10 things we've done since I last wrote

I haven't written in a while. So one jumbled post of stuff we've done these last two weeks:

1. Sent Christmas packages out in hopes of beating the rush of military packages which can take weeks in December.

2. Put our NetFlix account on hold because of the dreadful mail in December.

3. Wrapped Christmas presents in very non-Christmas wrapping paper because we can't find it here.

4. Made reservations for Thanksgiving dinner at Uri Buri a restaurant in Akko (Northern Israel) that was highly recommended to us - I think Stephanie mentioned salmon with wasabi ice cream.

5. Read a lot (but not all of) my book group's monthly selection - Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. He is the neurologist who wrote "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and this was a collection of anecdote/cases of the brain and music and I just didn't care.

6. Celebrated Thanksgiving early with our Dinner Club - with a turkey and all of the fixings. We unfortunately burned our stuffing (which neither of us realized you could do) but the pies were tasty and the salted caramel ice cream (a copy of the Berthillon recipe) was scrumptious. Thank you blogger/author David Lebovitz. It did however trash the kitchen multiple times since you make caramel twice (which I can't do without getting it all over the stovetop) and then make the custard base. My ice cream maker also failed mid-way - I think the motor+ transformer combination was a bad one - so it was literally "hand-churned."

7. Figured out how to watch iTunes videos on our television (which will help with the NetFlix absence)

8. Called home to find out how my Dad was recovering from his broken ribs - which he earned in Costa Rica.

9. Served as the control officer for Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. Unfortunately, her visit was cut short by the need to dash back to DC to lobby for automakers.

10. Bought stocks that we thought were really cheap but then managed to fall further.

Iron Chef Jordan

Each month our dinner club gets together for a themed potluck. In October, the theme was Iron Chef. I have only watched Iron Chef a couple of times and not recently but as our hosts explained to us - the idea of the show is that at the last minute the competitors are given the secret ingredient which they must incorporate into their recipes. Our secret ingredient was pumpkin (and we had been assigned a side dish). Pumpkin - great! Except the Embassy store which is usually the source of weird American-only ingredients (taco seasoning, instant pudding, marshmallow fluff) was out of pumpkin (no doubt someone dashed in and bought a dozen cans in preparation for Thanksgiving).

Dan and I visited multiple Jordanian grocery stores and found no canned pumpkin. Stores were selling enormous pumpkins but those aren't the kind of pumpkin that you cook with. In one store, we found a can of pumpkin pie spice - which was helpful because it gave us the word for pumpkin but it wasn't something we needed it is just a mixture of spices we already own. We then decided that pumpkin doesn't really have a flavor and that the dominant flavor in pumpkin bread or pie is really cinnamon. So we created "pumpkin cornbread" and seasoned it heavily with cinnamon and nutmeg and dyed it orange. To add authenticity we decorated it with pumpkin seeds which were were able to find.

At dinner, we tried to keep our lack of a secret ingredient a secret but failed (not because it didn't taste pumpkiny) but because our fellow cooks wondered why we were acting weird in talking about our dish (we are apparently terrible liars). Our fellow cooks apparently all bought enormous pumpkins and made dishes with actual pumpkin - here delicious pumpkin bean dip and yummy pumpkin soup (and a beautiful Syrian table).

Our same group will be celebrating Thanksgiving together. I do not think there will be any pumpkin pie.

Our New Favorite Restaurant

If anyone had asked us for the pros and cons of life in Amman, we would rave about the beautiful weather, Jordanian hospitality and the innumerable day trips out to antiquities sites. But we'd acquiesce that we hadn't found any restaurants that we LOVE for the food. There is admittedly very good Lebanese food and we really, really like shwarma but that is about it. But now we have eaten at the Four Seasons and discovered that there is good food in Amman. It sounds like a bourgeois cop-out - but we've had similarly expensive bad (or underwhelming) food at the Sheraton and the Grand Hyatt. Coincidentally, I have now eaten at the Four Seasons 3 times in 7 days.

