Malaysia: Truly Asia, Day 1

As I finally approached day 100 in Baghdad, Farrell and I started brainstorming potential vacation destinations, knowing that we wanted somewhere cheap, warm and full of amazing food. Brazil? A difficult visa process and a bit too far away. Vietnam? A less difficult visa process, but still a bit too daunting on such short notice. We decided to roll the dice with Western Malaysia, despite that most of the travel guides warned about “monsoon season”. Psh! A little rain never hurt anyone, and with temperatures in the high 30s, it sounded like a guaranteed cooling-system to me.

So off we went to Malaysia!

We arrived around 6am; it was still dark as we left the airport, but the sky brightened as we approached the city. For the first part of the ride, the highway weaves between what seemed like rainforests. It was a welcome change after several months of beige living conditions. Slowly the dense fog rose and gave way to the bustling capital city of Kuala Lumpor.

Our hotel, the Bintang Warisan, is located on Jalan Bukit Bintang. At first glance, it’s a street full of massage parlors and luggage stores, and was surprisingly busy at all hours of the day, even 8am. I have to admit though, despite all of the activity that early in the morning, it wasn’t enough to inspire me to hit the ground running. Our hotel room wasn’t even available to us for several hours…it’s as if Malaysia was sending us a sign to skip sleep and go out exploring!

And explore we did!…after a refreshing nap at a shady hotel located conveniently next to our nice one. So that was the first lesson about KL travel: cheap hotels are never hard to find, as long as you give up creature comforts such as windows, are okay with the smell (and sight) of moldy walls, and can deal with the front-desk’s paranoia that you will, in fact, try to steal something. Most also employ a gaggle of Malaysian women who aggressively advertise massages or…umm…other “services”, depending on the time of day.

Eventually we made it back to Bintang Warisan, a truly enjoyable hotel hidden beneath the hundreds of neon reflexology signs that clog most store fronts. Farrell and I kept it simple for our first Malaysian meal, having lunch at the Heritage Coffeehouse, conveniently located next to the hotel. I didn’t know it, but I chose a standard for Malaysian cuisine: Nasi Lemak.

And what a perfect introduction to Malaysian food. “Nasi” means rice; the star of this dish. A warm mound of fragrant coconut rice surrounded by all kinds of flavors and textures. A few pieces of moist chicken cooked in a tumeric-based curry sauce that had caramelized into crunchy flecks on some parts. Pickled veggies with the right amount of heat and retaining just enough raw crunch in the center. Peanuts mixed with dried anchovies for texture and saltiness. Sweet and spicy sambal, a sauce made from chilies, vinegar and onions that was scooped up perfectly with the smooth and airy chips.

On their own, each part is perfectly adequate, but you cannot achieve the full depth of the dish without mixing various elements for new combinations of flavors and textures.

Somehow, in my bleary, jet-lagged state, I was too enraptured with my dish to remember anything about Farrell’s, a fried noodle dish that he enjoyed very much.

I washed it all down with the first of the week’s many (many!) coffees that was thick and syrupy with sweetened condensed milk. With my raging sweet tooth, it definitely staved off a need for dessert at that point…(but not for long!)

Eventually, we did move away from our immediate surroundings and nearly got lost in the process, but more on that next time.

*Malaysia post disclaimer: I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a vacation more jam-packed than this one. So, seriously, there will be a lot of posts on Malaysia.

Life in the sandbox, and the future of IP

I know, I know! It has been far too long since I last updated this site. In fact, I haven’t written a blog post since coming back to Baghdad. And now? I’m about to head out again, for a real vacation this time. Me and Boo are heading to Malaysia (simply Asia) for about a week and a half. I’m looking forward to wandering around in a real city and stuffing myself full of delicious street food.

(and not working, but I suppose that’s implied)

So what happened between my night in Amman and now? What happened to all those blog posts I was talking about? Bagels, homemade pasts, vanilla custard tarts…? I haven’t forgotten about them. In fact, I think about them often when I go to the cafeteria and find out that tonight’s “Asian noodle dish” was last night’s “Italian pasta medley” mixed with soggy vegetables and soy sauce…blugh!

But pretty much, life intervened. My previously three-person team was reduced to two, and a vague promise to bring that up to four people has not yet materialized. What does that mean for Ivory Pomegranate? Less time for everything, especially blogging.

