Eating Out

Where has the time gone? I have now been back in Erbil for a week... and surprisingly, I have only been out to dinner once! The night after I returned, there was a little dinner held at Marina in Ankawa - home of the best hummus in Kurdistan. It was really quite the event as staff member who usually never come out not only said they would come, but actually came! Kr (one of us English staff) who is rather enigmatic in that she travels on weekends to visit secret friends (how has she managed to have a private life actually unconnected to any of us colleagues?)! Another often absent colleague in another department (along with her husband and new baby) also joined us. Enjoying lovely company and dinner at one of the best restaurants in Erbil absorbed much of the shock of being back and having to go back to work.
The top picture is included because the truth is most of us don't know how to direct the taxis to Marina. Only we know it is in Ankawa beyond where we do our shopping and can be located by the massive neon sign that can be sighted way before you are anywhere near the restaurant. But note that if you just drive towards the sign (as we did), you will get caught on a lot of little dead end roads and have to backtrack a bit.

Börek 4 Breakfast

Here in Kurdistan, I cook my own breakfast as places where I would like to have breakfast usually don't open until noon. However, a couple of friends recently discovered a wonderful breakfast option - börek (Turkish pastries) plain or filled with meat or cheese. Although I usually only eat eggs or yogurt with honey when in Turkey, that is probably because I had never had Su Böreği or 'Water Borek'...

Since these friends found börek right here in Erbil, I have had it a few times (as take out), but yesterday was my first time to actually go to Roozer, the börek shop. We had a day trip to Dohuk planned and so Mu and I met Haji and Sdr there for an early breakfast.
Below is Mr. Yilmaz Aykan, the owner behind his wide variety of börek.
And here, a big plate of börek:
And just in case you want to try Roozer, but have as hard a time finding places as me, below is a picture of an easy landmark - the minaret of Haji Bekir Jeringar Mosque in Iskan. This is what can be seen across the street from Roozer... and if you get lost, just call the owner: 0750.729.0776.

Kumkapı

Unfortunately, there were no wandering gypsy bands playing an odd assortment of folk music; Turkish, Kurdish, Russian... and there were also no belly dancers, professional or amateur. But despite it being Eid, there were still diners and shops were open for business. First stop, the fish market...
Second stop, dinner. Specialties of Istanbul: levrek (sea bass) and çupra (sea bream) are plentiful. Also available are mussels, prawns, etc.... But Kumkapı being popular among Istanbul natives and Turkish tourists, dinner doesn't come cheap.

German Reunification Day

This is an important day for me as I arrived just after German Re-unification Day (and hence missed the only dinner that my employer held at the beginning of term to welcome all new employees) and just before Eid. I don't know much about how this day is celebrated in Germany, but know that in Hawler, it is honored with a barbecue of chicken, lamb and sausages (non-pork) and beer. Also, there is German music (sounding to my untrained ear like polkas and marches) set to a slide show of images of the Berlin Wall coming down.... not to mention a speech by Gunter, the owner of the Deutscher hof.

Maybe this will mean more to me next year as I will go to Germany for the first time ever from Hawler this winter: Erbil - Vienna - Frankfurt via Austrian Airlines. I will meet my mother for Christmas and go from there fo Nuremburg and Munich (making sure to visit other choice Bavarian towns), but will unfortunately miss Berlin.... I am happy to note, however, that my favorite beer at the Deutscher hof comes from Bavaria!

Barbecue Feast for Eid

Yes, this is yet another post about food.... What else is there to do during Eid in Erbil? Mu, being picky about his meat (he only buys at New City as he others aren't fresh-looking enough) is happy to be able to choose his own and grill it at the table himself.
Maybe because of Eid (?) the self-service mezze were also better last night. There were even mint leaves and pomegranate seeds! Nice to have more than humus and salads made from varying proportions of cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, eggplant and onions.
The wait staff brings your meat and plate of hot peppers, onion slices and tomato halves to grill with the meat. They also serve the best of Turkish raki (if you like raki or arak) and speak Turkish. Maybe that's why Mu always knows someone here whenever we go... Since coming back, I have already been dragged here far too many times.

But being bad at directions, I can't tell you how to get here... other than it is not on the main drag (of course in Ankawa), but is just after the church with the hidden creche in the garden. Maybe you will recognize it from the bottom picture the next time you drive by in a taxi.

Authentic Chinese Restaurant...