Our first meal (and indeed my favorite) was the Four Seasons Friday brunch. It was this month's destination for our dinner club (and the poshest and most expensive destination by far at $50 per head. Last month we ate mansaf at a cafeteria for $6). It is set up like the Kennedy Center brunch (do they still have it?) where you are welcomed into the kitchen and there are different stations set up - last week the kitchen featured:

- Carving station with beef and lamb

- Risotto station

- Falafel (which you can get for 2 for $1 elsewhere and which none of us ate)

- A taco bar which likewise I could not bring myself to eat given the hefty price tag of the lunch but which fellow diners swore was the best they have eaten in the Middle East

- A German stuffing/pork casserole thing

- An Asian station

- A sushi bar which I think all of us visited at least once

- A bloody mary bar

There was also a salad bar, a raw bar, a tapas display, a grill making kebabs and a buffet with Indian food. After this we ate dessert and I was able to show off my pastry training by being able to identify a "charlotte."

My favorite food items: raw oysters (which I probably should avoid anywhere else in Jordan); a delicious spicy soup; and the prime rib. I don't know where they are importing their non-vegetable ingredients from - but clearly no one else in Jordan uses their distributor. It was a wonderful meal.

Two more meals at the Four Seasons:

That evening, Dan and I went to the Marine Birthday ball which was also held at the Four Seasons. Amazingly, the hotel was able to serve 350 people delicious food - we weren't at all hungry having just had an enormous brunch but then happily ate our seafood salad, steak, and homemade ice cream with delicious butter cookies for dessert.

Last night, I had a work dinner welcoming a business delegation from Michigan. It too was held at the Four Seasons and again delicious. I'm not sure I will ever eat anywhere else - except the Four Seasons probably doesn't make shwarma and come to think of it, $50 falafel is a bit much, so maybe Jordan's other restaurants will still get our patronage.

Disclosure: the Four Seasons' owner's son is a friend, but please, Jordan is a small country. If we didn't visit (or write about) places where I know the owner, there wouldn't be many places we could go.

Alexandria

School was closed for Eid. Young Alexandrians were showing off their new clothes and buying sweets along the corniche.

We are outside the Citadel of Qaitbey, where the lighthouse once stood, one of the original ancient wonders of the world.


Dates just waiting to be picked at Montazah


Wildlife at Montazah


Haramlik Palace where the Egyptian President often hosts visitors

Coptic Cairo

Outside the museum, near ancient Coptic sites in Cairo

A grotto beneath one of the ancient Coptic churches is believed to be the hideout used by the Holy Family as they fled Herod (sorry, no photos) Matthew 2:13 says Jesus and his family fled to Egypt to avoid Herod's wrath. Luke 2:22 says they remained with him in Palestine. Guess which version they subscribe to in Cairo?

Walking along the corniche

Historical Preservation in Trinidad

Featured in today's NYTimes home section, is this adorable house. I believe the Embassy in Port of Spain is located in the same neighborhood but lacks charm. We expect to live in a Miami-style high-rise with no gingerbread trim.

Alexandria Library

Wow, we still haven't posted all of our Egypt pictures.

Another installment... On our third day, we headed to Alexandria. In another blog entry we will eventually tell you about our dreadful tour guide but the highlight of our day was seeing the new Biblioteca Alexandrina - the new library in honor of the old library at Alexandria. The actual collection was pretty modest but the building was beautiful. Situated with a view of the Mediteranean, the building was covered with examples of every known written alphabet.

The library includes a large cultural center and their website shows that we missed the class on reading hieroglyphics.

The lion head writing was one of our favorites.

Blackberry holiday

Yesterday was Veteran's Day - which is why we were able to head up Um Qais on a weekend. Yesterday also turned out to be a Blackberry holiday. Nearly everyone in the Embassy has a Blackberry - which is good for productivity (especially on Fridays when Jordan celebrates the weekend and DC keeps working) - but is very poor for letting one actually have a weekend. But yesterday the Blackberry gods (or demons) were smiling and while the phone feature still worked no email came in (and hence no new work). Now when I go into the office this morning those email will be there but the break was welcome.