So I’ve spent my recent days reading news, watching news, listening to news, briefing news, thinking about news, eating and sleeping (sometimes). One day I counted all of the online news articles that I read, and it was 58. They ranged from small breaking news blips, the ones that news wires publish with one line just so they can have the earliest time stamp when more information comes out later (don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to, Reuters!), to longer features pieces on topics ranging from Iraq (duh) to most articles in the New York Times style section (love!).

I can already sense that this blog will be tweaked (or overhauled) in the coming months. There are plenty of food pictures stuffing my netbook’s memory, but the reality of my life (and I’m still trying to accept this) doesn’t facilitate food blogging.

It’s not all bad though, and Ivory Pomegranate certainly won’t disappear. I will eventually post the rest of my cooking adventures, but when the next twelve months includes (tentatively) a short return to DC, two weddings, and two possible moves to Yemen and Kyrgyzstan…I had to face it, I won’t be settled in a familiar kitchen for a long time. But I’ll have my camera, maybe a snazzy new lens, and a whole lot of time.

Or, at least, that’s the future concept.

Short-term plan? Malaysia, pictures, food, and if I can survive sacrificing sleep somewhere afterwards, maybe I’ll even blog about it.

Amman update

Just a quick update. Somehow, I went from being completely unsure about when I would return to work in Baghdad, to suddenly waking up in a plane over the Mediterranean. One minute I was introducing myself to new DC coworkers with Iraqi flag cupcakes (ooo, just wait for that post), and suddenly I was sprinting back to my apartment to pack.

So with loose ends tied up, apartment (mostly) clean, and leftover baked goods photographed and distributed, I hopped on a plane to Montreal (my first trip to Canada!) to catch a connection to Amman, Jordan. Landing in the afternoon gave me an opportunity to roam around the city a bit, though, being a lonely American girl, I limited my roaming to an area I knew well, the first through third circle area, Rainbow Street, and Books@Cafe.

Books@ (pronounced “books at”) was my favorite internet cafe back when I studied abroad in Amman in 2007, though it did sometimes get to me that it’s so…Western-style? I was craving some Arabic food, which Books@ doesn’t really offer…but I knew it would be open and full of people on a Friday night (unlike many places near my hotel), so I knew it was a safe choice. I sat out on a terrace overlooking the rolling hills of the city, and even got to witness a girl’s half-hearted attempt and picking up a cute boy, by placing a note with her contact info under his drink.

I say half-hearted because after he proceeded to look her up on Facebook, send her an email, and text her, she ignored him until he left… and yes, maybe I sound like a creeper, but I had front row seats to the drama, and it was sort of entertaining! (and heartbreaking! She didn’t even wave goodbye!)

Anyway…the road in front of Books@ is notoriously bad for catching a cab, and the more well-lit road from the cafe back to the traffic circles are one-way in the wrong direction, so I hiked all the way back to the third circle, stopping along the way for various reasons.

Well…I had to have some sort of Arabic food! The place where I got this awesome shwarma sandwich is called Cafeteria Reem. It’s nothing special, just a food stand right off of the second circle, but it’s so good and so well-known that it was even featured in the New York Times. When I lived in Amman, I was near the third circle so I frequented this stand, not only because it’s good, but because it was so cheap. Now? The portion seems a bit smaller than I remember, and the price has gone up from 45 to 65 piasters (both are less than $1), but the taste was still there. Warm pita bread with juicy lamb, fresh tomatoes slices and some sort of delicious gravy all rolled up inside. So so satisfying.

Oh come on! Like I was going to skip dessert?

Delice is also located on the second circle, and I also shopped their two years ago. I remember some friends and I stocked up on little snacks before walking to a film festival. The great part about that day was that the walk turned out to be sooooo long, it made the pastries totally worth it! And the films were pretty good too. My favorite one was an Italian film called “The Night Before Exam”.

And the pastries? Nothing extraordinary. The circular one was covered in nuts and had a slight cardamom taste. The cake part was airy and the cream was especially light. The chocolate piece could’ve had more of an actual chocolate flavor, but the apricot accents on top were nice. The cinnamon roll had a hard shell of apricot glaze that was kind of difficult for me to understand at first, but the middle was soft and went well with the glaze. My absolute favorite one was the shortbread tart.