... serving authentic Chinese food, with authentic Chinese staff. At least that's what the business card for Good Heart Chinese Restaurant says. The directions on the card are: Ankawa, after Saint Joseph's church take second right, the restaurant is immediately behind largest building (with Asia Cell tower on top). Typical directions for Hawler/Ankawa. The truth is, whether good or not, it is excellent to have something so different here. I like Bakery & More and the other Lebanese owned establishments that keep popping up, but food from places outside the Middle East is even more savored. Now we have fake Indian at the fake Sheraton, a new Turkish grill (just in time to replace two other Turkish restaurants which disappeared over the summer - rumor has it the owner left the country to avoid having unwarranted trouble with the police) and CHINESE!

Chinese already existed in Sulemania and just before summer, Tf paraded a bunch of colleagues into a new Chinese restaurant in Ankawa that appeared to be more brothel than restaurant. The owners were purportedly surprised to see so many women in the group and had to go out shopping to accommodate the food orders (seemingly corroborating suspicions that food is really the highlight of the "restaurant")... and the bill was exorbitant. Anyway, I regret that Tf has moved on to... Saudi? Like me, he speaks Chinese (only better) and would love this new place. Only open for 10 days, but it already seems like a keeper.

Miscellaneous Photos of Taxim

I usually stay in Taxim in Istanbul, but realized I have posted very few photos which capture the mood there. Please find below a few photos which hoefully work towards that goal. The little dirty yellow building above is Avrupa Hotel, the only 1 star hotel on the street, and the only one I can afford to stay in. The following two photos are of Taxim Square... near where the airport bus will drop you off.

And this final photo is of a sweet shop worker spooning syrup over some sticking sweets on Istiklal Caddesi.

Root Canal

Yarin Olduğu Yere Yalelellim. Amanın Aman Aman, Zamanın Zaman Zaman, Bizim Düğün Ne Zaman Yalelellim. Ben Armudu Dişlerim Yalelel Yalelel, ...

OK, to be honest, I am not sure if these are the lyrics my dentist, Elif, was singing as she affixed the permanent filling into the front tooth with the root canal, but she was singing something. It made the whole process much easier. I guess that if someone in the Middle East is in desperate need of dental work, I could recommend Elif at Dentistanbul.

By the way, if you look closely enough... you can actually see my root canal in the X-ray on the screen above the chair!

May Day at the Deutscher Hof

After a long period of NOt going to the DH, not being willing to shell out for exorbitantly priced weinersnitzel, or something which is nothing like what I thought bratwurst was like, I have started going again. Maybe everyone is in better spirits now that the dust storms are less frequent and the sun is out... or maybe because the beer really is the only good beer in Erbil, not being familiar brands (like Heineken, Grolsch or Budweiser) produced in unfamiliar places... or fake spirits imported from China.

In the evening, before International Workers' Day, a Maypole was brought out, but there was no dancing around it, or scaling of the pole... Instead people drank ridiculously huge draft beers or beer from little boots...

Or hammered nails into stumps. Who knew this was a competitive sport? Sorry to report that all the pictures of Gunter hammering nails in his lederhosen are too dark.

And on May 1st, we returned for lunch! In fact, the meals were surprisingly OK. But better than that was really just the chance to sit in the garden under a big umbrella amongst the garden gnomes (not pictured)...

And listen to the budgies and love birds twitter.




All photos by Corinne

Bakery & More

Photo by Corinne

The days of begging visitors to smuggle blocks of parmesan in their suitcases is over! What you can't see in this photo is the glass case filled with salami and ham varieties (all Halal beef, but convincing in taste), gruyere, parmesan, mozarella, and other cheeses! There is yet another bigger case of millefeuille, strawberry tarts, cream puffs, eclairs, mousse desserts... and, best of all, a counter stacked with breads; including baguettes, hedgehog-shaped loafs made from unbleached flour, lebanese flat bread and a variety of others, some enticing with an aroma of savory herbs.
Upstairs is a restaurant where I will likely be lunching a lot in the future. Now if only these new places that have started to spring up in Erbil would bring in proper coffee machines and good espresso.

If you haven't been yet, tell the taxi to take you to Sky City. It is directly across the street.

