for a few hours
4. Clean off any white bits, replace in the jar halfway, cover them completely in olive oil, they should be completely submerged. Leave space at the top because the eggplants will continue to release water over time.

These shouldn't be eaten for a few weeks, and keep for many many months. The longer you keep them, the more tender they will get and the more the flavors will merge together into the wondrous final product of the Makdous.

Eat the Makdous with a fresh pita bread. Break off a piece of the bread and grab a piece of the tender wondrous delight.

Make sure you make a cup of sweet mint tea to go along with it.

Palestinian "Settlements"

I'm planning on traveling to the US soon, and got pretty confused and thought I needed to fill out a form on the "Electronic System for Travel Authorization", which is an authorization for individuals holding foreign passports that can enter the US with no visa.


Ok...so in my confusion I was filling it out (I don't actually need to) and I had to enter my telephone number. LO AND BEHOLD- the area code for Palestine is under the label of "Palestinian Settlements"-- Umm..Ok I know the US government is often very-- one sided about this international, global, historical issue. But in no way- and I mean in no way are the Palestinian territories a "settlement." There are Israeli "settlements" on Palestinian territories. But there is no such thing as a "Palestinian Settlement"

Reading material: This document from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

This is not a nomenclature debate- nor a tricky wording issue. This is wrong.

FEAST Gaza Style

My friend G cooked up a storm! It was absolutely, magically delicious!
Wara Einab- Stuffed Grape Leaves. They were DIVINE. So rich and tasty and so plentiful too.

Lotso of babaganoush, taboule, stuffed zucchini and eggplant too!

AMAZING!

Count my lucky sunsets

Some count their lucky stars, I count the lucky sunsets I have the pleasure of seeing outside my bedroom window. I don't know if I'll ever have this view from my bed again.

deLIGHTful!

When the building crumbles

After "Cast Lead," the war in Gaza ending in early 2009- buildings and home were left destroyed throughout the Gaza Strip. I went to visit one of the engineers from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP and he showed me some of the innovative materials that they were trying to make now that half of Gaza was left in crumbles. The rubble removal project lasted over a year after the war, and there are still many buildings that are yet to be completely demolished.

Here's the problem-- the rubble was removed- step 1, but nothing else is happening. There is barely any reconstruction happening becuase no materials are allowed into the Gaza strip to enable actual reconstruction. Lately there has been some wood allowed in- and a very small amount of cement under very controlled means- through the United Nations. Certainly not enough to even start making a dent.

UNDP is left with hundreds of tons of rubble, and ideas sparked in terms of what could be done with the carcasses of destroyed houses. The engineer showed me one of the little ideas they had which was using it as the filler for this cactus plant, below:

But the bigger and better idea is to make these sort of cinder blocks out of rubble. The only problem-- it needs a lot of cement. Enough was allowed in to re-pave one road- it looks great, but it seems to be at a standstill at this point.

"Just add spices"

Ok, my eternal issue in Gaza is that conversations about food usually go like this:

Me: Oh my gosh, this food is DIVINE, this is the most delicious thing I've ever tasted. HOW did you make this?

Palestinian woman: Oh it's SO easy.

Me: How? What did you put in it??

Palestinian woman: Chicken, rice

Me: AND?

Palestinian woman: And spices

Me: What spices?

Palestinian woman: Chicken spices

Or "maklouba spices" or "fish spices" or "maftoule spices"-- Maftoule is CousCous in Palestine. Usually my response is "but, but, how do I get the Maftoule spices"--the answer is "go to the spice shop and just tell the guy you want Maftoule spices"-- I then have to explain, look once I leave here-- there isn't going to be a spice man!

It's usually a nightmare trying to figure out what the heck these magical mixes have in them. My friend Dawne even joked about taking them to a laboratory and getting the spices identified. It's not a far-fetched idea.

This pattern happened again when I went to get some roasted chicken, this chicken is from Jerjawi, the best chicken place in town. These succulent chickens are stuffed with divine rice covered in "spices"- they also put lots of lemons on top of it and a final magic 'spice'--

I asked everyone, what's this spice, WHAT is this spice? "Chicken spice" everyone responded.

Living Vicariously Through Others

My movement restrictions these days impede me from prancing around Gaza, but others can- so I'm living vicariously through them. I claim no credit to the lovely pictures below taken by my friend Patricia. Today they went on an exciting tour of Gaza, on the hunt for mosaics, roman ruins and other goodies.

The romans pretty much made their mark as far as they possible could, and Gaza wasn't left out. Unfortunately, due to bigger priorities-- Gaza's ruins and antiques aren't protected under glass and kept in perfect temperatures, but there are still a few items left preserved.
Below, the image of the tomb (or the monsatery- not clear) of Saint Hilarion. He was born south of Gaza and spent most of his life as an anchorite (withdraws from secular society for prayer). After reading a bit more about St. Hilarion-- I do wish I could go and visit this place myself!
St. Hilarion was "beset by carnal thoughts"- hence decided to go on a wild diet that sounds excruciating- no wonder he started seeing deamons. He kept a close diary of his diet which included:

"from 20-23: half a pint of lentils moistened with cold water
23-27: dry bread with salt and water
27-30: wild herbs and roots
31-35: six ounces of barley bread, and boiled vegetables without oil
After that, he suffered from signs of malnutrition, his eyesight grew poor, his body shrivelled and he developed dry mange and scabs, so he had to slightly modify his diet.
35-63: six ounces of barley bread, and boiled vegetables with oil
63-80: six ounces of water, boiled vegetables with oil and a broth made from flour and crushed herbs, taken after sunset"
A baptismal bath?
The gatekeeper, a 90 year old sweet woman who carries the key to this magical place.

Gaza's warm climate is bringing up beautiful bright flowers as others die due to lack of water.

Last but not least the fabulous Byzantine mosaic still preserved. It is kept covered with a clot and sand over it to reduce the damage, though you can see the little mosaic pieces falling off in the corners. Some interesting details at this link.