Rami Zurayk, Mr. Slow Food Lebanon (but so much more) went to Aleppo a couple of weeks ago. His pictures of the food souk here:
Photo by Rami Zurayk, 2009
Read Rami's blog for third world food politics, sustainable agriculture in the Middle East, and traditional Lebanese food. Rami also travels to places like Irbil and Cairo and documents what to eat.
Brooklyn seen from lower Manhattan.
Whenever I go to New York, I walk to this waterfront with a copy of Whitman's poems, I read "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" aloud while looking at the East River, and I cry. Look for me weeping on Friday morning at Columbia Heights.
American University of Beirut Museum
I leave today for the long journey home. Posting will be light or non-existent until I reach the internet cafe in Mieh-Mieh. Until then, be well...
Others will enter the gates of the ferry, and cross from shore to shore;
others will watch the run of the flood-tide;
Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east;
Others will see the islands large and small;
Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an hour high;
A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them,
Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring in of the flood-tide, the falling back to the sea of the ebb-tide.
3
It avails not, neither time or place—distance avails not:
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence;
I project myself—also I return—I am with you, and know how it is.
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt;
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd;
Just as you are refresh’d by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh’d;
Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood, yet was hurried;
Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships, and the thick-stem’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d.
...
I loved well those cities;
I loved well the stately and rapid river;
The men and women I saw were all near to me;
Others the same—others who look back on me, because I look’d forward to them;
(The time will come, though I stop here to-day and to-night.)
5
What is it, then, between us?
What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?
Whatever it is, it avails not—distance avails not, and place avails not.
6
I too lived—Brooklyn, of ample hills, was mine;
I too walk’d the streets of Manhattan Island, and bathed in the waters around it;
I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me,
In the day, among crowds of people, sometimes they came upon me,
In my walks home late at night, or as I lay in my bed, they came upon me.
Where you'll find me in Damascus insha'allah: Bab Tuma, the quarter where Saul stayed after he was blinded on the road and became the apostle Paul. We're going to a boutique hotel in an old Damascene house, complete with its own Turkish bath.
Through the wonders of Facebook I've learned of the television craze transfixing the Arab world this month: Bab al-Hara 3 - the third year of a month-long historical soap opera set in a fictional neighborhood of Damascus in the early 20th century. They run the series every night during Ramadan, and it's popular among Arab Christians and Jews as well as Muslims. Several of my young cousins mentioned it on Facebook so I looked it up. You can even see clips of previous series on YouTube.
The series depicts a fictional quarter of Damascus with all its characters and dramas, perhaps in the tradition of Naguib Mahfouz' novel, Midaq Alley. (Harat al-Midaq). Maybe I'll reread Midaq Alley for a little refresher. I also have a memoir of a woman who grew up in Damascus, and a biography of Asmahan, the famous Syrian/Druze singer (who made her career in Egypt).
I almost got to eat enough blackberries on Bainbridge Island.
Brother-in-law made paella on the barbecue.
Local salad mix.
Bainbridge-Seattle ferry.
Deborah Madison: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
Indispensable - I use it all the time, and give it as presents to brides, young people starting out, etc. Not for vegetarians only - hence the title - a great resource for anybody wanting delicious recipes for vegetables, grains and legumes. Great sauces and salads, too.
Claudia Roden: Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon
Excellent in-depth cultural and social essays on three major cuisines; the recipes include the standards as well as unusual dishes, and the photographs are gorgeous. A great gift book - the Dove asked for and got it for Christmas.