Beer with Bahman Gohbadi

Photo by Corinne

On Wednesday last week, Bahman Ghobadi appeared in the auditorium of our university to show both a clip showing the making of his film Half Moon and the film itself. In between the two he talked about the film. The portion of the program preceding the film, which is not available yet in Kurdistan (only a lousy pirated copy of Turtles Can Fly can be purchased in the bazaar), took about one and a half hours during which hardly a word of English was spoken. Holding this event in Kurdistan in Kurdish, where the speaking of Kurdish is NOT forbidden, is clearly an event to be celebrated! However, there were Assyrians, Chaldeans, Arabs (and Kurds returning for Arabic-speaking regions) and a whole host of foreigners, almost none of whom speak Kurdish fluently.... and barely a word of English was spoken. Again, you may wonder why this is upsetting? The university where the event was held is an ENGLISH-medium university... and hence all those non-Kurdish-speaking people in the audience (and dare I say, those most familiar with Bahman Ghobadi's work?) were denied from hearing his message.

I asked one of the students sitting near me, a lovely girl (but one whose whisper is louder than the microphone-amplified voices of those speaking on the stage), to translate the first of the audience questions. The question was, "Why are all your films shot in Iran and not Dohuk or Sulemania?" I wanted to die. What a waste of time. The one film which is available here, Turtles Can Fly, is entirely filmed in and near Hawler - which (as we know) is NOT in Iran. During all of this, a member of the student council, and one with excellent English, sat smugly on stage... doing nothing but arrange his Kurdish clothes and smile at the TV cameras. I questioned him afterwards as to why he made no real effort to translate, but he merely said, "What? Did you expect me to translate into 4 languages? Everyone here speaks Kurdish." Although the languages of the students at the university indeed do total 4 or more languages, the unifying one is English. If not, why would they elect to come to an English-medium university? Our nationalistic friend who likely should be studying at a Kurdish-medium university (what does one so total inward-looking a person need with a degree accredited from the outside anyway?) further added, "Anyway, Bahman Ghobadi doesn't speak English and there was no time for translation."

Well, my anger at this has now dissipated as I received my chance to hear Bahman Ghobadi speak after all. I ran into him at the Deutscher Hof in Ainkawa this past Wednesday night (after a full week of ranting). He was accompanied by a female Kurdish singer from Turkey, a Kurdish director from Kurdistan (Iraqi) and a man who produced and distributes some of Hiner Saleem's movies- movies which he will try to bring me this June when he returns to Kurdistan. Bahman Ghobadi was surprisingly friendly and down-to-earth and best of all, we were able to chat without the aid of a translator since he spoke marvelous English!

Please watch for follow-ups to this story as we exchanged email addresses and I am hoping for answers to some of the questions I wish were asked at the filming at the University.

BREAD

Photo by Pambette.
Yesterday I received a comment on my blog asking for photos... and a message in my email inbox complaining about my lack of blogging activity. Well, somehow it seems that my will to blog decreases significantly when my camera is out of action. Anyway, pictures have been promised and should be on the way soon. In the meantime, here is a photo taken at New City Turkish restaurant of sesame-adorned bread (of a particularly delicious variety) made just for me by a baker "Fred" who used to work at our university's cafeteria. Such a shame he is no longer there as it means we also no longer have lamacun on the menu.

Maftoul

This is another post for Saffron (formerly known as W. in Tokyo). A while ago, I went for lunch at Fairuz, a newish Lebanese restaurant in Hawler. Instead of ordering the Western dishes popular with locals, I ordered the day's special Lebanese dish, which I unfortunately promptly forgot the name of.

Anyway, it had these little pasta-like balls combined with chickpeas and chicken, all of which had been stewed for 4 hours. Although rather colorless,the flavor was delicate and pleasing (was it allspice?). Anyway, a little search led me to believe those little pasta-like balls were in fact Israeli (or Lebanese) cous cous (as pictured). Anyway, this recipe from Recipezaar souds like it would taste like what I had (minus the tomatoes and the chicken-browning step).

Not yet in Hawler

Last weekend, we (Dr. Z, Pambette and I) went on a little jaunt down to Suli! Although we really only had one evening and half of the next day there, it was great. We didn't have time to drive up and observe the view, but we did get what we came for - a little break from Hawler. Those of you who are Hawleri, please don't feel upset. I think little breaks are essential wherever you happen to live! Here are a few of the things you can observe in Suli (but not Hawler):

This first picture was taken at Dragon, a Chinese restaurant in Sarchner. Dr. Z is eating some "Chinese" noodles which were essentially spaghetti in Chinese sauce. The Chinese waitress argued that although the noodles were Itali mien that mien (noodles) are mien! I suppose that is true... and anyway, I was happy that although the food really wasn't good this time, I could still taste traces of authentic Chinese flavours (wood ear and other such lovely stuff)... This is different from the fake Sheraton in Hawler which thinks that if you add soy sauce to anything it becomes Chinese.

