Food Porn, Ramallah Edition

June 2012 Food Experiences

Some foodie heaven is happening in Ramallah, Palestine. I though you'd enjoy a few photos. We ate these all over the month of June. I'll add a note if the restaurant name isn't apparent in the photo.

 

Minimizing Makeup

Happiness is a light makeup bag.

In my previous packing list, I blithely skipped over listing out individual items in the toiletry department, as most packing lists do. I shall be different, and give you the details. Anyone who wears makeup might want to see what's in my bag.Caroline McGraw  of A Wish Come Clear writes, "I’ve lessened my ‘need’ for specialty products and reconsidered cosmetics. For now, my look is simply this: moisturizer with SPF, tweezed brows, curled lashes, a touch of lipstick (or tinted Burt’s Bees balm), a little concealer and vanilla extract for ‘perfume’. You don’t need tons of makeup to look beautiful, and you can care for yourself (and the planet!) with less. There is elegance and class in going low-maintenance."Inspired, I decided to simplify my makeup routine. I do love makeup. I love playing with it. It's all a fun, artistic experiment that allows me to be vain, which I enjoy.  But stuff is suffering. Happiness is a light makeup bag. So I experimented and the results are that I've whittled down my daily use make up products to this very small grouping that make me feel  pretty, smart (because of how many multi-use items are here) and light-of-bag:

• 1. Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunblock SPF 30: Sunscreen is an always-must-use. Every single day. I make sure to put a double dose it on places that face the noon sun: the top of my nose, my shoulders, and my boobs on a perky day. I'm looking for a better sun cream since this one smells chemically and feels bad on my skin.
• 2. Concealer: This is a little container of the remainder of a large tube I had before I left. It is Sheer Tint Base from Glo. A little goes a long way. The original tube lasted over a year. I really like this product.
• 3. Vaseline: The Queen of multi-use products.

1. I use this on my lips before lip color,
2. Then I blend a little lip color with some Vaseline in my palm and use it as a cheek stain.
3.  I use it to groom my brows.
4. I use it on small cuts or dry hangnails.
5. I use it to remove eye make up.

• 1. Red color stick: This is an organic Zuzu Luxe lipliner in Hazelnut that I bought at Whole Foods in LA. It works great on top of Vaseline on the lips and as a cheek stain when blended with Vaseline.
• 2. Eyelash curler: Revlon, I think.
• 3. Brow Tweezers: Revlon. Also good for splinters and picking up very tiny things.
• 4. Brow/eye liner brush tool: I can use this to groom my browns and remove clumps of mascara. I use the other end to apply:
• 5. Gel eyeliner: Maybelline Eye Studio, in brown. I just smudge it on with the small slanted brush mentioned above and it seems somewhat waterproof.
• 6. Rimmel Volume Accelerator Mascara: In extreme black. Ick. I don't like this formula. It clumps my lashes together. When I run out I will try something else.
• 7. GloMinerals Revive Hydration Mist: This is a luxury item that my sister gave me, but for me it replaces powder as a setting agent and feels much better than powder in this hot, dry season. It smells and feels nice to spritz on at the end of doing make up.

Perfume to me does not count as make up. I'll have to do another post about my perfume needs, er, desires.

Finally, these are the products I use daily, but I brought more with me, and I haven't gotten rid of them… yet. I don't know if I will since, like jewelry, cosmetics don't take up much space and provide variety in looks when one's clothing choices are slim due to bag space.

Julie Gray in Tel Aviv

In one of those small miracles the universe provides, it happens that another female screenwriter with a passion for peace, creativity, and helping women, moved from Hollywood to the Middle East a few months before I did. I know, right?

Her name is Julie Gray. I found her through something she wrote for the Huffington Post, and later a mutual producer-friend in Hollywood sent us both a message: "Do you two know each other?"

I have hummed with resonance reading her blog entries about the big move. I almost feel she has saved me some writing time and certainly expressed some cultural differences in a unique and honest way that I love.

Read her adjustment-related entries here. She's living in a different area (Tel Aviv) and has a different background (she's Jewish) but a lot of what she writes is very similar to what I'm going through.

Four Different Kinds of Water Massage

Charming and I just moved into a new apartment, and it's quite posh compared to our previous digs here in Ramallah. Here are a few photos of the interior. Standing in the kitchen looking into the living room:

Prince Charming is smitten with the kitchen and has big plans for all the delicious things he's going to cook here:

We love the patio:

The view at sunset is spectacular. I'll think about taking some nice shots of the view for a later posting. In the mean time, check out the beautiful nighttime shot of Ramallah from our old patio that Charming took and posted on his blog.

