It's 10.00 pm and I'm still waiting for Mohamed to come home so we can have the final meal of the day. I've been researching Egyptian recipes on the net and decided to try and make hommus. There are many different recipes but I chose one that sounded like it might be what we're used to and gave it a whirl - don't know that it's exactly right but it's OK for me - not sure how Mohamed will like it.
I made fool madammas at lunch today - beans or fool it's usually called. It's very simple, at least the way that Mohamed likes it although there are probably as many recipes as there are houses in Egypt. For Mohamed you just need canned fava beans (although you can buy them dried and cook them), put them into a frying pan with some of the juice, some corn oil and mash the beans as they heat. Once they are mashed and hot add the juice of a lime and a little salt and pepper. It should have the consistency of porridge when made. That's it. He doesn't mind if you add just a little cumin sometimes (or maybe he doesn't notice if I do).
Anyway, I thought you might like to try kosheri. As I've said before it's a street food that's really popular and cheap. There are whole restaurants that serve nothing but - kosheri. It's also quite easy to make.
They say that kosheri is an Egyptian version of the kichri (kitchree, khitcherie) of India, which is always a combination of rice and lentils. Kichri is also the ancestor of the British/Scottish kedgeree which was a culinary by-product of the British-Indian experience.
Anyway, as I said it's quite straight-forward to make and even if you think it sounds a bit strange (yes a total carb feast - Mohamed told me the first time we ate it, in a kosheri restaurant, that they say you don't need to eat again for 3 days once you've had kosheri. You might really enjoy it - I know I do.
Ingredients
- two cups lentils (brown or black)
- one to two cups rice
- one to two cups elbow macaroni (or similar pasta, as long as the macaroni is very small to almost match the lentils and rice and not overpower them) (optional, Mohamed doesn't like to have it and I do, so it's a matter of personal taste)
- one cup vegetable oil (most Egyptians use corn oil) evenly divided into two portions
- one clove garlic, crushed
- one chilli, cleaned and chopped
- three or four ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped ; or one large tin crushed tomatoes, or you can substitute tomato paste and enough water to make up the volume
- one-half cup water
- two tablespoons vinegar
- one onion, chopped fairly fine
- salt (to taste)
Method
Clean and rinse the lentils and place them in a large pot. Cover them with cold water, so that the water level is one inch above the lentils. Add salt if desired. Bring to a boil then reduce heat. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until lentils are tender and water is almost completely absorbed (approximately 30 minutes). Add additional water if necessary. However, although the lentil should be soft don't let them get mushy.
While lentils are cooking, cook rice in normal manner, so that the grains are cooked but separated, dry not wet. (Egyptians cook it a particular way - I'll put the method at the bottom)
Prepare sauce while lentils and rice are cooking.
Heat oil in saucepan. Sauté garlic and chilli for a few minutes, until onion is clear. Add tomatoes, water, vinegar, and salt. Cook on high heat for a few minutes, then reduce heat and simmer.
While the lentils and rice are cooking and the sauce is simmering, heat the remaining oil in a frying pan. Sauté the onion until it is done to your liking (either lightly golden, or deeply browned and crispy). When done, remove onion from the frying pan and drain on absorbent paper or paper towels. (This makes a topping for the finished dish and is best when dark gold and very crispy)
While lentils and rice are cooking, sauce is simmering, and onion is sautéing, if macaroni is desired, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook macaroni in the normal manner.
When everything is done, assemble each serving of kosheri in a soup bowl. Alternate layers of lentils, rice, and macaroni, then top it all with the fried onions and tomato sauce. Optional additional toppings are more lentils, dry and crispy and chick peas (hommus) dry and cooked.
As I've said before, when you get kosheri in a restaurant you also aget a very hot sauce and a lemon type sauce but I've yet to find the recipes for those. I really love the hot sauce.
Egyptian method of cooking rice - let's say for 2 cups (always the same amount of water as rice and about one quarter of total is cooked in the ghee).