It seemed so unassuming, but I figured something that looked so plain couldn’t possibly be bad, right? My Arabic skills were barely enough to purchase the sweets without a ridiculous number of headshakes (which mean, “I have no idea what you’re saying” in Arabic), so I didn’t even venture asking about what could possibly be inside. Sure, the filling may not look pretty, but it’s the only thing I wish I had more of right now. It was cinnamon, coconut, and roasted pistachios, bound together with something sticky sweet, and it was perfect. The crust wasn’t the typical flaky tart crust that I’m used to, but really was closer to a shortbread cookie; stable, buttery, and not too sugary.

Ahh, Amman. This officially marks the end of my strange and unexpected break from Baghdad. Hopefully the next six months will be spent in the same place (except for actual vacations), though what I gain in stability, I’ll lose in my capability to bake. Lucky for my readers (and for me too, I guess), I have plenty of posts just waiting to get up here, so the food focus of this blog won’t be lost for a while.

Baking spree: croissants

As I briefly alluded to in my previous post, being back in my DC apartment set me off on a massive baking spree. This wasn’t just, “Oh, I’ll make a big batch of cupcakes, and maybe some cookies too!” sort of baking spree. Case in point?

…homemade croissants

Seriously!? Who sets out to make croissants by hand? And I know there are plenty of fabulous recipes out there for easy croissants, but I was determined to attempt the real thing. I mean, why wouldn’t I? The way I figured, when’s the next time I’m going to have this much free time on my hands to do the things that make me happiest?

Probably not for a while, at least six months…

(and then again, with the direction my life is heading in, who knows where I’ll be in six months?)

Anyway. When I got back to my apartment Thursday night, I browsed foodgawker looking for inspiration and saw a gorgeous picture from Anice & Cannella. The step-by-step photos and instructions on her website are lengthy, but her croissants were just so flaky and perfect, I knew that I wanted to go through the whole ordeal.

So what exactly is involved with making a croissant? A lot of butter, a lot of rolling, and a lot of time. Other than that, its really not too bad!

Ingredients: (adapted from Anice & Cannella)
—
500 g flour (I used all purpose, with a bit of white whole wheat when that ran out)
275 g water
25 g butter (I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be melted or soft, but it didn’t seem right to have it cold, so I microwaved it for about 20 seconds)
8 g salt
60 g sugar (I used a bit less to ensure they wouldn’t be too sweet)
20 g yeast (this seemed like a lot, so I used about 2 1/2 teaspoons and called it good)
—
290 g butter for the “tournage” (I used about 1 2/3 sticks)
1 beaten egg and sugar to brush on before baking
chocolate chips (optional, but highly recommended)
—

First, make the dough. I have a weird habit of always proofing yeast (after way too many batches of failed bread!), but you may want to skip this step. If you want to follow my compulsion, mix together the water (which should be warmer than room temperature but not too hot), some of the sugar, and the yeast. Wait a few minutes for the yeast to bloom and rest assured that you are one step closer to fluffy croissants. Combine the yeast mixture with the remaining ingredients (or just throw everything together and combine if you’re not proofing) and knead until you have a dough that is smooth and elastic (get ready to knead away your troubles, it takes about 20 minutes).

Easy part! Put the dough in a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let rest in the fridge for up several hours (between 3-6ish).

In the meantime, prepare your butter.

There’s a delicate balance you have to achieve here. The goal is to get the block of butter to magically transform into a thin rectangle (that will be 2/3 the size of the future rolled-out dough), but you don’t want to 1) soften the butter too much, 2) make a mess, 3) hurt yourself. Cover your stick(s) of butter with flour and place it between a piece of folded wax paper. Gently (I repeat, gently! For the sake of potential broken nails, or worse!) use a rolling pin to flatten the sticks. Once I reduced the butter’s height, I used the heat of my hands to sort of nudge it into a smooth, flat rectangle.

It doesn’t have to be perfectly-shaped. After all, this is going inside the dough. Place the butter back in the fridge to chill.