The new place has significant charms, including a shower with four different kinds of water massage and a radio. However, as of right now, the internet and hot water (as well as a long list of other lesser functions) are kaput. The landlord promised in a very passionate telephone conversation (passionate compared to US landlords, perhaps normal here) yesterday that we can trust him and that it will all be working very soon.

A Better Use for Cable Ties

This post  might make you sad or angry. I'll keep it short, because while I think it is important to share about, I don't like feeling sad and you probably don't either.Two weeks ago,  on June 12, Thomas and I  went to a lecture by Gerard Horton, a lawyer for Defense of Children International. The lecture was about Palestinian children held in military detention. It was the first time here that I'd actually been faced with this much information related to the ongoing conflict happening here. A note about Gerard. He was a British man, and his presentation was straightforward and dispassionate, which I think is the best way to be when speaking about such a political issue. He gave us the facts. The Q&A came afterward, and then we heard the passion, anger, and frustration in the crowd.

He and the organization he works with, DCI-Palestine, http://www.dci-palestine.org/  completed a four year long study of the way Palestinian children are treated when they are detained by the Israeli military. [Background info: Since 1967, Palestinians in the West Bank have been prosecuted  in Israeli military courts.]

Although the report is 142 pages to hold  the data collected from collecting the testimonies of 311 children, Gerard distilled the information down the most important point, which is that the evidence shows a pattern of inhuman treatment of minors as defined in the UN Convention against Torture.

The number one detail that strikes me when reading the report is the brutal use of cable ties to hold the children's wrists together behind their backs. It was the number one complaint of detained children, present in 95% of cases.

One child said "Soldiers tied my hands behind my back with one plastic cord and tightened it so hard that I still feel pain in my right thumb which sometimes goes numb."

A better use for cable ties might be to hold cables in place, as illustrated in this picture I took in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem:

There are many other issues of concern. Just a few of them:

• Child is blindfolded (90% of cases)
• Physical violence (75% of cases)
• Arrested between midnight and 5 am (60% of cases)

Often the children are woken up from sleep by soldiers in their rooms pointing guns at them.

Gerard gave us a copy of the report. There's a lot of information in there, but the positive part that would improve the situation are four major recommendations DCI lawyers make that would "provide a series of simple and practical protective measures."

• An end to night time arrests.
• Children have access to a lawyer prior to questioning.
• All interogations be audio-visually recorded.
• Every child to be accompanied by a parent.

After the lecture and a short video, a man stood to ask the first question. He spoke in Arabic for about ten minutes. I was so bewildered that I almost left. I can't imagine a moderator at a U.S. lecture letting a question become a speech. Finally someone handed me a headset so I could hear the translation into English, which was happening simultaneously. It turns out that he'd been detained in the same prisons shown in the presentation and he was telling his story.

Others, both English and Arabic speaking, spoke with similar passion. "Why isn't the International community doing anything about the occupation? Why isn't United States doing anything?"

Rubbery Ice Cream

This evening before attending a lecture, we went for our first taste of Rukab's ice cream. In this photo I'm trying to demonstrate the rubbery nature of the delicious Mint Chocolate Chip. Wikipedia explains it best: "One hallmark of Ramallah is Rukab's Ice Cream, which is based on the resin of chewing gum and thus has a distinctive taste."

I found the taste to be generally more or less a normal ice cream taste, but the texture was ever so slightly chewier. Interesting. Prince Charming says that it looks like snot in this photo. Don't worry, it tasted much better than that.

More from Wikipedia so you know a little about the scene in Ramallah:

" Ramallah is generally considered the most affluent and cultural, as well as the most liberal, of all Palestinian cities,[50][51] and is home to a number of popular Palestinian activists, poets, artists, and musicians. It boasts a lively nightlife, with many restaurants including the Stars and Bucks Cafe, a branch of the Tche Tche Cafe and the Orjuwan Lounge, described in 2010 as two among the 'dozens of fancy restaurants, bars and discotheques that have cropped up in Ramallah in the last three years.'[36]"

So far I haven't been to any discotheques (ever in my life?!) but I can say the folks here in Ramallah can rightfully boast about the food. It's exceeded my wildest expectations. Huge portions and everything is fresh. They season with a lot of lemon juice and parsley, two of my favorite flavors.