2 cups of rice, washed until water is clear
2 cups of water
about 2 good tablespoons of ghee
Heat ghee and add half a cup of washed rice. Cook until the rice is a darkish gold (don't let it get too brown or burn). Add the rest of the rice and stir until all grains are covered by the butter. Quickly add the water, cover and leave to cook for around 15-20 minutes. Check towards the end and make sure all water is absorbed and the rice has cooked. If more water is needed, add just a little at any time. The aim is to have all the water gone and the rice dry, fluffy and the grains separated. You should have a mixture of dark gold and white grains.
This method is for white short-grained (or basmati) rice, you could use it for other sorts such as brown rice but you would need to experiment with water and cooking times.
I really like it this way now.
So why not give kosheri a try while it's still winter and you need some comfort food occasionally?
Time to go, it's 11.00 now and Mohamed has rung to say he's on his way home and there's food to get ready.
Take care, enjoy
lots of lvoe
Lyndall
Tuesday 26 August 2008
Sunday 24 August 2008
An entertaining week
Baby update for everyone - he's really very cute and obviously and of course growing fast
Saturday night
I found it amusing when I opened my iGoogle just now and the picture for today’s “Places to See Before You Die” on my computer is the Pyramids.
Anyway, hello and how are you? Time seems to be flying by, I only just realized it’s now over a week since I wrote last (not, mind you, that I’ve had a letter from ANYONE) and that I should be sitting and typing another posting.
We are up on the roof – me with my computer and Mohamed with his phone, pacing up and down. It’s been so hot since I got back, even though I knew it would be, day after day at around 40 degrees or plus means that you take any possible opportunity to get some fresh, cooler air. And the roof is very pleasant tonight. Of course we have the air conditioners, thank goodness, but we got last month’s electricity bill (first month with the aircon going very much) and Mohamed is now very much on a power-saving kick. Must say we still sleep with it on all night however.
The one in the bedroom had developed a leak inside and we got the man to come and fix it and it still leaked so we got him to come again and he made it worse than it was before and so we couldn’t use it at all. That was Tuesday and he said he would come back on Saturday and fix it.
We therefore had one night without the bedroom air conditioner and Hagar staying with us so we couldn’t use the spare room. At 4.00 am Mohamed rang the air-conditioner man (we had had about 30 minutes sleep by then) but didn’t get an answer (I did protest but he told me "I am not sleeping, he is not sleeping!"). However, he rang enough times the next day that 3 men came at 2.30 in the afternoon and it has been fixed temporarily – they are supposed to be coming back in a week to finish it off. But at least we are sleeping OK again.
We had Hagar staying most of the week but she went back to Rania’s on Thursday night. It was great to have her here even though I get really worried at how bored she must get. She is not a great one for TV and doesn’t read, or didn’t have anything here to read anyway. We can’t do housework all day and Mohamed was out all day basically. Hagar has the most English of the sisters but still not a huge amount so conversation is not exactly easy.
Back down into the air-conditioning – it got too hot for Mohamed on the roof.
On Thursday night Mohamed told me around seven that we were having guests for an evening meal – his friend Mohamed Elkardy (a policeman, his best friend) and also his wife and two children, little boy about 4 and baby boy, who has been born since I’ve been living in Egypt. I was quite excited at the thought of meeting another woman. Anyway, we took Hagar to Rania’s and I went to the supermarket and got a few things and got organized when we got home – Mohamed also helping to clean and tidy.
As you might expect, it's all quite different, entertaining in Egypt. There are foods that are acceptable in the day or the night, and ways of serving and eating that are all so different to what I'm used to in Oz, and it's really easy for me to make a mistake. So the evening meal was lots of different sorts of cheese, fresh bread, mashed potatoes, hot chips, packet chips, salad of tomato, cucumber, onion, little grated carrot with lime juice, honey, white cheese mixed with chopped tomato and cucumber (it’s both salty and peppery – Istanboli - very soft white cheese), lettuce and then some grapes and bananas after. They didn’t arrive until about 11.30 so we ate around midnight. Still it was nice to meet another woman and she has a little English and seemed very nice.