Several hours later, your dough should be chilled and bigger than it was when you put it in the fridge. Take it out, dust it with flour, and roll it out to a rectangle that’s about 1/2 cm thick (I didn’t measure it exactly, but decently thin). Carefully put your butter rectangle on top of your dough rectangle, leaving some space around the edges.

Like I said…it doesn’t have to be perfect. Butter is pretty finicky…trust me!

Now you’re ready to fold. Fold the uncovered third of your dough down over half of the butter, and then fold the bottom third (with the butter) up over that. Turn the folded dough counter-clockwise so that the fold faces the right, and pinch all of the open ends shut. Gently roll it out to something near its original size and thickness.

And guess what? You do it all over! Fold it into third, turn counter-clockwise, seal the edges and roll out. Two turns down, and the poor dough is already exhausted and needs to rest. Wrap your dough in plastic wrap and rest it in the fridge for 40 minutes.

(40 minutes later!)

Take your rested dough out of the fridge and roll it out again, try to keep it pretty thin (8mm-ish if you like to measure), and fold it into thirds (just like before!). Turn it counter-clockwise, seal the edges, and back in the fridge for another 40 minutes. After that, repeat one more time (including one more 40 minute rest!)

I really highly recommend that you check out Anice & Cannella’s pictures; she illustrates each step more beautifully than I can explain them in words!

And as a side-note, I didn’t quite time all the steps too well. I finished the third round of folding around 10pm and just could not keep myself awake to finish the rest of the process…pshh! Where’s your dedication!? I know! I know! But, just in case you were wondering how strict these instructions and timings are, my dough’s 40-minute rest turned into a 9-hour coma and everything still worked out fine. (The dough was really puffy…but it was nothing a rolling pin and a bit of pent up aggression couldn’t fix!)

Now it’s time to shape the croissants, the best part! (besides eating them…of course!)

This is pretty straightforward. After the final rest (how ever long it ends up being), roll out the dough to be a long and narrow rectangle, maybe a bit thinner than you have been rolling it out previously. Slice the dough into triangles, approximately nine or ten.

Make little notches in the wide end of the triangle to help you achieve a nice wide croissant shape when you roll them. Personally, I think they kind of look like doughy little Eiffel Towers when you do that. Tres mignon!

Now is the perfect time to break out that “optional” chocolate that I mentioned earlier. Come on, if chocolate is ever an option, do you turn it down? I had some Ghiradelli dark bittersweet chocolate chips on hand, c’est manifique! Just tuck a few chips into the dough while you’re rolling it.

Seal them well! You wouldn’t want any precious chocolate to leak out while the croissants are baking. And try to tuck the points underneath the croissants so that they don’t unroll in the oven…(a problem that struck my croissants).

Almost ready to bake! The troublesome little rolls need one more nap, about 2-3 hours to rise a bit more. Go take a nap yourself! If you’re doing this all in one day, I’m sure you’ll need to rest too!

…

…

…ready now? Okay! Preheat your oven to 425 F and brush your well-rested, puffed-up croissants with egg and dust them with sugar. (I guess the sugar is optional too, but it adds a nice touch. The egg is mandatory! You will not achieve beautiful browning otherwise!)

Bake at 425 F for about 5 minutes, then lower to 350 F and bake for an additional 7-8ish minutes. Watch carefully so that the tops don’t get too brown. If you think they might, make a little foil tent to cover them.

…and after that?

Sweet or savory, buttery and flaky…the possibilities are endless. I can’t even describe how delicious these croissants were. Hands down, honestly, these were the best things I have ever made. Ever! All of the work, all of the kneading and resting and turning and folding and resting and more resting and rolling…sooo worth it. I will definitely make this recipe again.

How can I ever look at a croissant-wich the same way again when I can make things like this?

And any day that starts with a rich pain au chocolat is bound to be a great day.

In fact, any day that involves croissants is a great day!

An ode to DC

While I was studying abroad in Amman, Jordan, I planned a solo excursion to Thailand and Cambodia for three weeks after the semester was over. I may have been a bit naive about the idea, but family and friends bombarded me with requests to keep them constantly updated on my whereabouts and safety. My solution? A facebook group called “Where on Earth is Kirstin now?” Curious folks could read my updates and know that I wasn’t kidnapped, or anything horrible like that.

