The Greatest Taxi Ride Ever

This morning I experienced the most hilarious taxi ride of my life. It was mid-morning in the Sodeco neighborhood of Beirut. Mahmoud just took off down the block towards his edit suite and I lingered on the sidewalk to catch a ride towards Hamra, where I planned to spend the day, as is my modus operandi in Beirut, ensconced in my “office,” which is where I’m typing now (a shaded corner of the outdoor terrace of Café Younes, where I drink iced coffees, eat absurdly delicious pastries from La Cigale, and to tend to the day’s work on my laptop – yes, I know, life is so tough – a little blob of cream from my éclair has made it’s way onto my keyboard, woe is me).

The normal sequence of events transpired to get me into a taxi – a decrepit car slows down, a grizzled old man peers through the window, I announce my desired destination with as much confidence as I can muster, grizzled old man scoffs and tosses his head back disdainfully and drives away, another decrepit car slows down, a different grizzled old man peers through the window, I announce my desired destination again, grizzled old man scoffs and tosses his head back disdainfully but with a slight tilt to the right which means “ok you can get in.” Standard procedure so far.

Then the fun began. But before my butt even hit the seat, the guy announces, “I sell fish!”

“Fish?” I ask, thinking my Arabic was failing me.

“Fish.” He switches to English. “All kinds fishes. Also shrimp, lobster, nice fish. I will take you to see fish. You can buy fish from me, good fish.”

I laughed it off, commenting “Taxis and fish are an odd business combination.” He gave me a serious look in the rearview mirror and responded, “ok you don’t have time to buy today.” I muttered non-committally.

He proceeded to take me on a guided tour of his fish selling career. We drove past the posh Beirut souqs: “before the war, we sell fish here. I was child, I sell fish, I make 500 Lebanese pounds every day!” We drove past St. George beach club: “before I was selling to this place, 11,800 pounds every week, lobster, prawns, king prawns, fish!” We drove past the university: “before, this was Swiss embassy. Swiss Ambassador very big friend to me. I sell him fish. Also here was French embassy and I sell them fish: sole and sultan ibrahim and prawns.” He pointed to a pink house on the next corner: “here was living Mr. So-and-So, he is big man, very rich, very big friend to me. I am selling to him for twenty five years, now no more.” A half dozen restaurants we passed along the way all used to buy his catalogue of marine delights. “I know everyone in Beirut,” he sang.

“You also buy fish!” he insisted. I gently explained that, as a tourist, fish are not the most practical purchase. “You stay in hotel?” “No, I stay with a friend.” “An American friend?” “No, a Lebanese friend.” His eyes light up. “A Lebanese friend! She can buy fish! Where your friend is living?” “Mansourieh,” I said, thinking that this little mountain town outside Beirut was probably outside his range of fish-selling history. “I have too many friends in Mansourieh!” he declares and commences to list the people he sells fish to in Mansourieh, a list which includes no small proportion of billionaires and army generals, all very great friends of his.

As sparklingly funny as it was to overlay this Bubba-Gump-style litany of seafood invoices onto a driving tour of Beirut history, there was also something mysterious and sad about it. All of his impressive sales were in the past tense. It was a nostalgic narration of past glory and faded success. It made me wonder how dire was his present financial state if a previous fish-peddling career now seemed so illustrious. His car was decrepit but no more so than most taxis in the city (at least this one had the inner door casing, unlike one we took yesterday which exposed the wires and levers of the manual door locking system like a biological model of a human with the veins exposed). In a more jaded moment, I wondered whether he was pulling a common Beirut taxi trick of chatting sweetly during the whole trip so as to catch the poor tourist off-guard with an outrageous demand of money at the destination. I made a point to remind him that I was paying for a “service” (a cheaper option where the taxi driver can stop to pick up additional passengers on approximately the same route). He loudly exclaimed, “I don’t care for the money! Hassan drives you because you are a gentle woman, nice American woman. I don’t care for the money. Money come and go. Friends stay.” And true to his word, when our fish purchasing tour was over, he tried to push my money away. I had to insist that he take even the meager 2 LL service charge.