It's not suitable to have meat at an evening meal, and Mohamed thought not beans either, so we had what he thought would be the right thing. All food goes into commuity bowls, you cover the table with plastic sheeting (you buy it specially) and you use the table as a plate or your bread as a plate. Most food is retrieved with a piece of bread held in the fingers or with your own spoon. Yes, everyone dips their bread or spoon into the one big bowl. Not what we are used to. Not just double dipping... I'm sort of getting used to it. I have explained this to Mohamed but he tells me when he's in Australia he will have to have his own bowl becase he will never remember to use a serving spoon.
However, I brought the bananas to the table in my hand and Mohamed tells me that is very bad. All food and drink must be presented on a tray or in a bowl, never in the hand. Now I understand why Hagar took one glass of water to the airconditioner man on a tray (I used to think they used a tray to serve drinks just because if you were serving a few people it was easier). I made a faux pas with the bananas. But it seems so back to front to me - everyone eats from the same bowl (and there's no hand washing ritual or anything before a meal) but you must serve food not in your hand even when it has a skin on it or is in a cup.... Different strokes I guess...
And the plastic sheeting - well you put all your food rubbish, like olive pits or other scraps, plus of course all your crumbs, onto the plastic and at the end of the meal you roll it up and put it in the bin. Perhaps not the most elegant but certainly practical.
The El Kardys brought a traditional "congratulations" gift - a wrapped tray of sweets and sweet biscuits, it's a very nice touch and gives us a huge sugar fix - they are always so sweet.
We tentatively arranged to go to Sokhana together next week but I don’t know what that will mean in terms of me going swimming – or maybe me not swimming, at least not in my Aussie cossie…. I thought it was all arranged but Mohamed tells me that Elkardy has been posted to Sharm El Sheikh for a month beginning today so not now at least. I eventually found out the wife’s name – Sabah. There was a strange moment when I introduced myself and she didn’t tell me her name. Mohamed didn’t know it - he had only met her twice before. But about an hour later at the table she did tell me here name, so not sure what that was about… Yet anoather social something I don't really understand.
Then on Friday we had Rania, Allaa and Hagar and the boys. I hadn’t seen Rania since I had arrived back and I was anxious to do so. Mohamed had decided they would have ringaa – that really smelly fermented fish I talked about before – so eating was on the roof, not in the house. The meal was pretty simple and seemed to be standard – the fish, fresh bread, an onion quartered and in a little vinegar. That’s it. I sat at a separate table (felt like I was at the kid’s table) coz the smell is nearly enough to make me vomit, and I had cheese and salad. Mohamed brought them back after he’d been to the mosque and the barber so lunch was around 4 pm again. Each day during the week we’d had lunch around 5 pm, waiting for Mohamed. I guess we’re almost getting into practice for Ramadan which begins on 1st September. No food or drink from sunrise until sunset. Apparently we get up around 4.00 am and have something to eat before the time of first prayer at 5.00 and then that’s it. Not even water until sunset (fourth prayer) which will be about 6.30 - 7.00 pm. Ramadan lasts for a month but I guess the first week or so is the hardest as you try to get used to it.
Went to the movies today and saw Hancock which was about 2 1/2 stars I guess. Not one of Will Smith’s best. We also ordered the bathroom cabinet and mirror for the big bathroom today, will take about a week I think and then we need to find a plumber to put it in. The rest of the week has been very quiet – just at home with Hagar and doing the house work with a couple of quick visits to the supermarket, otherwise watching the Olympics whenever I can, although I tried not to watch them all day when Hagar was here because I don’t think she was terribly interested. Occasionally yes but not always. Mind you it was very nice having help with the housework. Hagar also showed me a couple more dishes to cook and I tried a casserole recipe from one of the cookbooks I brought over and they both seemed to like it. That's one point for Aussie food.