The second picture is also dedicated to food. It is where we had lunch on Saturday -Zara. Like Papula, is was attached to a department store, had a fast food restaurant downstairs and a cafe upstairs. What is special about these cafes in Suli is that there are coed groups of young people in the booths and young AND old couples out on dates. You can even see the occasional all female group! Another plus was the cappuccino... no Nescafe granules sprinkled on top!

A POST OFFICE! I wonder if it really functions. There was some news of a post office in Hawler as well, but none of us have seen it yet! I really want someone to mail me a letter just to try out the system.

And look here - a real phone booth. Near the bazaar in Hawler, you can also find some phones, but they are area phones belonging to some guy who stands there with the phone and collects your money. This is ever so much more... private (that is unless some foreign idiots come along and start taking your photo).

Discreet Dining at Dilan

Ramazan is over and life is good! Today while walking to the university, we chanced to walk by Dilan restaurant just as the owner was exiting the wide-open front doors. He stopped to chat with one of our group and invited us all in for gâteau - beautifully-fluffy chocolate-adorned caramel-scented creamy cake! Since Dilan has opened in Hawler (can't remember there being cake at Dilan in Shaklawa), there is no more need to go all the way to Diyarbakir's patisseries just for coffee and cake (not that anyone would chance crossing by land this week in any case). AND... one of the best parts of our little decadency is that there was no real need to feel guilty about this sugary pleasure as Ramazan ended Friday night and the curtains have come down from in front of Dilan's windows (see photo). No need to worry about us infidels taunting and flaunting our consumption in front of those fasting.

Turkish School

And I thought I was going to come and coast through a couple of easy weeks of Introductory Turkish... just for fun. Ha ha ha! Classes are taught Audio-lingual style, military pace. There are only 5 of us in the class; Peter (a Polish American - not named Peter, but as I called him Peter for the first 3 days of class, leet me continue), Matt (American), "Warrior Princess" from Russia, "Hans" a music teacher intern from Germany and me. The teacher gives us LONG lists of words which we take turns reading and conjugating and then she drills us. The next day we are tested on this. Even more amazing is that we all seem to study at the same pace! Then, the night we went drinking together, I found out why!

One evening after class, we all decided to head off to Balik (fish) Pazari off of Istiklal Caddesi (the 2nd time in these side streets) for a mezze and fish dinner (and raki)... and conversation in a multitude of languages - not a single person in the group was limited to one! In this first picture, you can see Peter (far left) telling a story not in English, Polish or Turkish, but in cartoon-like Spanish to Ella from Peru and Echo (half Thai, half Turkish). Trish (Dutch) lights a cigarette and listens.
The next picture is a quieter one. Y-chan and I smile for Meimei who has been helping us demonstrate the differences between Korean, Japanese and Chinese languages. And the next picture is Meimei being "picked up"? by Peter who hasn't understood a word of the German she was chatting with Matt in! And this is Matt and Trish. Trish is quiet, but not too quiet, she has promised to come along to a salsa club with me and a few others, and a few of us have promised to accompany Peter on a foray into the outskirts of Istanbul to find the Polish community.This last picture is a shot of Echo with all the women. After this picture, we headed off to another little alleyway to drink more raki. I have no idea where or why, but we al had heaps of fun and another such night is planned soon. Tomorrow night I hope to meet Meimei and Warrior Princess...

the EDGE

Although this post could easily be about how all the staff and students at the Uni have been on edge recently with finals coming up... it isn't! "The Edge" is the name of the bar located just inside the gates of the British Embassy compound (correct info?). And to think I managed to live here for almost 8 months before visiting the only real western bar...

So how was it? For those of you who have been to Korea, think military bar in Itaewon: Loud music, smoky, lots of big buff American guys drinking beer, playing darts and shouting to be heard over the music. Last week, there was also a largish group of teachers from the Chouefat International School celebrating (via karaoke and line dancing) that term was over... and a group of Ethiopian workers who proved to be very fun on the dance floor. This week proved to be more of the same minus the karaoke and the Ethiopian women. We (Vi, Rst and I) took Mu, although this was perhaps unadvisable since it is especially hard to make conversation in English when the native speakers are drunk and shouting over music.