He wanted me take his number so that my “gentle woman friends” can buy fish from him. So, out of an obscure sense of duty to this generous wacko, I hereby announce that, if you need to buy some fish (or order a taxi) in Beirut, you should call Hassan on 03 612 137.

Hmmmm

I puzzled for a while about what to write about this.

In the end, I think it speaks for itself:

Ride the Wild Peeta!

My new obsession is Wild Peeta. It’s fresh, it’s funky, it’s delicious, and it finally brings to Dubai what I consider to be one of America’s greatest innovations: the fast, healthy, multi-staged, choose-it-yourself sandwich creation.

Wild Peeta’s focus is “fusion shawarma,” where you start with fresh arabic-ish bread, choose your meat (chicken, beef, or veg), choose your sauce, and choose your veggies. Fusion shawarma is indeed an accurate description. The twirling pillars of grilled meat are traditional, while the bread takes the spirit of Arabic bread and gives it just the right amount of fluffiness and the sauces range from Mexican to Italian to Thai.

These people are sauce geniuses, by the way. I’d say genii, if that didn’t make them sound like they wear harem pants. But human or genii, they have crafted the most complex, multi-layered garlic mayo I have ever eaten. The thai sauce is nutty and slightly sweet. I even like the mushroom sauce and I despise mushrooms! The dressing on the fattouche, while not traditional, is so delicious I almost drank the remainder at the bottom of the bowl. Even their juices were startlingly good. Bravo, you Wild Peeta people.

My only suggestion is that they add one more stage of “choose-it-yourself”-ness. The sandwiches are missing a tangy, crunchy condiment. Our Thai sandwich was a tiny bit bland and would have been wonderful with a bit of spicy, citrus-y carrot salad. Our Arabic sandwich, which was wonderful, would have been divine with some of that Omani salsa-like condiment. And I can’t quite imagine the Mexican sandwich without some salsa fresca. In short, all of them would benefit from some sort of cruchy, vinegary condiment as the finishing touch.

But I’ll be back to ride that Wild Peeta again soon, regardless. The place is tiny and love-able the way that all independent, projects-of-passion are, especially in Dubai which has so few of them. The owners are charming and the staff were extremely cheerful and helpful. Overall, I’m thrilled that this place exists and, to quote from one of their comic-style murals, it is KASHKHAH!

WOMAD

I am full of praise for WOMAD, the world music festival founded by Peter Gabriel and essentially franchised out to a handful of locations throughout the world. We’re in the middle of Abu Dhabi’s second free annual festival. After missing the first one last year to be a bridesmaid in Alli’s wedding in the Bahamas, I have been following every announcement leading up to this year’s event – generally shrieking to Mahmoud from the balcony as I read new line-up announcements in the morning paper. The biggest shriek this year came for Tinariwen.

I’ve been madly in love with this band since I first heard them about 5 years ago. They’re a group of Touaregs playing North African blues rock. It’s droney and tribal, a dense sound of voice, acoustic guitars, electric guitars and the tindé drum. It sounds like a view of the Saharan landscape, with Jimi Hendrix galloping past on a ferocious horse whipped by the sandy wind. At least, that’s what I thought when I first heard them on my iPod as I was walking through Hyde Park. I also figured it was extremely unlikely that I’d ever see them live, since I don’t spend a lot of time in the desert in Mali.

Lucky for me, the good folks at ADACH have brought them to me. They were wonderful live. The sight of them all on-stage was remarkably close to my desert/Hendrix fantasy! The lead singer is a battered-looking version of what Hendrix (or Shaft) might have looked like had he lived until 50 and the rest of the band performs dressed in the voluminous layers of traditional Touareg dress. Wikipedia has just explained to me that the Touaregs are a matriarchal culture where the women do not veil their face, but the men do, as you can see in this picture.

Anyhoo, long night – we didn’t get back home until 3am – but it was well-worth it. The concert was in Al Jahili Fort in Al Ain, which is a beautiful place for outdoor concerts. It feels a bit like being inside a giant, well-lit sand castle. Here’s a picture from the last event we attended there, the New York Philharmonic.