What have you all been up to? How’s work for everyone? Are you all well and happy?
Anyway, it’s quarter to 11 and I need a little food and then bed probably although I was so tired last night – I slept for 12 hours. Mohamed actually woke me up at 11 am this morning; I was still very sound asleep. He says hello to everyone. He’s currently driving the Xbox time trial demo with which he has a great deal of fun. So did Rania's two oldest boys - they were very good at it too.
Looking forward to the closing ceremony of the Olympics - the opening ceremony certainly had its spectacular moments. We get a couple of stations with commentary in Arabic and otherwise mostly New Zealand commentary although we did have some Australian commentators, for the diving I particularly remember. We were lucky, Al Jezeerah had a high definition broadcast in English for the whole games. Didn't see all sports of course and missed some really good performances in order to see popular Middle East sports like wrestling (Egypt's only medal was a bronze in wrestling) but all in all it was pretty good.
So will write more soon, until then
lots of love
Lyndall
Monday 18 August 2008
Home again and we have the net at last!
Well hello at last
I’m so sorry that I haven’t written before now – I don’t know where the time has gone really and I have only been to the net once very quickly and then another trip to Honda to service the car where they have wi-fi. But I spent most of my time there trying to renew my security subscription and update security on the laptop with only time for a couple of quick emails.
We have had Mohamed’s sisters Walaa and Hagar and Walaa’s two children Khamsa and Mariam aged 2 and 2 months and 11 months respectively staying on and off. The kids were both extremely cute but Khamsa is EXCEPTIONALLY active and was awake from about 9.00 am until 1.00 am with maybe a tiny nap in the middle somewhere, around 5 pm. Both had chest infections, with Mariam the worst and a nasty cough. She was such a happy thing though and just on the verge of walking, she took her very first steps from the coffee table to Mohamed (about 3).
But anyway, back to the beginning.
The flight was fine, very smooth, I slept plenty really (business class - I hope never to fly anything else again, unless of course it is first), stayed on the plane in Singapore (why is it that you can stay on the plane going over but you MUST get off at Singapore for all of 20 minutes coming to Oz) and had a fairly quick break in Dubai, where I shopped and bought an X-Box for Mohamed.
There were a couple of surprises for me when I got home – Mohamed had bought the bedroom suite and it is very nice really. Probably not what I would have originally chosen but very good in the room, it really suits it and I like it a lot. It has a king size bed, two bedside tables, a big dressing table with a mirror, a very large wardrobe, a coat stand and another cabinet with a drawer and large cupboard. The dressing table and bedside tables and cabinet are topped in a dark red, white-veined marble.
He had also done a lot of work on the roof and had bought 50 trees and shrubs in pots that are now up there and it also looks very nice. It’s lovely up there in the evening and I really enjoy watering after the sun has gone down. We usually spend an hour or so up there fiddling with the plants. Tonight was magical, cooler than the house, full moon over the desert and the sound and light show (well I could only see the light show) on the pyramids. Pretty special.
We have also been and bought a dining room suite and a cabinet kind of like a large china cabinet with a glass-doored one on top and closed in cupboards on the bottom. It is made of a wood called zaan in Arabic but neither Mohamed nor the lady in the shop knew what it is in English. And I can’t tell by looking either. At the same shop we bought two bedside lamps for the bedroom tables that I really like, a sort of dark red and gold. We also bought some artificial flowers, again not usually my thing but Mohamed really wanted flowers so we went to a specialist shop for artificial flowers and got some that are quite good I think. Got some for the bedroom as well in dark red. They are still too long for the vases but I need a pair of clippers to get them right.
So the house is beginning to look a little more “full” although still lots to get.
