drinking a coffee...

and looking at where I have to start walking to soon to get on the plane.

time for vacation

wow, what a feeling that is and how it sucks to come back and look at the mask and flippers which need to stay in the closet after it's over.

urban challenge

a small souvenir

this from a lady in rabat weaving carpets. Now I hang it on the strap of my camera bag to hang my sunglasses on.

too much electricity

and when that's the case, you can play with the lights..

no electricity

It was the first time I happened to be sitting at home in Cairo and there was no electricity. I prepared dinner in candle & stove light, ate a romantic dinner by candle light, and leaned back in my chair and wondered what I should do next. It was very peaceful. I didn't have the TV on and it was very quiet. Then the electricity came back on and I turned on the TV...

almond cookies

If you ever go to Casablanca, go to the Habous to buy some touristic souvenirs. Or don't if you say touristic souvenirs are the source of all our problems. But stop by the Bennis patisserie and buy these almond cookies. You will be a happier person.

Moseleum of Mohammed V

hotel

There's nothing like humor to get through hard times. Plus there's nothing like humor to get through life. I don't remember when I forgot to be funny and got serious, but it was the worst joke I ever made...

glass of water

world cup outside my window

morning after

If one morning, you wake up and find that your life ceased to be what you thought it was, maybe it's not too late to remember how you once dreamed your life would be...

taking a break

10 Euro pomegranates

If you want to pay 10 Euros for a kilo of pomegranates, you need to go to the open market in Leuven (they looked great though). And finally, we found a place close to Brussels where we can have a decent breakfast, something other than croissant and coffee or tost with jam & butter...

sablon

neighbors' dog

Playing with the neighbors' dog is a lot of fun, especially if he's starving for love and attention.

I love summer time

night outside window

turkish coffee

 

I live in the land of Turkish coffee with cardamom. When I order my coffee in Egypt, it's "ahva Turki" and it's sade since I drink it without sugar. Egyptian arabic is easy on the tongue so they get rid of the Ks when it's the first letter of the word. Kahvah becomes ahvah, Kala (Kale in Turkish - castle) is ala. And cardamom is kakula in Turkey though I hadn't heard of it before coming here. Most of the time, the coffee is already mixed with cardamom which means you don't have a choice if you want to drink Turkish coffee in Egypt. That's why my first week in Cairo, I had come to the sad and hasty conclusion that I wouldn't be able to drink Turkish coffee in this country because of this weird herb in it, but it's funny how adaptable human taste is. Over the months, I've actually gotten to enjoy cardamom.

When talking to Egyptian friends about drinking Turkish coffee, one mentioned he couldn't stand it when he drank it in Turkey because it lacked the cardamom. Another mentioned this week that he wanted to go back to Turkey just to drink the Turkish coffee there one more time! So opinions are divided here as well. The Egyptian population is divided into exactly two on this important topic if a sample size of 2 is enough to extrapolate this to the whole population which I think we can do in this case since humans do not really know why they enjoy a certain taste and I've changed my mind on cardamom in a few weeks of drinking it under the pressure of Egyptian waiters.

So how's good Turkish coffee made? This week, I read a book* on coffee which I have to say made me drink twice more coffee at work all week (2 cups instead of one every day). Apart from the history of coffee which I think most people know about, from where it originated in Ethiopia to Jordan where it was discovered by the Ottomans and introduced to Europe (some say at the gates of Wien) and finally to South America thanks to the conquistadors , it was also explaining how good Turkish coffee should be prepared. So I gave it a try today and the photograph is from this experiment:

1. Use cold water (which I already knew, heh he)
2. Mix the coffee with the water in the pot (cezve) before putting it on the fire
3. Don't mix the coffee again while it's on the fire until it starts to fizzle
4. Mix it once it starts to boil - this increases the foam
5. Bring the foam to the center with the spoon
6. Once the coffee begins to rise, take it off the fire

To the above, I added what I normally do - that is transfer the foam into the cup and boil the coffee one more time before pouring it in the cup.

Also, don't forget the glass of water that's served with the coffee. Drink the water before the coffee, so your mouth is cleared of any other tastes or flavors and you are ready to enjoy the taste of every little particle of coffee in your mouth...

* sohbetin bahanesi kahve - deniz gursoy: This guy had also written a similar book on tea which I had read several years ago and which made me experiment with the preparation of Turkish tea back then. I owe him thanks for making my Turkish tea/coffee experience more enjoyable.

midnight knuckle push-ups

 

more angles

 

I've always been fond of straight lines, horizontal and vertical and try to compose my frames between these two with every now and then a diagonal between them. So I have to force myself to press the shutter when subtle angles are in the frame which I'm trying to do more and more...

grapes

tractor