Once I got back to the states, the group pretty much lost its purpose. I could easily be located in class, in my dorm, or somewhere near the Foggy Bottom region. After this week, I’m thinking about starting up that group again…

So, Kirstin, where on Earth are you now?

A sudden turn of events got me out of Columbus, GA Thursday night. There I was, sitting on my scratchy, military-issued green wool blanket, emailing with various coworkers in various locations. Around 4:30 I get a message that asks if I could make a 6:25 flight…

you bet!! No thunderstorm was going to keep me from speeding (…just kidding, there was too much traffic to speed). Two flights later I was back in my beloved DC apartment. Even better? Unlimited access to my very own kitchen. I had already started a mental list of all the dishes I’m going to whip up while I’m back. Homemade pasta? Bagels? Croissants?

I know! I’m totally obsessed, just wait until I post the pictures!

Now, I didn’t just lock myself up and bake all weekend (close but not quite). I dug through my closet for a sweater and took a stroll through my usual neighborhoods, toting along my camera (packing my Rebel was the best decision I made this week!), taking pictures and appreciating all of the little things that I’ve longed for while away.

On this particular Saturday, I was searching for the Dupont Circle farmer’s market…but somehow I didn’t find it. I don’t know if it’s already closed for the season, if it was already closed for the day, or I was searching in the wrong place…I’m the first to admit that I’m a bit directionally-challenged.

Instead, I just strolled along, browsed a vintage shop, and stopped into Teaism (inconveniently located next to a Starbucks?) for an afternoon tea. Feeling particularly deserving of an extravegent treat, I dropped $8 on a bar of “haut chocolate” from a counter display; Vosges’ Naga Bar with sweet Indian curry and coconut flakes.

There’s a lengthy story on the back of the box about the inspiration for this flavor combination, and instructions on how to fully immerse your senses with the exotic candy bar. Unfortunately, I’m too impatient to let the chocolate completely melt in my mouth (as instructed), but sitting next to the window, with sun streaming over my hand, it’s almost as if I really intended to let the piece slowly get soft, releasing its essence of curry and coconut. Obviously, they wouldn’t sell a candy bar that tasted like something you’d buy at a cheap Indian restaurant. The curry flavor is so subtle, that you don’t actually know its there. Just creamy milk chocolate with hints of coconut, and then eventually you realize that you’re thinking about a different flavor… Suddenly there’s a earthiness wafting through your senses…you can just barely smell it, but you know its there, and it sticks in your mind just like the melted chocolate sticks to your fingers.

There were other (weirder) flavors available; while I was feeling adventurous enough to spend so much on the bar in the first place, I wasn’t brave enough to tackle the smoked bacon bar… and since I was ordering an actual cup of tea, I also passed on the matcha green tea flavor.

The tea…oh goodness, the tea. Teaism is an adorable little place right off of Dupont Circle. There are stacks and stacks of all kinds of teas, but…in my limited knowledge of the finer nuances of tea selection…I opted for a simple mug of chai. It was possibly the best cup of chai I’ve ever had (my apologies to Starbucks and Green Beans!). The first thing that sets it apart from other chai-flavored beverages is that it’s made from actual loose tea that’s brewed with real spices like ginger, cinnamon, and clove. I’ve had other brewed chai teas where the spices come through too strong and are too sharp and bitter. It’s really easy to go overboard, especially with the clove. Teaism’s chai, on the other hand, was sooo smooth and creamy. Not overpowering at all and perfectly balanced. Teaism is located in an old (“vintage”) building, beat up and chipped stairs, all of those charming, decorative accessories like window latches and door handles. So I took my fancy chocolate and giant mug (a real mug!) of delectable chai and sat next to one of the upstairs window; prime location for people-watching from above.

(yes…I know I’m a bit of a creeper)

NPR was blaring from the speakers and hipsters with oversized sunglasses came and went while I adjusted the sugar canister and fiddled with the settings on my camera, taking artful still life shots. Gosh, the sophistication of this city is just too much for me sometimes…

And this is just one afternoon! There’s so much more to come, so check back soon!