We had two trips to Alexandria to sort out my boxes from Australia. A total cost of just over 3000 pounds to get them out and into the house. Terminal charges, payment for the man to do the paperwork and also customs duties. At first we had a phone call to say that there were many cds with naked pictures on them, but I said that I didn’t believe that was true and was either an attempt to explain why some disappeared or someone wanted more money. So Mohamed just told them it wasn’t true and when we got the boxes they all seemed to be there. I thought I couldn’t find one at all with a naked picture but Mohamed did find a Tom Waits one with a naked woman in the background on the cover.
Unfortunately not everything arrived intact with 4 crystal glasses broken, one of the crystal vases smashed to smithereens and about a dozen pieces of the dinner set broken. And Mohamed told me when we unpacked the silver cutlery that it is haram for Muslims to eat or serve food with gold or silver. So all of that was a waste to bring and it will sit in the cupboard. Actually under the main silver set was a whole lot of miscellaneous silver and cutlery, some of which was stainless so was OK. Can’t use all the silver teaspoons I brought over in my luggage either.
Nor was I meant to have any of mum’s crystal glasses – two days later the glass cupboard in the kitchen fell off the wall and smashed everything!
While the sisters Walaa and Hagar were here I have learned some more Egyptian dishes - white beans you might like (sort of like a spicy homemade baked beans) but I wonder if you’d enjoy the meat soup (basically boiled big chunks of meat with an onion in it and salt and pepper). Still they all think it is delicious. I think I also have the egg perfected and my mashed potatoes are considered good. And koshery I can now also make except for the lemon sauce – koshery is a really cheap dish you can buy on the street – rice, very tiny macaroni and lentils all cooked in together and then you get a tomato type sauce, just a little spicy, a very hot sauce, a lemon sauce, extra crispy lentils and very golden dry crispy onion and chick peas that you sprinkle on top. I only got the method for the tomato type sauce from Hagar but I can do the sprinkles although I would need a recipe for the hot sauce and the lemon sauce. Maybe the net will provide eventually. Mind you a huge dish of it costs 5 pounds (A$1) on the street – you would wonder why we would bother making it!
And the phone and the net is another story. The phone is here and is to be wireless. Yes, the phone will be some sort of wireless/mobile deal as will the net but it doesn’t work right now – we get to wait for them to build the tower for this area – they said a couple of months but goodness knows what that means. Mohamed got it to work the other night but he now tells me it can only make house to house calls, not to mobiles, and he doesn’t know if it will make international calls. So we have made one call to Rania,
Etisalat has a new deal for mobile net for 6 months – it costs 300 pounds per month and if you take 6 months you get your modem free – or something to that effect. At least that was what was advertised. And that was 3.75G with 3G about half that price. I wanted to faster speed, of course, but on further investigation Mohamed has phoned me tonight to say that the fast speed is only available in 2 areas in Cairo so it will be the slower speed. I think he’s organizing it tonight. I HOPE!
On our first trip to Alexandria about the boxes we had a bit of time and we went to the library – it is such an impressive building from the outside, so incredibly unique and unusual – I was a bit disappointed with the inside. It also costs you to get in which surprised me. Still I was pleased to have seen it. It’s renowned throughout the library world.
The new library at Alexandria replacing at last the ancient library that was destroyed by fire.
Have also had a new sort of mango which is just incredibly delicious – it’s called a foss –don’t know if that’s how you spell it but it’s how you say it – it’s very small and also has a tiny seed and is not at all stringy, very sweet and juicy. They are fabulous and so we’re eating lots of mangoes. At the moment most of the roadside donkey and horse carts have mangoes, probably about a dozen different varieties. And cucumbers are just starting to come and corn is getting ripe in the fields, there are food sellers with roasted cobs all around the streets. And guavas are also in season, we have a couple of kilos in the fridge – mind you now everything smells of guava!