The other surprise highlight of the evening was concert of Pakistani singer, Faiz Ali Faiz and his Sufi backing musicians (2 harmoniums [harmonia?], 2 tabla players, and 2 clappers, all of whom occasionally sing as well). His music was hypnotic and moving in the way that I find all Qawwali music to be. But the real joy of it was the crowd. Being in the UAE, the population of which is heavily sub-continental, it should have come as no surprise that about a third of the audience would be Pakistani men. They went, quite simply, crazy. It was a bit like what I’d imagine a Pentacostal service would be. People were sitting in the audience, clapping and swaying, and suddenly – like popcorn – the spirit would enter someone and he would leap to his feet, arms raised in victory and start jumping everywhere, waving his arms above his shoulders in a vaguely dyslexic YMCA-style dance, grinning from ear to ear. Small groups of them would be jumping closer and dance together and it felt like a real privilege to be so close to what looked like an intensely private rapture for a segment of society we rarely get close to except in the taxis they drive. As the concert went on and the number of dancers increased to resemble a more modern mosh pit, we started to see eruptions of confetti thrown 20 feet in the air. The men were shredding the event program and heaving it towards the heavens, or towards the stage. We think it was to symbolize the traditional throwing of money on inspired performers.

On a more mundane note, we discovered that Pakistani men have absolutely lustrous hair and many of them have a penchant for architecturally-bold mullets.

DJ Dr. Eva the Cupcake Diva presents “An Homage to the Letter M.”

I'm guest DJing at Clinic tonight. The Tuesday night program is called Alternative Medicine, which makes me a "guest doctor." I am DJ Dr. Eva the Cupcake Diva! Mwah haha

My playlist for the evening will be a tribute to that most mountainous of letters, your favourite bilabial consonant and mine… the letter M.

This memorable musical montage will range throughout the last century, from Memphis to Mumbai, from Mali to Manilla. It will melt and merge many genres: merry jazz, mesmerizing blues, mellifluous indie rock, marvellous electro, melodious world music, and much much more…

The Playlist
1) Larry Miranda – “Marupok Na Sumpa” from the album “Lumang Simbahan.” Larry is a crooner in the Kundiman style from the Philipines. I love it for its old school suaveness and faintly Mexican feel.

2) Mahmoud Ahmed – “Balomi Benna” from ““Ethiopiques Vol 7.” Mahmoud is a former shoe-shiner from Addis Ababa. He’s got the meanest “R” rolling technique I’ve ever heard. This song was released in 1975 and is a catchy concoction of soul and Ethiopian shuffle.

3) Mamani Keita & Marc Minelli – “Nani” from “Electro Bamako.” Mamani is from Mali. This track combines her deep lullaby of a voice with some nu jazz shenanigans.

4) Mugison – “Mugiboogie” from the album of the same name. All the spikiness of a capital M is here in this flamboyant industrial blues track (how’s that for the coining of a new genre?) from my favorite bearded Icelander.

5) Moving Units – “Going for Adds” from “Dangerous Dreams.” Californian dance-punk to make you bounce.

6) Mathieu Chedid – “Onde Sensuelle” from “Je Dis Aime.” This artist often records under the stage name “M” and I think we need to reward him for his dedication to the letter M with a place on my list. This track is a sassy little pop number with a chorus that’s fun to hummmm along to.

7) Jurassic 5 – “Modern Times.” Jurassic 5 is my favorite Tribe-Called-Quest-style hip-hop group. This brilliant track features a sample of the score of the 1936 Charlie Chaplin movie “Modern Times.”

8) Mukesh – “Suno Haal Meri Zindagi Ka” from “The Legend: Mukesh.” I’m obsessed with Hindi music, doubly obsessed with old-school Hindi music, and triply obsessed & mango-chutney-on-top with old-school Hindi songs that have the kind of kick-ass violin interludes that this one does.