Crisps for all seasons

Another day, another briefing, another walk through the fake IED course…

(what? like, improvised explosive device?)

umm…yeah. In other words, I think its time for me to get back to the “real world”. What’s in this fabled real world? Well, at one point, it had crisps!

all dolled up and ready for the oven

Lately, I’ve seen crisps pop up all over the food blogging community (which I’ve finally been able to catch up on!) and most people seem to describe them as a sign of autumn.

Sure, I think crisps are perfect when the weather starts to cool and the leaves start to change…but don’t feel restricted to weather or time or ingredients. Crisps are meant to be enjoyed all year round.

…or, that’s what I keep telling myself, because the last time I made crisps was in the spring, and I have an awesome summer-themed crisp recipe to share. But, circumstances aside, crisps are a great go-to dessert with little effort needed…except the self-restraint it takes waiting for them to cook.

No, seriously. These are so easy to make, that I didn’t even use a recipe for the pictured crisps. Fill two ramekins with berries of your choice (my choice was fresh blueberries with the remaining handful of a bag of frozen mixed berries), mix together some flour, brown sugar, oats, a pinch of salt, and several chunks of cold butter in a bowl, smush it all together with your fingers and cover the ramekins with the mixture.

(yes…”smush” is the technical term)

Now here’s the hard part: toss them in a 400 degree oven for an hour! (Or, however long it takes to achieve a bubbly filling and golden, crispy topping)

Don't panic! These were well worth the wait.

Delicious and versatile! Remember how I keep asking all of my loyal readers to send me recipes and stories of baking adventures, so that my poor, kitchen-deprived self can bake vicariously though you? Somebody listened!

Teri, my quasi-mother-in-law, subscribes to a CSA (sooo jealous) and gets all kinds of fresh, local fruits and vegetables. This summer, her CSA suggested using zucchini in place of apples for a dish they called a “Zapple Crisp”. Always the rebel though, Teri strayed a bit from the recipe and used a different type of summer squash. Here’s the recipe for the crisp she made; the quantities can be improvised to suit your tastes.

Ingredients:
Summer squash
Cinnamon
Brown sugar

Crisp topping:
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup oats
1 egg
1 stick of cold butter

- Prepare a buttered baking dish, preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Peel summer squash and cut into little chunks, similar to the size you’d use for an apple crisp.
- Season squash with cinnamon and brown sugar and pour into the baking dish.
- Combine flour, brown sugar, oats, and egg until crumbly and cover the squash mixture.
- Dot with pieces of cold butter and bake for 45 minutes.

Waiting is the toughest part, but the outcome is well worth it. Just don’t forget to pile on your crisp topping…you can never have too much! I will definitely remember Teri’s version once summer rolls around again.

But what about winter? Teri suggested using canned peaches. That’s one ingredient that is always available in the DFAC, so maybe I’m one step closer to a Baghdad crisp? Insha’allah!

As for “real world” updates, I’m still in the southern U.S. but it seems I may be heading up to the District for a few days?

(surely you should know what this implies…)

Baking spree!!!!! I’m already bookmarking recipes for when I’m back. I know it will only be a few days (I should brace my neighbors/friends/coworkers for all of the leftover cookies, pies, etc I’m going to give them!) OMG, and I’ll even be able to hit up the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market!!! eeee!!!!

This mini-trip will be the ultimate appreciation for DC life (and will probably just make it that much harder to leave it again!) Stay tuned!

Nostalgia for real breakfast

Ahh…good morning Columbus, GA! What do you have to offer me today? Ten hours of standing in lines to go through medical forms? Vaccinations? Frustrations?

Oh well. I’ll find some way to deal, as long as I have a good breakfast. It really is the key to my day, and I like to take full advantage of slow sips of coffee and and full, elaborate meals under normal circumstances. So what did Fort Benning offer me this morning?

I’ll give you a hint…it’s nothing like that fantastic picture. There was no fresh baguette, topped with crisp mescalin lettuce, perfectly poached eggs, vibrant (local/organic/farmers market) red tomatoes, and artisan sharp cheddar. Heck no! Besides (way too many) containers of various beige-colored glop, there’s only dry pancakes and flavorless scrambled eggs.

Is it a requirement in the military to only serve dry pancakes? Did some sort of commanding officer wake up one morning to a plate stacked high with moist, fluffy pancakes and say, “Nope! This needs to go!” Why, sir? Why!