Porto Sohkna - a huge new hotel and apartment complex being built
We took another trip to Sokhna and this time spent a day on a beach at one of the big hotels (cost us 300 pounds to use the beach) and we swam all day and had an excellent lunch (extra, not included). We could also have used the pool if we had wanted but the sea (the Red Sea below Suez) was much better. Lots of fish in it – they would sometimes nibble on you – a bit disconcerting. The sea was beautiful to swim in, fabulous temperature and very clean. Only problem where we were there were rocks with lots of sea urchins, Mohamed got some small spine pieces in his foot and it’s given him some problems but I think I finally got the last very tiny piece out last night as it seems at last to be not so sore. Not a lot of sand and very rocky in places to get into the water but beautiful once in. Not a wave in sight of course. Mohamed is very willing to learn to swim and mastered floating without much problem, I think he will be swimming in no time if we get to go back often enough. He’s just got to get the breathing thing happening, although while we’ve watched the Olympics he has seen how the swimmers breathe out through their nose. He’s very observant and has probably learned heaps just from watching.
The other night we took Walaa and the kids to the airport – she had 120 kg of luggage but she could take 100 for free. At last! Someone with more luggage than me! She also had a problem because the police wanted proof the children belonged to her and she hadn’t put Mariam into her passport yet. I asked Mohamed how she managed and he said that she cried and the policeman let her go. Different – it’s all so very different.
We also went back to the visa halls to get my visa renewed. Now I am married to an Egyptian I am entitled to a 5 year resident’s visa, renewable as many times as you like. So it was back to the first window we ever went to and again off to the other window to pay the fees, but this time I had a pen and we knew enough to have photographs with us and copies of my passport and the marriage contract etc. etc. But we were still caught out because we didn’t have copies of Mohamed’s passport. So it was still back down the stairs to the copy booths and shove through the crowd of dozens all shouting waving papers (well Mohamed shoving through the crowds) to get his passport copied. But eventually we had everything we needed and we went back to our original window and dropped it all off. It will take two weeks, which means that it is supposed to be ready on Monday. I HOPE!
Hagar has come back to stay with us for maybe a week – well as long as she likes really and as often as she likes. She has given up work and I am most concerned about her living alone without any work to do. She can work for us once the company is a reality but meanwhile I hope she stays as often as possible.
So off to wash the floors, talk to you again soon now that I can do it more easily
lots of love
Lyndall
PS - And just for Henry Kwaczynski – Henry when we were driving to the supermarket the other night I saw a whole new one – a truck with the load slipped and no rocks on the road – instead we had a fire on the road to warn everyone of the problem! There’s always something on the road to astound me!
I’m so sorry that I haven’t written before now – I don’t know where the time has gone really and I have only been to the net once very quickly and then another trip to Honda to service the car where they have wi-fi. But I spent most of my time there trying to renew my security subscription and update security on the laptop with only time for a couple of quick emails.
We have had Mohamed’s sisters Walaa and Hagar and Walaa’s two children Khamsa and Mariam aged 2 and 2 months and 11 months respectively staying on and off. The kids were both extremely cute but Khamsa is EXCEPTIONALLY active and was awake from about 9.00 am until 1.00 am with maybe a tiny nap in the middle somewhere, around 5 pm. Both had chest infections, with Mariam the worst and a nasty cough. She was such a happy thing though and just on the verge of walking, she took her very first steps from the coffee table to Mohamed (about 3).
But anyway, back to the beginning.
The flight was fine, very smooth, I slept plenty really (business class - I hope never to fly anything else again, unless of course it is first), stayed on the plane in Singapore (why is it that you can stay on the plane going over but you MUST get off at Singapore for all of 20 minutes coming to Oz) and had a fairly quick break in Dubai, where I shopped and bought an X-Box for Mohamed.
