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CHAPTER 84

Iveenia — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 05:37:46 -0800

I heard bad things abt the El Chadra Hospital – i.e. people were stealing there and I better left the things at home which were beautiful – it also had to do with the „eye“. That famous eye people have on you or your kids or your belongings. So all my jewels and all the nice things like the milk pump and the gadgets I had to leave at home. I washed an old sports bag and when it was washed it looked like new. Brilliant… I left my Tumi stuff at home – was too expensive.
***
Salah went to the fish market the other day and brought a baby beaudroie (angler fish). I love that one. Unfortunately he had cut off the cheeks, the best part of that fish. They knew… In Libya you get all to buy or to stand with a “big” mouth… Salah wanted to buy one of those lobsters which look like a round plate – very ancient – like a fossil (no kidding). Yet the fish seller wanted 50 Dinars for it – that was stealing! Salah refused – he even replied: you are crazy, that is too expensive. Well – he witnessed a Japanese who paid the price… I told Salah when he was back – you see – some people pay anything even a hundred Dollars for a piece of a whale… Actually then the fish sellers are right: if the price is paid for that – they should sell it for that price. They would be darn stupid if they did not!
Japan had the biggest share of the fish market – they were buying most of the tuna and had it ready for export. Years ago they were fishing at night and sailing away i.e. stealing. Now they were almost in control of the tuna market. And with this the prices went sky high; above all tuna fish. At that time – in 2002/2003 you were only able to get canned Libyan tuna when having special connections – i.e. underhand…
There was this shop with an old man – he sold tuna fish sandwiches. Per day he made a turnover of abt 1’000 Dinars – ONLY with sandwiches – one sandwich cost 0.50 Dinars (half a Dinar). They were so delicious, the shop was ALWAYS FULL. Bankers, dealers, police-men YOU FOUND ANYONE in his shop! All were buying at least 4 to 5 sandwiches. He prepared the Harissa all by himself – the olive oil was fm his gardens and the olives, too – the tomatoes were fm the market. Salah knew him. Of course he never revealed his special recipe Also the buns he used were just matching – it was a delicious all together.
Salah brought them home and we have eaten them there. Unfortunately the old man gave his shop to his sons and they did not prepare the food the way dad used to so the quality rapidly went down the drain… WHAT A PITY!
***
I prepared the anglerfish with fennel, butter, dill, Aceto di Modena, olive oil and some lemon. The bones I used to prepare the sauce. I added onions, fresh and young ones, some pepper corns and fresh parsley. Salah was full as a tick – he had eaten so much. The starter was a red beet with wasabi Roquefort sauce and a green salad with a mustard and fresh onion sauce.
The only thing which was really sour was the milk – he had ordered it the night before and only went the next day… Well his bad. Yet he went back to the shop and asked for compensation. Does any wife know a husband, who has got “one” mistake? I don’t. They are ALL perfect… At least that is how they see themselves so I will NEVER intervene! I had a discussion with the daughter of my gynaecologist – even she did agree on that.
She even had a story to it: there was an actress who said: men are the heads – even so her husband did not agree on it: she said: You are the heads, yet we are your necks, so wherever you want to turn YOUR heads to – WE will let you turn it the way you will have to turn… - oh how true and how
I told her the story abt Eve and God – had to explain it to her, because she did not get it in the first place. Then I said: God is neither male nor female – God is pure love and light. At the end we were just giggling so her father (my gynaecologist) asked what we were laughing abt: I told him – that he would not wish to know… i.e. it would be Gossip – (Gurma) and would be racist; i.e. hostile to men… We the three women in the consulting room had the time of our life; i.e. we enjoyed ourselves tremendously. The nurse said to my husband: you take care of your wife she is a precious woman; and woe betide you, then you will know me differently… Dr. Mermesh pretended not to have heard a word. I was only laughing, she was fm the south i.e. she had a dark skin and I just loved her. Felt as if she was my sister. I was never in that “color” thing for me people have a heart or nothing.
The two midwives who worked for Dr. Mermesh, were tough women but had a big heart. I really felt at home there.