9) Squirrel Nut Zippers – “Meant to Be.” This North Carolinian Delta blues / gypsy jazz / swing band has long been one of my favorites. The whole 1996 album “Hot” is infectious. The band's name comes the term “Nut Zippers" a southern term for a variety of old bootleg moonshine, and from a newspaper account which related the story of a highly intoxicated man who climbed a tree one night, refusing to come down even after authorities arrived. The article's headline read: "Squirrel Nut Zipper."

10) Memphis Minnie – “I Got to Make a Change Blues”. Minnie was one of the most influential and pioneering female blues musicians and guitarists of all time. She ran away from home in Louisiana at the age of 13 and began playing the guitar in nightclubs and on the street. She recorded actively from the ‘20s to the ‘50s and penned several songs which were later made famous by other artists, including “When the Levee Breaks.”

11) The Magnetic Fields – “The Luckiest Guy on the Lower-East Side” from “69 Love Songs.” This song from the Boston-based indie pop group is about the pleasures of joy-riding around Manhattan on a spring day with a hottie in the passenger seat.

12) Monty Python – “I Like Chinese.” I’m glad to finally live in a place where there are people around me who don’t need an explanation of who Monty Python are. I grew up in suburban Pennsylvania, watching bootleg VHS copies of the Flying Circus. I spent my childhood making references to empty halves of coconuts and no one would laugh. It was sad.

13) Crash Test Dummies – “Mmmm mmm mmm” from “God Shuffled His Feet.” Would any playlist devoted to M be complete without this one? I don’t think so.

14) Blockhead – “Music by Cavelight” from the album of the same name. My marvelous husband introduced me to this solo album by the American hip-hop producer also known for producing Aesop Rock, my favorite white hip-hopper. I’m pretty sure that this track samples a super-sped-up clip of the Hungarian song from the soundtrack to the English Patient.

15) Ms. John Soda – “Hiding/Fading” from “No P. or D.” This is a relatively obscure German ‘glitch-pop’ group from the famous Morr Music label. I saw them in a peanut-sized club in Boston in the early 2000s and have been hooked ever since.

16) Metric – “Blindness” from “Fantasies.” Metric is my favorite band, whom – by chance – I first encountered in that same peanut-sized club. Emily Haines’ voice just melts me. This track is from their latest album.

17) The Memory Tapes – “Green Knight” from “Seek Magic.” This one is hot off the presses from New Jersey. It’s got to be the most mellifluous use of a basketball court in the history of pop music.

18) Martyn Bennett – “Blackbird” from “Grit.” Caledonian techno-folkie Martyn was an incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist who died of cancer at the age of 33. I love every track on each of his 5 albums. This one is from his last album, recorded during his final struggle with cancer, and it fearlessly brings together majestic orchestration, synth beats, and what I think is a vocal sample from the Gaeltachd traditions of the Hebrides.


Honorable Mentions [highly commmmendable but not able to fit into my mix]:
- Donovan – “There Is A Mountain.” This is my favorite track by the 60s folk icon. I love the part about halfway through where he is singing “oh Juanita, oh Juanita, I call your name…” and someone (presumably Juanita) responds with a dwarfish cry of “wyAAH!”

- Feist – “Mushaboom” and “My Moon My Man.” Both very merry and delightfully catchy.

- M83 – “You, Appearing.” Music to listen to while dissolving into the universe.

- Mariza – sweet, sexy Portuguese music for an afternoon by the pool.

- Marvin Gaye – “Here, My Dear.” This track sounds like Prince imitating Isaac Hayes imitating Marvin Gaye. Delightfully kitsch.

- Múm – “If I Were A Fish.” In this track, from their latest album, you can hear what Múm sounds like when they sing in regular voices instead of channeling the spirit of Icelandic icicles.

- Tom Jones – “Motherless Child (feat Portishead).” Melodramatic, but so loveable.


About the letter M:
M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English (pronounced /ˈɛm/) is spelled “em” and is an acceptable play according to the standard rules of Scrabble.

The letter M derives its shape from the ancient Phoenician Mem. In binary code, capital M is binary 01001101 and lowercase m is 01101101.


About the DJ:
DJ Dr. Eva the Cupcake Diva likes moist macaroons, meditation, medieval history, maple syrup, mash-ups, mashed potatoes, mailmen, meerkats, and alliteration.