What a difference some rain makes

Umm Qais November 2008Last December, we made a day trip up to Umm Qais - in very Northern Jordan with views into Israel of the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights (formerly Syria). We and our fellow daytrippers had all remembered it as one of our very favorite places in Jordan - with the same Roman ruins as everywhere; a nice restaurant; and GREENERY. We returned yesterday and while the ruins are still interesting (thought to be the site of Jesus turning demons into pigs); and the restaurant still a tasty source of hummus; a long drought has meant that it wasn't very green. Jordan is very very dry and people don't even try to create lush green grass like in Arizona (except in the Ambassador's backyard which is beautifully green) - but northern Jordan tends to be greener than everywhere else.

Umm Qais December 2007We did eat tasty hummus and my favorite mezze -shanklish -which is a spicy goat cheese dip. This restaurant did not make a very tasty mint lemonade. Mint lemonade is one thing that I will miss a lot from Jordan (also available in Israel and Egypt and presumably elsewhere in the Middle East). It is lemonade with very finely chopped mint added to it (like a virgin mojito). It varies greatly from restaurant to restaurant, however - and varies in color from yellow to dark green depending on how minty it is; it is sometimes in slushy format; and sometime like yesterday it is more sour than sweet. My favorite mint lemonade is available at Crumz, a sandwich place near the Embassy - it is sweet, slushy and pretty green.

Election Night and the Day After

Last night the Embassy hosted an election night party - I think many embassies do this and in South America you'd be staying up late just like you would in the states. Here in Amman, we stayed up late just waiting for the polls to close and to get a glimmer of the result. We made it until 1:00 (polls not closed anywhere except Dixville Notch NH). The party was a huge success - for the first time ever - large numbers of people were calling my office trying to get on the guest list (this doesn't happen at the more typical embassy reception in honor of a visiting violinist or trade delegation.)




The party started at 9:00 with a mock debate with two teachers playing the two candidates followed by other formal programming. Dan has designed the playlist so fun music came through between speakers praising the virtues of democracy. I and a Jordanian colleague were in charge of a presidential trivia contest - sample questions below. The winning table had a mixture of Americans (who had a pretty big advantage) and a few Jordanians who could help with the "what gift did President Eisenhower give King Hussein" questions.



Prior to the party, a local bakery offered to donate cookies to the event. The Embassy was interested in the offer until it heard that the cookies were decorated with just one of the candidate's names. The Embassy asked if plain cookies could be delivered or if the cookies could be decorated 50/50 between the two candidates. The bakery refused and no cookies were at the party. But fortunately for we cookie-eaters, a box of cookies arrived in my office today bearing the name of the new president-elect - we'll just have to assume that if the election went the other way I would still be eating delicious cookies.








1. How many presidents were elected president without winning the popular vote?

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 4

Answer: D) 4 John Quincy Adams 1824 (elected by Congress) over Andrew Jackson. Rutherford B Hayes 1876 (declared the Electoral College winner by an Electoral Commission) over Samuel J Tilden. Benjamin Harrison 1888 over Grover Cleveland. George W Bush 2000 over Albert Gore.



12. Who has NOT been to Jordan in the last 18 months?

A) Sen. Obama
B) Sen. McCain
C) Sen. Clinton
D) First Lady Laura Bush

Answer: C) Sen. Clinton. Senator Obama visited in July; Senator McCain visited in March; and First Lady Laura Bush visited in October 2007.



19. What was the last state admitted to the union?

A) Governor Palin’s home state of Alaska
B) Senator Obama’s birth state of Hawaii
C) Senator McCain’s home state of Arizona
D) Senator Biden’s birth state of Pennsylvania

Answer: B) Hawaii. Nicknamed the "The Aloha State," Hawaii became the 50th state admitted into the Union on August 21, 1959. Alaska was admitted into the Union on January 3, 1959, becoming the 49th state. Arizona, nicknamed the "Grand Canyon State," was admitted into the Union on February 14, 1912, becoming the Nation's 48th state and the last in the continental United States. Pennsylvania was one of the founding 13 colonies.





20. Who has appeared on the comedy show The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 13 times?

A) Sen. Obama
B) Sen. McCain
C) Sen. Biden
D) Gov. Palin

Answer: B) Senator McCain. Senator McCain has been a guest more often than any other person.