Suqaar with Sabaayad

We had our Somali dinner last night--not bad, I wouldn't consider anything I made as one of the world's "best recipes" but trying one recipe hardly qualifies me to be making any judgements. The thing that struck me was the lack of thickening ingredients. I made "Qumbe" which is a kind of coconut dessert--all it was was milk and sugar stirred for 15 minutes (which feels like a very long time) then put in the coconut and some cardamom and stir some more. Eventually, you're supposed to put it in a pan and refrigerate and then cut into squares. What I got was sort of the consistency of the inside of an almond joy bar. Not bad, but I think a little cornstarch would have simplified things a lot. The Suqaar was a stew. Same problem. As instructed, I first boiled the meat and then poured off the water (which to me means pouring off a lot of the flavor. Then I fried the meat with some onions in oil, added fresh water and vegetables and again let it cook down until almost all the liquid was gone. Not bad, and would be even better if I had more experience with peppers. The fry bread "Sabaayad" was great. It's hard to go wrong with fry bread. I dutifully rolled it out and then folded it up and re-rolled. No idea what that was supposed to accomplish, but it felt like the sort of motion that had been done for hundreds if not thousands of years. I remember making bread with my grandmother who always made it the same way out of long training and habit. This is probably the same kind of thing. While we ate, we watched a National Geographic special about an African soccer team from Zanzibar. Wrong country, but at least it was on the east coast and there were African faces and sounds to accompany the dinner.

Doughnuts and dates

Yea! Blogspot seems to be back in order. We're having two meals from Somalia--going with the business man's assessment that "Somalian recipes are the best". So far so good. For breakfast on Saturday we had "Khamir" it amounts to homemade doughnuts flavored with a little coriander and nutmeg and served with dates. No sugar on the doughnuts--maybe Somali's don't have such a sweet tooth as Americans. They were very good. I don't know why I dont' eat more dates. They're delicious.

National Theater

YAY!! Some Good Somalian news. The national theater has reopened after 20 years!! It still needs a lot of repairs, and it's still not very safe to go there, but it reopened just this March with the president in attendance as well as regular Somali people. Some of those performing have never seen a live performance. I think this speaks volumes about the Somali people. In a crisis I know my first priority would be the safety of my family and finding food. No doubt it is for many there, but as a nation they have found spirit to open a theater in spite of overwhelming catastrophes. I'm proud of Somalia.

Mogadishu Riveria

A Somali businessman (Ahmed Jama) who lived in London for some years has come back to Somalia's capitol city of Mogadishu and opened to hotels and restaurants on the beach front. It sounds as though it's going well even though Mogadishu is still a dangerous place and people have to pass through two security checkpoints to get to the beach. Also, most Somali's can't afford to eat there even though the prices are reasonable by American standards--lobstor for $20, steak for $7. On the beach one can order ice-cream and a hookah pipe, but not alcohol which is illegal. I like what Mr. Jama said about the food at his hotels, "We don't serve foreign dishes. It's only Somali food. Our country has the best recipes."

Punt

Somalia seems to have seen better days in ancient times. Wikipedia tells me it is probably the location of the land of Punt. A semi-mythical place abounding in gold, aromatic resins, African blackwood, ebony, ivory, slaves and wild animals. The Egyptians thought so highly of Punt that the great queen Hatshepsut even made a voyage there. Somalia has the longest coast line of any African country, so it probably DID have a great many things to attract the Egyptians.

FGM

Off all the atrocities in the world FGM (Female Genital Mutilation, or female circumcision) is one of the worst. Unfortunatley, it's practised all over the world, not just Africa. But it was one of the first things that popped up when I did a search for Somalia so I'll put it here. I'll never forget an article I read by an African woman who had had it done at the age of 5 by a local priest. Fron that time forward she couldn't empty her bladder normally, and after puberty her cycles were agonizing. She eventually escaped to Paris and had corrective surgery. She said the relief the first time she went to the bathroom was enormous but she'll never be able to experience sexual satisfaction. This tradition runs thousands of years deep, but work is being done to educate women and retrain the men who perform FGM's for other professions. go to stop-fgm-now.com to make a donation.

Off with a bang

Well, I had hoped to start my adventure in Somalia by looking for something non-war related. Nope. Just yesterday (May 29, 2012) the president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, survived an assassination attempt by Islamist Militants. It might take some real work to find happy things about Somalia.