German Unity Day

My son and I in front of the Brandenburg Gate

Germany is one of our favorite countries. I've been fortunate to visit there a few times and I simply like it more and more with each trip. Most of the time I've spent there has been in the former East Germany, which still has many remnants of its former communist days, such as the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall or Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin. One of many favorite memories was simply standing next to Checkpoint Charlie as it lightly rained, watching the cars drive by without any need to stop or show their papers, all while the tourists snapped pictures. Needless to say, it seems that a united Germany is better than a divided one, and so we want to share in the celebration with all Germans of the 20th anniversary of their unity.

Sadly, German cuisine is hard for us to really work with here in the Middle East. There's a lot of pork involved, which is unavailable to us here, and due to our son's allergies we can't do much with dairy or eggs. There were several new things I wanted to try, but we ended up making currywurst like we always do.

Our Currywurst

Currywurst is a very popular and very tasty street food, largely available in Berlin. The concept is simple, take some sausage (a very nice all-beef hot dog would work in our case), smother it in curry ketchup, then sprinkle it with curry powder, finally eat it with bread on the side, and possibly french fries or vegetables. Usually to make the curry ketchup I'll mix some curry powder, paprika, and chili powder in white vinegar, then mix that with Heinz ketchup. It usually turns okay, though maybe a little grainy. I was excited to find this recipe for homemade curry ketchup. Maybe the whole thing needed more salt, but it was quite bland. It might also be because I'm not the biggest fan of apple cider vinegar. I opted to call the experiment a bust and just use regular ketchup and sprinkle curry powder on top. It may not be exactly like what I ate in Berlin, but it was still a very good guilty pleasure.

Congratulations on twenty years of unity, Germany. Here's to many more!

Gandhi's Birthday

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Throughout the world today is known as the International Day of Non-Violence. In many parts of India, however, it's simply known as Gandhi's birthday. We decided to celebrate his birth by putting together a meal typical of the region surrounding Mumbai, where he was born.

Saoji Chicken Curry, Garnished with diced red chilis

I found a recipe for Saoji curry using chicken, a common dish from the region. Now before anyone says anything, yes, I know that Gandhi didn't eat meat. I'm not sure how we would have felt about us celebrating his birth by eating chicken. I'm not sure he would have cared. If it's any consolation we did accompany our meal with a vegan mango lassi, using tofu instead of any dairy products.

Vegan Mango Lassi

The recipe calls for a plethora of spices which all make up garam masala. Instead of buying all the ingredients separately, you can probably buy garam masala prepackaged or as a powder. We already had some garam masala powder in the house, so we just used that, even though it's not supposed to be as strong and flavorful. It didn't seem to matter much since it still turned out really amazingly good. We've mostly just made Indian curry in the past from prepackaged pastes. This was surprisingly easy to make and much tastier and cheaper than curry from a jar. We thoroughly recommend it. If you're adventurous you could even experiment with different meats, like lamb, or make it a true vegan meal with either lentils or tofu.

Children's Day (Singapore)

Leftover Chicken Rice

Ever since I heard about chicken rice in Singapore I've been looking for an excuse to make it. I found this very easy to follow recipe with giant pictures. We more or less followed it, except I used a different recipe for hot sauce which is as follows:

Mix together 2 to 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice, 5 tbsp finely chopped fresh red chilies, 5 cloves garlic, chopped, 3 tbsp finely chopped ginger, 1 tsp fine salt, 1/2 cup boiling hot chicken soup

Aside from not realizing that a lot of water was going to come out when I tried to cut the chicken up this went really well. I must confess this dish was really amazingly good. Easily one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth. Truly, if this is the kind of thing kids get to eat all the time in Singapore then they don't just need one day to celebrate.

Feast of San Marino and the Republic

Rick Steves has actually been to San Marino, so he explains it all better than I ever could:

What I like to think about is what the word "freedom" would mean to a Sanmarinese. I feel like sometimes we Americans feel like we have a monopoly on freedom and that all other places are oppressive socialist dystopias. Obviously that's an exaggeration. In reality, I imagine most countries have their own take on the concept with slightly different nuances. That isn't to say that San Marino remaining free and independent for nearly 1700s years, avoiding both conquest and assimilation, would make its definition in some way better. Just different.

Pasta e Ceci (Pasta and Chickpeas)

Sanmarinese cuisine is apparently very similar to the surrounding Emilia-Romagna, but that's fine since I'm always looking for lesser-known Italian recipes, especially ones that don't involve tomato sauces. I found this one on NPR's website from Jamie Oliver. I followed the recipe as best I could, but something must have been lost in the adaptation because there was nowhere near enough soup to actually cook the pasta in once I reached that point. I added about two more cups of stock in and that seemed to be enough. I turned out really tasty. I think it's a fantastic dish to welcome autumn, for those of you who live in places where you'll actually get to experience it.

Uzbek Independence Day

The Tashkent Globe in Independence Square. Literally putting Uzbekistan on the map.

Uzbekistan. What do we know about it? It's in Central Asia and its capital is Tashkent. That's about it. If we're going to celebrate its independence, we had better learn a little bit more than that, to wit, from whom did they claim their independence and what does said independence mean?

Since the 19th century, Uzbeks were under Russian rule. With the formation of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan became the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. On September 1, 1991, with the decline of the Soviet Union, the republic was able to declare itself an independent democracy. As was often the case though with former communist nations, the individuals running the country didn't change, only their political affiliations. In the case of Uzbekistan, this means that former party leader Islam Karimov became the first (and for that matter, only) Uzbek president.