There were a couple of surprises for me when I got home – Mohamed had bought the bedroom suite and it is very nice really. Probably not what I would have originally chosen but very good in the room, it really suits it and I like it a lot. It has a king size bed, two bedside tables, a big dressing table with a mirror, a very large wardrobe, a coat stand and another cabinet with a drawer and large cupboard. The dressing table and bedside tables and cabinet are topped in a dark red, white-veined marble.
He had also done a lot of work on the roof and had bought 50 trees and shrubs in pots that are now up there and it also looks very nice. It’s lovely up there in the evening and I really enjoy watering after the sun has gone down. We usually spend an hour or so up there fiddling with the plants. Tonight was magical, cooler than the house, full moon over the desert and the sound and light show (well I could only see the light show) on the pyramids. Pretty special.
We have also been and bought a dining room suite and a cabinet kind of like a large china cabinet with a glass-doored one on top and closed in cupboards on the bottom. It is made of a wood called zaan in Arabic but neither Mohamed nor the lady in the shop knew what it is in English. And I can’t tell by looking either. At the same shop we bought two bedside lamps for the bedroom tables that I really like, a sort of dark red and gold. We also bought some artificial flowers, again not usually my thing but Mohamed really wanted flowers so we went to a specialist shop for artificial flowers and got some that are quite good I think. Got some for the bedroom as well in dark red. They are still too long for the vases but I need a pair of clippers to get them right.
So the house is beginning to look a little more “full” although still lots to get.
We had two trips to Alexandria to sort out my boxes from Australia. A total cost of just over 3000 pounds to get them out and into the house. Terminal charges, payment for the man to do the paperwork and also customs duties. At first we had a phone call to say that there were many cds with naked pictures on them, but I said that I didn’t believe that was true and was either an attempt to explain why some disappeared or someone wanted more money. So Mohamed just told them it wasn’t true and when we got the boxes they all seemed to be there. I thought I couldn’t find one at all with a naked picture but Mohamed did find a Tom Waits one with a naked woman in the background on the cover.
Unfortunately not everything arrived intact with 4 crystal glasses broken, one of the crystal vases smashed to smithereens and about a dozen pieces of the dinner set broken. And Mohamed told me when we unpacked the silver cutlery that it is haram for Muslims to eat or serve food with gold or silver. So all of that was a waste to bring and it will sit in the cupboard. Actually under the main silver set was a whole lot of miscellaneous silver and cutlery, some of which was stainless so was OK. Can’t use all the silver teaspoons I brought over in my luggage either.
Nor was I meant to have any of mum’s crystal glasses – two days later the glass cupboard in the kitchen fell off the wall and smashed everything!
While the sisters Walaa and Hagar were here I have learned some more Egyptian dishes - white beans you might like (sort of like a spicy homemade baked beans) but I wonder if you’d enjoy the meat soup (basically boiled big chunks of meat with an onion in it and salt and pepper). Still they all think it is delicious. I think I also have the egg perfected and my mashed potatoes are considered good. And koshery I can now also make except for the lemon sauce – koshery is a really cheap dish you can buy on the street – rice, very tiny macaroni and lentils all cooked in together and then you get a tomato type sauce, just a little spicy, a very hot sauce, a lemon sauce, extra crispy lentils and very golden dry crispy onion and chick peas that you sprinkle on top. I only got the method for the tomato type sauce from Hagar but I can do the sprinkles although I would need a recipe for the hot sauce and the lemon sauce. Maybe the net will provide eventually. Mind you a huge dish of it costs 5 pounds (A$1) on the street – you would wonder why we would bother making it!
And the phone and the net is another story. The phone is here and is to be wireless. Yes, the phone will be some sort of wireless/mobile deal as will the net but it doesn’t work right now – we get to wait for them to build the tower for this area – they said a couple of months but goodness knows what that means. Mohamed got it to work the other night but he now tells me it can only make house to house calls, not to mobiles, and he doesn’t know if it will make international calls. So we have made one call to Rania,
Etisalat has a new deal for mobile net for 6 months – it costs 300 pounds per month and if you take 6 months you get your modem free – or something to that effect. At least that was what was advertised. And that was 3.75G with 3G about half that price. I wanted to faster speed, of course, but on further investigation Mohamed has phoned me tonight to say that the fast speed is only available in 2 areas in Cairo so it will be the slower speed. I think he’s organizing it tonight. I HOPE!