The unfortunate thing is that although I have now been 2 times, I still don't think I could find this place on my own. Both times I went with Rst and his armed guard (poor guy- he stands and waits for us by the vehicle until 2:30 or 3:00am when we leave). Now my weekend is over and I am afriad to say that I am now officially ON EDGE! When I awoke yesterday after the night out drinking, there was a message on my phone from the deen of the university. As he appears first on the top of my mobile's phone book, appears that whoever was sitting on my bad at the club managed to send several empty texts to my boss thus disturbing my sleep... The bag-sitter also managed to call one of my students and delete all the people in my phone book whose name started with 'Z'. Will have to be more careful next time.

Lucienne & Leila

Note: the following post is somewhat silly, so feel free not to read it....

Tamas (who actually authorized me to use his real name) has left for Dubai... permanently... meaning life here is even duller without his effervescent company creating excitment at unexpected meeting spots - like Thomas's makeshift office at a table in the foyer of the fake Sheraton... or at the Deutscher hof where he teases poor Pepsi-the-dog until Gunter must chain him under a table (Pepsi, not Tamas). While Tamas once was loathe to leave Kurdistan, problems of the sort we all experience here have now brought him to the point where he is embracing his move with much eagerness. Sigh... Not only did he leave Kurdistan, but he took Lucienne (the camel in hot pink spangly short pants pictured above). I love Lucienne as he reminds me of El Farouk, a lovely camel from Dubai given me by Sol - who lives there still and may even be pictured in this blog (in the pictures from January's trip to Paris). Anyway, to console me, Lucienne made a trip back to Hawler (from Dubai) to bring Leila to me (the wonderfully cross-eyed dromedary seatbelted next to Lucienne in the picture above).


And this is Lucienne and Leila in a tearful farewell. It is really a time for farewells as Tamas & Lucienne are gone (although they will visit in August), Thomas has gone to Austria for 10 days and Cy (pictured with me in the Park the day of the bombing) is leaving on Monday for the US to take care of her family. Farewells are scary here as you can't really be sure that the leavers will return. I think this is the students' biggest fear...that the foreign teacher will all leave and the place where we work will become the same as...

Sauerkraut

Deutsche
Schnitzel für Kurdistan
Ein Thüringer betreibt in Erbil das
einzige deutsche Gasthaus im Irak und begeistert seine Kunden mit Hausmannskost,
Gartenzwergen und Udo Jürgens.
Von FOCUS-Online-Korrespondentin Annette Blettner

Gunter Völker hält Hof. Im karierten Trachtenhemd und Lederhose unterhält der Chef des gerade eröffneten Lokals und Gästehaus „Deutscher Hof“ im nordirakischen Erbil seine Gäste. Im Kleinod deutscher Kultur treffen sich Auslandsdeutsche und Rückkehrer, Geschäftsleute und internationale Mitarbeiter von Hilfsorganisationen, und immer mehr neugierige Iraker. Hier werden Informationen gehandelt und Geschäfte abgeschlossen. Deutsches Investment wird gerne gesehen im kurdischen Teil Iraks. Der Oberbürgermeister von Erbil, selbst Deutschlandrückkehrer, ist schon Stammkunde bei Gunter.

The above article comes from a German site... and no I don't read German, I just thought this blog needed to have words like "Oberbürgermeister" and "Deutschlandrückkehrer" written somewhere in the content (and a picture of Gunter in a red apron). But in truth, I publish this entry to remind myself not to be a "Sauerkraut".

Hawler is a kind of vacuum... There is nothing here and it just keeps sucking in on itself... And on a personal level; loneliness seems to lead people to do things that make them even more lonely. Then there is the resulting regret (for those who feel regret) ...

Anyway, after two brief phone conversations last night, both with people searching for different ways to break boredom (one through the act of calling and one through the beverages comsumed before calling) I decided not to sit home and be sauer. I removed myself to a party I had already declined an invite to and ended up with 'Izzy' and his friends/staff from Baghdad at the Deutscher Hof. It's amazing how profoundly simple things can make life so much better: a few friendly faces, a little sauerkraut, some conversation, a grassy garden and a few enthusiastic tugs at the sleeve from Pepsi, Gunter's dog.

MaDonal

A fast food restaurant in Suli; but as I didn't go in to sample the cuisine, I can't comment on the taste in comparison to the chain it bears resemblance to. I wonder if it is true that copyright regulations don't apply in post-conflict zones.