She dedicates this playlist to all the m’s in her life: her brother, father, late mother, two sisters-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law and, of course, the biggest m of all, her movie-making-maestro husband, Mahmoud.

A Mahmovies! Valentine’s Surprise

As if last night wasn’t amazing enough…
Watching the phenomenally creative and colorful movie “Sita Sings the Blues” is enough to make my day all on its own…
Selling my little cupcakes-for-Haiti (flavors: chocolate, vanilla, and Bounty this week) as fast I could ice them is enough to satisfy me for a week…
Being present at a concert as new and deeply moving as last night’s, where we enjoyed the rare opportunity to interact with the men who built this city, will keep me buzzing for quite a while…

On top of all this, my dashing husband concocted a wonderful valentine’s day surprise through his role as Curator MC extraordinaire! He arranged for one of the guys, Mohamad Farooq aka “Mr. Love” to sing a song from Fana’a (one of my favorite Bollywood soundtracks) and dedicate it to me. It was the best valentine’s day surprise ever! Mr. Love knocked it out of the park – his performance was spot-on and highly entertaining. Thank you, Mahmoudi!!

But back to the programme overall, it was truly a remarkable evening. The response to the concert especially has been overwhelming; in attendance were videojournalists from two publications and reporters from three more (we’ll stay tuned for the release of their stories), someone was supposedly almost in tears describing it on the radio this morning, the twittersphere is ablaze, and the bloggers keep on bloggin’. From my perspective, as I try to define why it was so special, I think Mahmoud really nailed it in his introduction when he said this is not an event with a political agenda, this is not about charity, and there’s no pity or condescension – it was simply a moment of acknowledgement and celebration. On their own terms, in recognition of their talents and passions. For many of us, certainly for me, it was the first opportunity to do so.

Eva from Marienbad Continues Her Cupcake Crusade

As you all know, I devoted the proceeds from cupcake sales in the previous season of Mahmovies! to the MESCO schools and nurseries in India. What you might not know is that I have received an avalanche of very touching comments from the MESCO folks as well as the amazing creatives of “Creatives Against Poverty” from around the world. I really didn’t think my little fundraising drive would mean so much – it’s been a thousand times more gratifying than I thought it would be.

I even got a little mention in the latest MESCO newsletter! It reads:
“Eva champions MESCO’s cause
Your effort in your eyes may look small, but the idea and the sentiments behind these efforts are far reaching and have catalytic effect. It just invigorates us and tells us subtly that the power of giving is with each one of us.
A young lady Eva Star Sayre in a town of Marienbad, who had never experienced hunger and hardships of life or so called outcome of poverty, brings life to many by her sincere efforts. She being a member of “Creative Against Poverty” an NGO, decided to do her bit (for MESCO), to provide snacks (Batawada) to the students of Std. X in a School in Mumbai by making cupcakes and selling them at Mahmovies Festival, with an intention to forward the proceeds (profits earned from such sale) to MESCO, using the slogan “cupcakes for you = batawadas for them”
Through such effort she raised $300 in one attempt which will be sufficient to provide two batawadas each to 100 students of Std. X in a School, during their lunch time for a period of two weeks. It ensures that they will attend the supportive extra classes until the end of the academic year. This will make all the difference between going beyond school and being a school drop out. Eva and her friends plan to raise funds for children through innovative methods. It's the “Efforts” which bring reward from heavens no matter how insignificant these may seem in our mortal eyes.”

Isn’t that so sweet? I love it, and am happy to be mislabelled as Polish for a good cause ☺

Moving forward, I’m raising funds for Haiti in this current season of Mahmovies. We’re in the middle of it now and achieving record attendance. This is our best season yet in terms of both music and movies and the press coverage has been fantastic. I’ve been selling out of cupcakes each week!

Week 1 flavors were dark chocolate strawberry and white chocolate cappuccino.
Week 2 flavors were chocolate cheesecake (Mom’s famous “black-bottom cupcake” recipe) and vanilla-on-vanilla.
I need to put away the laptop now and tie on the apron for the Week 3 kitchen explosion: nutella and carrotcake with cream cheese icing.

