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01/22/2004 Archived Entry: "Food Listography"

Food Listography
Folks who know me knew this was coming:
1. Coriander. Not long after I moved in to this place, my old neighbor came down one day and look around. "Where are all the pictures on your walls?" he asked. "Pictures?" "Yea. I hear all that banging down here in the evening and I assume you're hanging pictures. I thought your place would be covered in pictures." Who needs a spice grinder when you can bash spices in a mortar and pestle?
2. Chick peas. One day I'm working away in my home office (type type type...lessee, can I think up an even wackier idea about writing pedagogy?), when I smell the faint odor of something burning. I think first: hmmm. Wonder what that is...did I forget something. Then it hits me. The pot of water I set to boil the chick peas in over an hour ago! When all that water evaporates, where does it settle in the kitchen?
3. Coffee. We used to pull over to the side of the road in South Lebanon during night patrols. The Druze trackers would prop open the jeep and stick a fijan on the engine. The heat would cause the water to boil. The Turkish coffee would then boil inward, and we'd add the hell (spelling?) afterwards. This is how I learned to make coffee.
4. Cheese. On a train from Rome to Paris, two Moroccan boys sat across from me with a large garbage bag at their feet. Not bright enough to know to pack food for the trip (a habit I now know well enough), I was extremely hungry. Every now and then, the boys would reach into the bag, pull something out, and eat it. I could smell something akin to blue or asiago cheese, something tangy, yet nice. Finally, they realized I was watching. "Would you like some sardines?" they asked. "We've packed enough for three days of traveling."