Kushari

It's always an adventure with my friend at Aramco.  This weekend he invited me to experience the culinary excellence of his Coptic Christian Egyptian friend, who was going to make kushari, a classic Egyptian food. Atef, the Egyptian,  has been working in Saudi Arabia for the past 9 years, and his wife and two kids still live in Egypt. He goes home to spend summers and two weeks in the winter with them, a grand total of 45 days a year.  This year to squeeze in a little more time, Atef's family are coming to Saudi Arabia next week to spend 7 weeks with him before his annual leave starts and they all head back to Egypt together.   His daughter is 14, and his son is 11 or 12.  I think it will be quite a change for his family.  Despite the limitations on what they could do here, he was excited to have them visit, and even thought they weren't excited about having to wear abayas, they were looking forward to coming, too.

He cooked, and my job was to watch and learn.  First, we fried some onions.  These were going to be used to crumble over the top like the french fried onions people sprinkle over green bean casserole.  While we waited and watched for the onion slivers to turn golden brown, he started telling me his opinions of how the middle east is changing, and has changed over the years.  "You know Jennie, that when Aramco first started, Americans were treated poorly here, just like every other foreigner.  Then, the Gulf war happened, and they saw that they didn't have the military to defend themselves if they ever needed to.  So they realized how valuable it was to have the Americans as allies.  Now you see Americans are still paid the highest salaries at Aramco, even more than British or Canadians or Australians."  I asked him if he thought things were changing, or just repeating themselves, he said, "yes and no".

When the onions were done we drained them and set them on some paper towels to dry.  Next we cut up tomatoes and onions and added them to the tomato paste.  While we waited for the sauce to simmer, he told me about how he had never planned to be a teacher in Saudi Arabia for long.  But somehow the money makes it hard to leave.  He doesn't know where the 9 years have gone, but he knows that if he wants his children to continue to go to the best schools, then he has to stay.  I have heard a lot of people say this, that when they arrived, they never intended to stay.  They stay because it is easy work and good pay, and that makes it hard to leave.  No one seems passionate about the work they are doing, or about Saudi (unless it is to passionately hate it).  Living here starts innocently enough as a means to an end, a way to make good money quickly, but somehow it isn't quite enough, so you say, one more year.  And one year becomes three, and soon, it has been 9 years.   I wonder If I will end up like this...

Finally, we started the last step; boiling the pasta, rice, and lentils.  I was thinking that rice, lentils and pasta together was kind of overkill on carbohydrates, but then I remembered that rice-o-roni was pasta and rice together, so I guess it isn't that strange. I was a little more surprised that he put in several different kinds of pasta together.   He explained that the dish was the equivalent of our goulash. It began as a sort of poor man's street food.  It has rice, pasta, and lentils because it was all the most filling leftovers thrown together, with sauce to make it appealing.  So now, even when you make it as a meal from scratch, they still add different kinds of pasta, for the sake of tradition.  We had elbow macaroni and spaghetti in ours, along with the rice and both chickpeas and lentils.  It was a mess of different but similar elements, and it reminded me of the way the middle east was all one kind of thing, but at the same time very different pieces thrown together.

Kushari

While we waited for everything to finish, we washed some greens that aren't spinach, but look like it.  They have a strange sort of mild radish-ey kind of flavor.  I forgot the name.  We chopped some and added them to the lentils and chickpeas.  The rest were set on the table raw to just grab and chew at random.  They were meant to be a sort of palate cleanser, I guess.  We also cut up some chili peppers to add to a few cups of the sauce that we set aside for the spicy version.  At first, I was all for spicy.  But I saw how much salt, pepper, garlic salt, and chili powder he had added to the non-spicy version, so now I wasn't so sure.  He promised I could have a mix of both sauces and it wouldn't be too spicy.  He was right.  The kushari was delicious, and just a spoonful of the extra spicy sauce was enough to give it a good kick without making it unbearable.

The order you pile it on the plate:
macaroni, rice, lentils, sauce, then onions.

Just in time, our other guests arrived.  My friend's wife and another couple had been out windsurfing while we cooked.  After we ate, they talked about the windsurfing classes and their life on the Aramco compound.  I listened to their stories with relish. It was so different from being shut up in the apartment I lived in with no chance to go out except on scheduled shopping trips.  Atef had left the table long before and turned on the television to sit alone on the couch.  I wondered if what appealed to me about their stories; the interaction with lots of people, the adventurous outdoor activities, the sense of freedom to go anywhere and do anything, the way they had managed to replicate the suburbs so exactly halfway across the world;  were the same things Atef had found less entertaining than his own escape: television.  Or maybe he was just tired from all the cooking and chatting we had done earlier.  I have to admit, I was pretty tired myself.  Kushari is delicious, but it is also hard work.  I know Atef thinks he has taught me well, and that I can now make Kushari on my own, but I don't think so.  It's not that he isn't a good teacher, it's just that I've never been good at cooking.  Besides, I just don't think it would taste as good without his conversation.

All that's left.