Bug Bites and Black Belts: The Little Things Are Big Things

Yesterday was a tough day of little challenges. I couldn't sleep, and in the morning, I was complaining to my prince about the extreme itchiness and discomfort I was experiencing from the bites from whatever tiny creatures inhabit our mattress. Or, I theorized, were the bites from mosquitos? Could he ask the people at the office if they had any advice? He was sipping the morning coffee that I made him in front of an open window, and looking doubtful that among all the saving children, he was going to have time to ask about the possibility of bugs in our mattress. I looked at the open window and got up to slide the screen shut, giving him a "the least you could do is shut the screen to keep the bugs out" look. Then we argued about the insect life in Rammallah, Palestine, vs. Lumberton, NC. He went to work. I cried my eyes out for an hour, loudly, relishing the fact that no one I knew was going to hear me and ask any questions.  I rallied, called him, and resolved our stupid little argument. I found the pain-relieving spray (see photo) that Prince Charming had, of course, thought to pack, covered my skin with it, and slept blissfully for four hours.

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Later, doing the dishes, I was scrubbing a hardened flake of oatmeal off a cup. My hand slipped, shunting the sharp shard of oatmeal under my fingernail. A small cut, a small annoyance. But damn it, couldn't something just go right today?When Prince got back from work, I told him that if something big and horrific happened to us, like something like the people back home are afraid will happen to us (crime, terrorism, etc.) we'd get through it. Our "I'm a tough survivor" instinct would kick in. Adrenaline would flow, and we'd roll with the challenges like it was our job. And people would think we were so tough, so heroic.We laughed and laughed about how it's really the little things that are the big things. He reminded my about how he'd stubbed his toe hard a week back, and even though it was just a stubbed toe, damn it, it was sore for days, and he had a lot of walking to do. So long to impressing his new staff with his powerful gait.I was reminded of when I was at a Tae Kwon Do Tournament as a teenager. I had just sparred with a huge, Amazonian warrior black belt with legs twice as long as mine, and a deadly, "I'm from the Bronx and I've killed girls just like you," look in her eyes. (It's my story, I'll embelish a little. Okay?) I was tough. I was brutal. I fought hard. I got kicked in the stomach and the face. I didn't cry. I probably won the match, but the point is that my instructors, my teammates, everyone was telling me I was One Tough Cookie. And let's be honest, I was. There weren't a lot of girls like me in my peer group.But what happened later was that I had to stay  for hours supporting my teammates. I wandered around the tournament, getting increasingly hungry, thirsty, and tired. This was right at the beginning of puberty, and I was just beginning to learn that I had a blood sugar issue and I would feel wonky if I didn't eat every three hours.

I didn't feel hungry, but I felt lost. I began to cry. I wanted to lie down. I remember that my instructor came over to me and said "What's wrong?" I shook my head, saying something like "I don't know, ahhh! I don't know….no snack yet, I lie down here?"

He gave me the most bewildered look, and said something like "You just beat Bronx girl, and now you are crying?"

It was a Little Things are Big Things moment. It's not the big fight that'll get you. It's missing your snack two hours later.

Goats Staring Me Down

Around Ramallah

Early this morning I went for a very short jog on Al-Teera, the main road in Ramallah that is acceptable for women to run on alone from what I understand.  I paused to take this photo of pink flowers and a minaret in the background: 

Later, I noticed our neighbors were grazing their goats in the front yard:

And finally, here is the amazing view from where we are staying right now. It's a good general view of a lot of the city, as well as a lovely grove of olive trees in the valley below:

Seventeen Hours, Breast Size, and Marriage

After 17 hours sitting next to my seat mates, I got pretty chummy with Ala and Albert. Chummy enough for Ala to reach over and turn my magazine pages faster than I was turning them so she could see "Who Wore it Best" in Hollywood. Chummy enough for her to comment on the wonderfully perfect size of my breasts, as compared to the fake ones on the model in the magazine. 17 hours will do that to you. After the flight,  a person named Toby with Delta emailed an apology for the problems with the flight.  Toby wrote:

"I can only imagine how disappointed you must have been when our aircraft had to return to the gate multiple times for maintenance reasons. Additionally, we are genuinely apologetic that you arrived at your destination much later than scheduled."

He backed up his sorrow with $100 credit and 7,500 bonus miles. It's cool, Toby, that was just four more hours I got to spend with Ala and Albert. About the age of my own parents, Ala and Albert were an adorable Russian-American (Ohio) couple who'd been married for 32 years. He got less sleep than her because he let her sleep cuddled up on his shoulder or lap for the whole night. He even got up for about an hour so she could sleep on both of their seats. Her knees were hurting her.I asked her what their secret was. She said she picked a good one - a man who is just as wonderful now as  he was the day she married him.

"Even though he's getting a little belly," she said as she patted his tummy affectionately. Albert grinned a tad sheepishly. Ala continued: "It doesn't feel like it's been 32 years. Not at all."