I'll admit, at this point everything is going to be pretty biased, largely because it's hard in the Western world to find President Karimov's side of the story. Virtually every human rights watchdog--Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the US State Department, and many others--have defined President Karimov's government as an authoritarian state with limited civil rights. Indeed, it seems that gruesome torture and repression are every day events. It's a muslim nation, and those critical of the government are often labeled "Islamic extremists", and jailed or put to death by firing squad. As a consequence of repressive economic policies, nearly half of the population lives on less than $1.25 per day. You'd think the Uzbek people would vote Karimov out of office, but as is universally the case with authoritarian regimes, he easily wins elections with 80% or 90% of the vote. Even though the the Uzbek constitution specifically sets term limits for the president, the courts keep allowing him to run. Even those who run against him have admitted they only have done so to make the elections appear legitimate, and as a rule begin their speeches talking about how awesome Karimov is. Ultimately, they even vote for the guy.

Now I can't help but go on a little rant here, since there are many in the media and on Facebook and Twitter who slander American president Obama as a dictator. It's one thing if you vehemently disagree with his policies, or even personally hate him. I just don't see the comparison. First of all, his approval rating is way too low. If he were a dictator, he would make you like him. Karimov's government is extremely repressive of the media in Uzbekistan. In the US, the most popular cable news station is Fox News, which isn't shy about its opposition to Obama. If he really were a dictator, Glenn Beck wouldn't be claiming on his program that the president had people trying to kill him. There would be a quick and fancy show trial followed by his execution, not a devoted TV, book, and radio following that earns him tens of millions of dollars a year. Sarah Palin would begin every speech by saying how good Barack Obama is for the country, and rank him among some of the greatest presidents we've ever had. And for those of you who tweet that he's a dictator, you would disappear in the middle of the night and never be heard from again. Ultimately, you may think he's doing a lousy job as president--that's something we can debate--but we should all be able to agree that if he's trying to be a dictator, he could learn a lot more from the pros. 

World Heritage Site "The Registran" in Samarkand

Sadly, it seems that the Uzbek people are independent from Russian rule, but they are still not free. So today we instead will celebrate the Uzbek culture, their many beautiful ancient mosques and madrasahs, and above all, their food.

Our version of Plov

For dinner, we chose to make the Uzbek classic, plov. I found this good recipe (and by good, I mean it has giant pictures). I improvised a bit, namely I used pre-ground spices and ground mutton instead of lamb (which, admittedly, was mostly out of laziness). I'm sure a real Uzbek would scoff at our attempt, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. The garlic bit was particularly tasty. Ultimately, our version comes off as a really fancy Rice-a-roni, so even if you're not willing to try this, you should at the very least add shredded carrots to all future boxed San Francisco treats you make.   

Day of Solidarity and Freedom

Strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, 1980

I've noticed as of late there are a large number of politicians and media pundits who decry anything they disagree with to be socialism. Progressive leaders moving toward universal health coverage and other government social programs are put into the same category as Stalin, Marx, and Lenin. Ironically, these same would-be Joseph McCarthys generally are also against trade unions--just the same as, well, actual 20th century communists. Let me be perfectly clear so as not to equivocate: If you are against trade unions you have more in common with communists than someone who is for them.

In fact, trade unions were hugely instrumental in the fall of European communism. At the forefront was the world's most famous union, Solidarność, better known in English as Solidarity. Led by the charismatic electrician Lech Wałęsa, workers at the Lenin shipyard in Gdańsk had been striking for months, waiting for the government to give into their demands for equality, religious freedom, and workers' rights. In August of 1980, the government eventually had to give into their demands, signing the August Agreement which gave the union influence over the corrupt government. The union became hugely popular, at one point a quarter of the population were members.

Cover of Polish punk rock group Big Cyc's album "Don't Trust Electricians" with a picture of Wałęsa

Throughout the 80s the government did their best to bring the union down, through repression and martial law. On the second anniversary of the agreement on August 31, 1982 anti-government demonstrations turned violent and three were killed in the town of Lubin. But ultimately, the government was nothing without the workers and they were forced to negotiate with the union, opening the way to semi-free elections in 1989 and Wałęsa as president. 

To celebrate the freedom and rights of workers everywhere, we decided to go with one of my favorite Polish dishes--pierogies. Since our son is allergic to eggs we found a vegan recipe for the dough (found here). It worked out very well, my only advice is to help firmly seal the pierogi when you close them, you might want to lightly coat the edges with oil. For the filling we mashed up a potato with sautéed onions and boiled cabbage. We then added some soy-based cream cheese for some and shredded cheese to the others.

Our Pierogies

After boiling the dumplings till they floated to the top we did our best to fry them. It didn't work out too well at first, but we eventually got the hang of it. I think we were using too little oil and it wasn't hot enough. Once we added more oil and got it good and hot everything worked out perfectly. We had it with some turkey kielbasa and peas on the side. I suppose it tasted like freedom, albeit greasy high-calorie freedom.

We're Back!

Summer break is over and we're back home with our own kitchen. Check out this week for the following posts:

Tuesday - We'll be making pierogies using a vegan recipe for the dough to celebrate Poland's Day of Solidarity and Freedom

Wednesday - We'll be making the rice and lamb dish plov for Uzbekistan's Independence Day

Friday - We'll celebrate micro state San Marino's birthday by making a simple dish of pasta and chickpeas for the Feast of San Marino and the Republic.

Keep an eye out for these and all future posts that I find the time and energy to write!