On our first trip to Alexandria about the boxes we had a bit of time and we went to the library – it is such an impressive building from the outside, so incredibly unique and unusual – I was a bit disappointed with the inside. It also costs you to get in which surprised me. Still I was pleased to have seen it. It’s renowned throughout the library world.
The new library at Alexandria replacing at last the ancient library that was destroyed by fire.
Have also had a new sort of mango which is just incredibly delicious – it’s called a foss –don’t know if that’s how you spell it but it’s how you say it – it’s very small and also has a tiny seed and is not at all stringy, very sweet and juicy. They are fabulous and so we’re eating lots of mangoes. At the moment most of the roadside donkey and horse carts have mangoes, probably about a dozen different varieties. And cucumbers are just starting to come and corn is getting ripe in the fields, there are food sellers with roasted cobs all around the streets. And guavas are also in season, we have a couple of kilos in the fridge – mind you now everything smells of guava!
Porto Sohkna - a huge new hotel and apartment complex being built
We took another trip to Sokhna and this time spent a day on a beach at one of the big hotels (cost us 300 pounds to use the beach) and we swam all day and had an excellent lunch (extra, not included). We could also have used the pool if we had wanted but the sea (the Red Sea below Suez) was much better. Lots of fish in it – they would sometimes nibble on you – a bit disconcerting. The sea was beautiful to swim in, fabulous temperature and very clean. Only problem where we were there were rocks with lots of sea urchins, Mohamed got some small spine pieces in his foot and it’s given him some problems but I think I finally got the last very tiny piece out last night as it seems at last to be not so sore. Not a lot of sand and very rocky in places to get into the water but beautiful once in. Not a wave in sight of course. Mohamed is very willing to learn to swim and mastered floating without much problem, I think he will be swimming in no time if we get to go back often enough. He’s just got to get the breathing thing happening, although while we’ve watched the Olympics he has seen how the swimmers breathe out through their nose. He’s very observant and has probably learned heaps just from watching.
The other night we took Walaa and the kids to the airport – she had 120 kg of luggage but she could take 100 for free. At last! Someone with more luggage than me! She also had a problem because the police wanted proof the children belonged to her and she hadn’t put Mariam into her passport yet. I asked Mohamed how she managed and he said that she cried and the policeman let her go. Different – it’s all so very different.
We also went back to the visa halls to get my visa renewed. Now I am married to an Egyptian I am entitled to a 5 year resident’s visa, renewable as many times as you like. So it was back to the first window we ever went to and again off to the other window to pay the fees, but this time I had a pen and we knew enough to have photographs with us and copies of my passport and the marriage contract etc. etc. But we were still caught out because we didn’t have copies of Mohamed’s passport. So it was still back down the stairs to the copy booths and shove through the crowd of dozens all shouting waving papers (well Mohamed shoving through the crowds) to get his passport copied. But eventually we had everything we needed and we went back to our original window and dropped it all off. It will take two weeks, which means that it is supposed to be ready on Monday. I HOPE!
Hagar has come back to stay with us for maybe a week – well as long as she likes really and as often as she likes. She has given up work and I am most concerned about her living alone without any work to do. She can work for us once the company is a reality but meanwhile I hope she stays as often as possible.
So off to wash the floors, talk to you again soon now that I can do it more easily
lots of love
Lyndall
PS - And just for Henry Kwaczynski – Henry when we were driving to the supermarket the other night I saw a whole new one – a truck with the load slipped and no rocks on the road – instead we had a fire on the road to warn everyone of the problem! There’s always something on the road to astound me!
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