So Kirstin suffers with dry pancakes. In a previous life though, I would wake up in my quaint apartment in my trendy DC neighborhood, and I would have food that wasn’t merely breakfast…

…it was practically art, and it was real!

Of course, there are worse things to “suffer” through than my umpteenth plate of dry, military pancakes. For example, I’d prefer said pancakes over a barrage of mortar fire any day of the week.

…but alas, I can still be nostalgic for better days.

In ten years, Dubai will look like Metropolis

…though I suspect it will be a lot less German, monochrome, and scandalous.

industry!

Did I mention I’m not in Baghdad anymore? Well…there you go. The higher powers decided to ship me back to the states for a couple weeks and booked me a flight through Dubai. I only had a nine-hour layover, which is pretty short, but it was just enough time to zip to the other side of the city (emirate?) and back…

…because the new Dubai Metro just opened!!!

the opposite platform, as seen from inside the car

all of the metro stations look like gilded cocoons

I didn’t do anything notable on 9/9/9, but that’s when Dubai unveiled ten stops on their new Red Line. If I have my facts correct, there are 26 stops all together on the Red Line, and a Green Line will open next year. I arrived in Dubai on the 10th, giving the metro workers a day to get their stuff in order…(or so I thought).

I read a friend’s copy of Lonely Planet Dubai and decided that after buzzing around on the metro for a bit, I really wanted to take an abra ride on the river…a boat ride, essentially. But my first priority was the metro. I figured it was the best was to get some good views of the city.

burj dubai, i bet those other buildings are embarrassed to be called skyscrapers

The most outlying station was the Mall of the Emirates.

I later found out it’s the one with the giant indoor ski slope, but my jet lag led me to believe it wasn’t…so I didn’t go looking for it. I wandered around for about ten minutes and after seeing nothing but Ramadan deals on diamonds and electronics, I figured I might as well make my way back closer to the airport (the ride out there had taken over an hour).

that middle guy looks sassy!

cultural relevance

It seems that the purpose of the metro was to make transportation easier and to lessen some notoriously bad traffic. Maybe the organizers didn’t know it would be such a hit so quickly, but as soon as I made my way back to the metro, there was already a huge crowd forming at the doors…nobody was allowed to go in and people were getting frustrated.

angry crowd gets released to buy tickets, and a frantic metro working (notice the snappy blue blazer and khaki pants) desperately tries to guide people to upgrade to a gold card

The automated ticket-purchasing machines (all two of them) were out of service, and another desperate-looking worker timidly told everybody to get in line to buy tickets from the two ticket booths while he tried to reattach two “out of order” signs that were ripped down.

you'd think it was a dangerous situation

Eventually , I was back on the metro going back to the airport (unscathed, hamdulilah!). I vowed to get a different view of the city on the way back, so I gave up my seat to a chatty bunch of pre-teens (mostly decked out in purple hijabs and rhinestone accessories). And what did I see?

More construction…!

unfinished metro station

Seriously, a lot of construction.

ahh...cranes on the horizon

I also saw the supposed “icon” of Dubai, the Eiffel Tower of the Middle East, as they sometimes refer to it.

the sailboat-shaped Burj Al Arab

Okay, so by now I’m sure it’s obvious that my main impression from Dubai was the overwhelming sense of construction and industry. Tall (and mostly empty) buildings, endless (propaganda?) about materializing a certain notion of what a perfect commercial and touristy city should be like. I get it. But at one point I looked up at the map of all the stations that will eventually open on the red and green lines and thought to myself…

…couldn’t anybody think of better names than “Internet City” and “Healthcare City”?

Even some random Arabic word would’ve been more creative…but “internet city” just seems like someone gave up. I hope the architecture makes up for the truly uninspiring names.

And that was my layover in Dubai. It took me so long to get back to the airport that I skipped my boat trip and decided to relax and gawk at all of the gold shops in Terminal 1. Seriously…so much gold! I considered buying a piece or so…but gold isn’t really my color.

Speaking of me…

self portrait

I’m sure there’s a metaphor for life and technology and progress and modernization in there somewhere.

coping with the Baghdad blues

*sigh*

I’ve been here for only a little over a month, and I think I’m getting a serious case of the Baghdad blues.

