An Iftar at Hichem's

The starters: Tahina, vegetables, and soup - tomato based with mint, meat, couscous, and a little bit of cinnamon.

Well, today is the first big storm I've been through here. It started this morning, and the roads in front of Amideast were basically flooded around 3:00pm. Luckily, I didn't have to deal with it until I decided to go home around 5:00. I marched on down to the metro with my buddy Doried only to find that the metro was shut down. Since it was still sprinkling, it also made finding a taxi impossible. Just as we resigned ourselves to walking a solid 30-40 minutes back to Ariana in the rain, we found Lee back by Amideast about to get in his car. It was a bit of rain karma, and it saved me quite the walk.

Last night, I had dinner again at my friend Hichem's house with his family. He lives in Ibn Khaldoum right by Manar. His mother made some more special food for me that was part Algerian. I got a test as well last night. It came in the form of stuffed sheep's stomach. I rose to the challenge, and ate a whole sheep's stomach that was stuffed with spinach, rice, garlic, and some ground meat. This was in addition to the tahina, the three nem-like things I ate stuffed with potato, garlic, and meat, the soup, the olives, the... well the list continues, but suffice to say, I had my fill of food and hospitality. It all went very well. After dinner we sat around and watched some Algerian TV which they get through satellite, and then I went off to get some tea with Hichem and some of his friends from the area. Also, I have a new DVD to pick up, from an Algerian comedian named Fellag (is that right?). I'm hoping he'll be as good as Gad El Maleh - I loved L'Autre, C'est Moi.

I forgot the name of these - something like buraka - but I know it's not brik. They tasted a lot like an Indian nem. The outside was the same pastry you use for brik (moussaka). The inside was potato, garlic and ground meat. I had three.

This was good as well - the green veggies were stuffed with meat.

Ah, the piece de resistance. This was the stomach (or plural, you might say). Inside was spinach, rice and meat. I'll be honest, once I got over the psychological barrier, it wasn't that bad. Stomach doesn't have much of a taste, but it does have a texture/feel that is a bit chewy and hard to get used to. It also separates a bit differently when you cut it.

Mmm, this was good. Chick peas, chicken, and potatoes. Nice and basic, but a great sauce.