Iraqi Swedish Meatballs

I figure I should mention some of the odds and ends that don't fit into a full post, but are deserving of note, nonetheless.

The other night, I went to the house of a student, "Abu Iskander," for dinner.  His wife, Um Iskander made wonderful dolma and qubaa for Father Raymond and me.  Dolma is stuffed grape leaves or stuffed zucchini.   Always delicious.  I've had qubaa before in a few different versions.  There's the Selassie-Rowe meat-muffin/pie variety.  There's a bite-size version (meat in a pastry) that is covered in yogurt.  And there is the version I had at the Iskander house.  This version had the pastries along with lamb chunks in a sauce that tasted exactly like my mom's (or Grandma Allaire's) Swedish Meatballs.  When I told Um Iskander how close the flavor was to my mom's cooking, over my protestations, she packed a big bucket of it for me to take home.  Sufficed to say, my attempted Ramadan fasting has suffered a setback with Iraqi Swedish Meatballs in my fridge.

A little later, Fr. Raymond told me that another student, "Suleiman," who had previously been rejected for resettlement, appealed his claim and was approved.  This was big news, as he had been floored when he was rejected.  Now, it seems a lot of my students will get to the U.S. before I do.

There was a really funny moment towards the end of dinner.  Abu Iskander asked me if I wanted another glass of arak.  I told him I'd have one if he was going to have another.  He downed his half-full glass, turned it upside-down, and looked at me, saying, "khalas?," meaning "done?"  I cracked up.  Drinking with 70-somethings is becoming a shockingly regular occurrence for me these days.

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When I was hanging out at the home of another student last week, I was momentarily distracted when a dubbed version of Harry and the Hendersons came on TV.  I love this movie, but I was left wondering why someone chose this one as worthy of being dubbed.  

Also, there's a channel in Jordan that I think shows only the Police Academy movies.  Only the best parts of American culture make it through here.

I went searching for Arab zombie movies, but after talking with three video store guys, it became clear that all zombie movies are aflam ajnabi, foreign films.  I did pick up al-Maseer, or Destiny, which I saw a few years ago at Beloit's Arabic camp.  It features a young Mohammad Mounir as Marwan, a gypsy poet/singer/dancer who is friends with the philosopher Averroes in Islamic Spain.  At one point, after the prince, a formerly fun-loving dancer, has been converted into a song/dance/poetry-hating cult-follower, Marwan and the gypsies bring him back to life with....a musical number!  Awesomeness ensues.

Mohammad Mounir - Ali Sotak

(roughly translated, the lyrics go something like: "Raise your voice with song, for as long as we can sing, we'll sing.  For all the days of our life, we'll sing.  Don't let them break you.  Don't let them make you fear.  Your dream will be my dream.  Will you dance?  I'll dance.")

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I did a sketch of the Ad-Deir, the also apocryphally-named Monastery, at Petra on our second day there.  It's the first drawing I've been semi-happy with in a long time, so I thought I'd put it on here.

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I heard an Arabic pop song on the radio with moog in it.  It was a revelation for me.

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There's a great Ramadan photo gallery from the Globe:

Big Picture: Ramadan

Photos 7, 14, 21, and 33 are stunning.