There was definitely a romantic notion to this whole chapter in my life when the idea was first proposed to me. (well, not actually proposed, when I first heard it through the company rumor mills). Omg! I’ll be a 21-year-old college graduate living in Baghdad? As a middle eastern studies major, I figured it would be the holy grail of study-abroad-esque experiences.

Also, I’ve lived/studied/traveled through the Middle East before (Jordan, Syria, Egypt), so I was itching to get back to immersing myself in the exotic cultures, cheap foods, and enchanting juxtapositions of religion and modern life.

(sorry…that last one was a bit much, but I do love the call to prayer)

Since my initial arrival in Baghdad, it has become apparent in many ways that I am not living in the Middle East… Being confined to a compound, living in a converted shipping container, Peruvian guards regulating my entrance and exit to all buildings, set meal times, long work hours, and only a faint, far away call to prayer if I happen to be outside at the right time. Retaining some of my teenage immaturity, I’ve managed to complain about these things way more than necessary to friends and coworkers (and they have obviously been kind enough to allow me to constantly vent).

It can’t be as bad as it seems sometimes though, right? There are people who have worked here for years and they get along just fine. I’ve noticed a few things that my fellow compound dwellers do to avoid going completely nuts. (Note: alcohol and excessive gym time are popular ones, but far too obvious, so I’m skipping those)

1. Creative meal-planning.

As I’ve said (complained about) before, I don’t have a kitchen. I’m limited to the whims of the DFAC. Where I see the same cycle of dishes, others see opportunity, creating unique and impressive salads and dishes, topping a heap of fresh (umm, relatively fresh) spinach with whatever protein is available, mixing sauces on top, throwing on spices and condiments, and suddenly it’s all new and delicious looking. For those with access to a kitchen, the one store on the compound has such a small food selection that it would leave your average college freshman wanting. There are a few refrigerated cases of frozen meals, plus plenty of meat for going-away barbecues. Anything that isn’t refrigerated requires a microwave (though I did spot a lonely bag of flour at the bottom of one shelf, maybe baking is in my future?). People with kitchens are also forced to get creative with the DFAC offerings, because going “down the street” for groceries is (technically) not allowed. Example? I heard rumors of a tomato sauce attempt, using some of the fresh (again, relative term) tomato slices available at the salad bar.

Limitations still exist: This was meant to be a tomato basil sauce, made with the leaves of a windowsill basil plant, but alas, the basil plant did not make it.

2. Hometown traditions

Americans haven’t really caught onto it much, but the Peruvian security guards certainly do love their soccer (football, whatever). How much do they love their soccer? They’ve organized themselves into teams, acquired uniforms for the teams, and play regular matches against each other most mornings (when it’s not so hot out yet, but still plenty of light). But this is Baghdad, limitations are there, and the Peruvians have successfully (well, sorta) adapted to the harsh conditions.

Like, there’s no soccer field, only a basketball court.

But…a basketball field is a lot smaller than a soccer field True. They deal with it, mostly by keeping enough extra soccer balls nearby and designating people to run after ones that are (inevitably) kicked way way over the nets. One of these days, I plan on situating myself on the bleachers (yes, there are bleachers) with my morning coffee and my Rebel XS and seeing how rusty my sports photography skills have become over the years.

3. mingling with local wildlife

This isn’t actually the best option for coping, but there are several cat roaming around the compound, and certainly a lot of people who are comforted by their presence. In addition to the lush areas of grass to laze around on, these kitties also get to enjoy food and affection from a few kinds souls. I heard about someone who tried to organize other people into a schedule to care for a litter of kittens she found. (I also heard that most of the people she was trying to recruit were not into it).

The limitations here are obvious though. Baghdad cats, who knows where they’ve been or what they’ve gotten themselves into? I love love love cats, but I can’t bring myself to do anything other than photograph them. I appreciate my personal hygiene too much.

So what keeps me going? Good question. Hovering student loans, occasional escapes to the rest of the IZ, good friends, and an occasional smile from General Odierno. (It happened once, he totally said hi to me!) I’m still searching for a friend with (kitchen) benefits, but for now, I have a small trip to the states to quell my cabin fever. More on that later.

Hands of Victory

Nothing enlightening for now, just a few pictures from a recent trip out to the Hands of Victory.