Chapter 7 - Libya - 2008/08/06

Iveenia — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:00:24 -0700

pls note that the next chapter will be posted only on Thursday - LOL

Chapter 7
You could also find bitter beverages (San Pellegrino is very well known with its San Bitter). There was the Libyan one and the one fm Tunisia. The one fm Tunisia I did not really like. The Libyan assortment was actually huge: you found Mirinda (orange lemonade), Pepsi, Bitter, Seven up, Apple, Grape and other mixtures there. Normally I hate lemonade. But when you are pregnant, you start liking things you never really were fond of. It was the Seven up, Bitter and the Mirinda which I was forced to drink, anyway my body was ruled by my daughter, I only had a little place left there... Years before I hated even all Cola drinks – now I was crazy abt Pepsi and later abt Pepsi Twist (Coca Cola was not available in the beginning or very rarely and then it was only a left over stock).
Well, normal cheese and toilet paper I really missed so much then. The toilet paper WAS ABSOLUTELY AWFUL. It did not “stand” anything. You cleaned with it, it became crumbly and stuck on the most stupid places…
The choice of cheese, (please be aware that all were specially treated, i.e. including a shelf live of at least 6 months...) fm France and the Netherlands was moderate. Only sorts like Emmental, Gouda, Edam were receivable. Later you would find also Maasdam, smoked cheese and others. Mozzarella was far fm good. Mostly Denmark or other countries which were not fm southern Europe did produce that one. Migros or Coop would have made the deal of their lives. But nobody wanted to expand to Libya. Even Salah’s uncle had tried that before but had been brushed off. We were lucky anyway and found Société Roquefort and Parmiggiano. We also found Tempo paper handkerchiefs. And we were even so lucky to find Bounty kitchen paper. Yet those prices were the same as the Swiss ones.
Should you wish to send letters to Switzerland you were positively surprised: only 2 Dinars incl. registered mail and air mail.
Vegetables in Libya were an absolute dream! Freshly fm the market. Fruit like melons, 10 pieces during the melon season cost 1 Swiss Frank (= 1 Dinar). Watermelons were even bigger than in Italy. Honey melons ripened later than the watermelons and the regular melons but they were absolutely delicious! Then we had date season. My dad would have gone nuts abt all these sorts! Anyway, when we were kids he always used to say: You got a brain like a dried date. Which meant you did not think / reflect well…
When we did not notice something he used to say: you have got kale leaves in front of your eyes.
When he was upset of me: he called me soup hen. A normal hen would not do the trick, it had to be a soup hen…
So it has always been something out of the kitchen…
I am not upset of that. You can cook with those ingredients…
Restaurants in Tripoli:
You were able to dine out fine! There were three very good fish restaurants. One was even too much for our budget: one person was 150 Swiss Franks (i.e. 150 Libyan Dinars). The other ones were not so expensive. We went to those.
Later we found some kind of a Chinese restaurant. Philippine people cooked there. It was really delicious. Then you found Turkish and Lebanese kitchen in Tripoli. The Lebanese kitchen is the best in Arabic countries. All Arabs will tell you that. Ketchup was also a chapter. Some restaurants were preparing Ketchup themselves. You won’t believe the fine quality. Yet lots of countries sold alimentary goods there: mostly Malta, Italy, France, Denmark, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Greece, Spain and also Switzerland. Later you would find American and British products there.
Anyway, back to Ketchup: I never really liked it. But I was truly crazy abt that one… I ordered a lot of French fries and it was so delicious to eat that. Unfortunately not all restaurants knew how to prepare French fries the way they should have done it. The oil temperature was mostly too cold and then the fries were totally soaked on oil and fed my heartburn…
They also did not know a lot abt grilling meat. Some put all meat on the same grill without cleaning it. So you had sometimes lamb or beef which tasted like chicken. In the beginning Pizza was the worst. Neither dough nor the stuff which was on it was eatable. We gave up. My husband baked it at home and told his family how to prepare a good dough. HE had learnt that in Switzerland once, when we did not even know each other.
Later you were able to find good pizzerias.

Drinking in LA by Bran Van 3000

Nikitainthesection — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 19:47:28 -0700

Like this song. Enjoy!

Hi, my name is Stereo Mike.
Yeah, we got three tickets to the Bran Van concert
happening this Monday night at the Pacific Pallisades.
You can all dial in if you want to answer
a couple of questions, namely,
what is Todd's favorite cheese.
Jackie just called up and said it was a form of Roquefort.
We'll see about that...
Give us a ring-ding-ding! It's a beautiful day.
Yeah Todd, this is Liquid ring-a-ding-a-dinging,
want those three Bran Van tickets man. Waddya think?
Todd, you there?
I woke up again this morning with the sun in my eyes,
When Mike came over with a script surprise.
A Mafioso story with a twist,
A "Too Wong Foo, Julie Newmar" hitch,
Get your ass out of bed, he said:
I'll explain it on the way.
But we did nothing, absolutely nothing that day, and I say:
What the hell am I doing drinking in L.A. at 26?
I got the fever for the flavour, the payback will be later, still I need a fix.
And the girls on the bus kept on laughing at us,
As we rode on the ten down to Venice again.
Flaring out the G-Funk,
Sipping on a juice and gin,
Just me and a friend.
Feeling kinda groovy,
Working on a movie. (Yeah right!)
But we did nothing, absolutely but kiss that day, and I say:
What the hell am I doing drinking in L.A. at 26?
With my mind on my money and my money on my... Beer, beer!
I know that life is for the taking, so I better wise up, and take it quick.
Yeah, one more time at Trader Vic's.
Some men there wanted to hurt us,
And other men said we weren't worth the fuss.
We could see them all b*tching by the bar,
About the fine line, between the rich and the poor.
Then Mike turned to me and said:
"What do you think we got done son?"
We've got a conclusion, and I guess that's something, so I ask you:
What the hell am I doing drinking in L.A. at 26?
I got the fever for the nectar, the payback will be later, still I need a fix.
We need to fix you up, call me Monday and maybe we'll fix it all up.
Hell-A-L.A., Hell hell-A-L.A.! ...
So I ask you:
What the hell am I doing drinking in L.A. at 26?
Hell-A-L.A., Hell hell-A-L.A.

Eggplant Dip with Blue Cheese

GiggleSugar — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:24:45 -0800

This would be nice to bring to a party as an appetizer. It was a big hit at Thanksgiving...It serves A LOT of people. You could cut it in half and it would serve about 6.

2 large eggplants
1 small onion
4 ounces of good blue cheese, preferably French Roquefort
2 cloves of garlic, minced
6 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil

1. Dice the eggplant (small cubes)
2. Salt it (about 2 tablespoon salt), mix it and let it sit 10 minutes
3. Chop the onion.
4. Heat olive oil in a saute pan til it's hot, add eggplant and stir only a couple times in four minutes.
5. Add onion and stir a couple times only for another four minutes. Throw the garlic in, stir for about 30 seconds, and remove everything from heat.
6. Take a food processor or blender and blend it all together. Let it cool. Add 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.
7. Add fresh ground pepper, stir in 4 ounces of blue cheese...and you're done. YUMMALICIOUS!
Eat with crackers of your choice.
Giggle