Sayre Design: What Makes a Good Logo

Look! It's my dear Daddio, authoritatively explaining the importance of logos to corporate identity.

Here's the video: http://www.lehighvalleyentrepreneur.tv/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=234

More info about Sayre Design at http://www.sayredesign.com

Happy National Day / Let’s Go To The Fish Market

Today and yesterday are beautiful bank holidays, glazed golden by a lazy gentle sun. We’re celebrating UAE National Day, the 38th anniversary of the founding of the country, which happened to take place at the base of a flagpole about 300 meters from my bedroom window. Yay UAE!

The traditional manner of celebrating National Day is to decorate your 4x4 with flags, pictures of the country’s leaders, and various other shapes (stripes, hearts, etc.) in red, black, white, and green. Then you drive slowly down a beachfront street, honking like there’s no tomorrow, revving your engine, making popping sounds with your exhaust and screaming out the windows. If you have many children, you put the youngest on the roof of the 4x4 and have one of the teenagers sit on the window ledge and reach up to hold on to the young one’s leg, honk, clap, rev engine, repeat.

It’s also encouraged to circulate Happy National Day emails, some of which come illustrated with motivational pictures. This one is my favorite, courtesy of Tabitha and the Dubai Metro crew.



Buildings also get decorated in celebratory portraits, some of which are inspiring, some of which are not. We spotted this one last night, which I find a bit creepy. Best leave Sheikh Mo without the unflattering lighting, I think.



I don’t have a 4x4, or a small child to put on top of it, so I celebrated UAE National Day by going to the Shindagha fish market and fruit & veg market. I’m embarassed to admit this is the first time I’ve gone, despite having lived here for almost 4 years. It’s amaaazing! And it’s about 2 miles from my house. I love Dubai’s capacity to still surprise me. These markets are incredible – bountiful, bustling, cheap, colorful, and smelly – everything a good market should be.


First, we parked our “fish vehicle”, then sauntered through the fish stalls, admiring the monstrously large hammour head, we bought a beautiful obsidian-colored tuna, we wandered amidst technicolor fruit stands and admired the bite-sized bananas and walls of melons, bought some dates, Mahmoud gave me a bouquet of mint, and then… the fish cutting factory!



On your way out, you stop here and for about $1 they’ll remove the skin, bones, and guts and chop up your fish for you. Amazing! Yay UAE!

Thanksgiving Recap

I promised you all a recap... but what to say without tooting my own turkey?!

Perhaps it would be more modest to review it in the words of my guests: Maryam said "5 stars habibti!" Denise proclaimed it "a triumph!" Mohammed said "indescribable" (which I hope is good!). Maya kept sighing and whispering to herself "mmmm, mashed potatoes..." Mahmoud and Emil didn't say anything because their mouths were full. And Amira said "excellent everthing, including the company!" Nuria, the world-famous food critic, hasn't weighed in yet -- I believe her review will appear on the 'Vini Edi Dormi' blog...

Our menu:
Roasted turkey and gravy (big thanks to Denise for the bird-mentoring)
Stuffing (classic Baba recipe)
Mashed potatoes
Corn casserole
Cranberry sauce with fresh herbs and pomegranate syrup
Brussel sprouts
Sweet potato casserole
And for dessert: pumpkin pie, chocolate pecan pie, and vanilla ice cream

In addition to the pleasure of the feast, I enjoyed making it. I especially got a kick out of learning that cranberries pop when you cook them! And I was amazed to discover that there is no wizardry involved in roasting a turkey.

Now the only problem is that, as with any good thanksgiving spread, there is a fridge full of leftovers. Since I live with only one person, and that one person doesn't really believe in leftover-eating, I anticipate a full week of thanksgiving-sandwich dinners. It will be carbo-overload, but the fact is that I do love the thanksgiving-sandwich! It reminds me of high school, when we used to order thanksgiving subs from the store in middletown which called them "Bobbies" for some reason that none of us ever understood.