One of the positive effects of the creation of the state of Israel, and the ensuing “import” of  Jews from so many exotic places on the planet back into their original homeland, is the culinary richness we now enjoy in the country. Every family brought unique and exquisite recipes from their host country, and some of them have opened little food shops that dispense their special outlook on what recipe “X” should really be like.

One of my own personal favorites is the Yemenite soup and the accompaniments, and for me it’s no longer just about the soup but also about the ritual

Serving

The soup is served in a deep dish along with “S’khoog” (A special, very spicy condiment), Lemon Halves, “Hil’bé” (I will explain later), and some kind of bread (The Yemenite use, in order of preference: “La’khoukh”, “Kubané”, or a simple Khala bread). If chicken is used, and it contains bones, a special bowl is placed in the middle of the table where the bones can be properly disposed of.

Soup Ingredients

I want to explain this part, before I list the ingredients. If you ask a Yemen cook what they put in their soup, the answers will vary. I have therefor used my own observations and guesses from the many Yemenite soups I had (and I had plenty), to put together the following list of ingredients. While it may not be accurate, the result is so close to the original that I can not personally tell the difference, and this makes me feel confident enough about this list. If you think I have skipped something, do let me know!

• Pressure Cooker, or a large pot with a good lid
• Wooden Spoon, Sharp Knife
• 1 medium sized onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 4 medium ~ large potatos
• 4 tomatoes
• 6 medium sized carrots
• Canola oil
• Meat (select one of the following):
  • 6 chicken <– My favorite
  • 1 kilogram of beef <– Most popular
  • 2 cow legs <– Most original
• Spices:
  • Ha’wa’yég
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Beef or Chicken Stock (Cubes or Powder)

Preparation

Vegetables: Grind the tomatoes and dispose of the skin. Grind 4 of the Carrots into the same container with the ground tomatoes. Cut the remaining 2 carrots into pieces of ~2cm each. Peel the potatoes (I know the potato skin is very healthy, but we are doing this for two reasons: 1) it is the traditional way; 2) this way the spices can infiltrate the potato easily and you get a nice, delicious yellow cooked potato). Keep this on the side for now, we will add this to the soup later.

Meat: Throw finely chopped onion and garlic into the pot, along with 3 spoons of Canola Oil, and fry until slightly golden. Put the meat along with 4 generous spoons of Ha’wa’yég in the pot and stir slightly, so that the meat touches the bottom of the pot. The idea is to “close” the meat by frying it slightly from all sides. Add Salt & Pepper.

(While this is frying, put 2 litters of water to boil).

Once the meat is lightly cooked on all sides, carefully pour the boiling water into the pot, and stir. Now add the vegetables we prepared earlier (including the carrots and potatoes). Bring it once to boiling point, then lower the fire and let cook for: 1) Pressure Cooker: 45 minutes 2) Regular Pot: 90 minutes.

Your soup is now ready!

Optional: I add two tea spoons of S’khoog along with the vegetables. It makes the soup interesting

Accompaniments

Hil’bé

This is a very interesting, and some say very healthy bitter grain which “jellies” when it comes in contact with water. You add two spoons of this powder in a bowl (do not use a metal bowl), juice from half a lemon, a bit of salt, and half a tea spoon of S’khoog. Here’s the tricky part: How much water you add depends on how finely your grain was ground. I suggest you start with 5 spoons of water (in addition to the lemon juice). The solution will be very watery at first, but give it a few minutes and it will start to Jel. If it becomes too solid, add two more spoons of water and stir. The end result should feel like a light pudding. The enzimes in the grain produce small air bubbles, giving this condiment a unique, airy texture.

S’khoog

Ahh… We have come to the most revered and sensitive of condiments for Yemenits. A true Yemen will eat everything together with S’khoog. The recipe varies like the stars in the sky. Each family has her own technique and unique blend, different amounts of ingredients, different philosophies of cutting the ingredients, and in short, if you find a specific kind of S’khoog that you like, you will have to keep going to the same family/restaurant to get it exactly right, and even that may not happen, since the primary ingredient of S’khoog is green peppers and they are different every season.

There are generally two types of S’khoog: Red & Green. Explaining how to make S’khoog is not within the scope of this article, and I will skip it altogether. I would also like to say that preparing S’khoog is not for the faint of heart. I have seen many red hands in my past, to know how painful it can be to prepare this condiment without gloves, for example.

Finale / how to eat it

Of course, there are no rules here. Personally, I start by putting a teaspoon of Hil’bé and a teaspoon of S’khoog in the soup, along with a teaspoon of Lemon. You can also throw bread into the soup to soak it up, very delicious. It’s supposed to be spicy, and your nose will be runny by the time you finish eating this soup. If you had the Flu, kiss it goodbye.

Personally I reject the notion that the big bang occured from a single physical point. My theory, mostly based on instincts, logic and my own common sense goes like this:

1. Galaxies have massive black holes in their center. These black holes slowly swallow everything, light, matter, planets, etc.
2. At some point in time, every black hole will reach a certain critical mass and explode, sending out a super massive wave of matter and energy / radiation, to a huge distance.
3. Once this wave reaches another nearby galaxy, it will push the matter from the edge of the galaxy towards the center, towards the black hole. This could trigger another explosion of that black hole, as in turn, it inevitably reaches critical mass.
4. The second explosion will partially negate the energy and mass flying from the first, and some of it will join and actually boost the wave, creating an exponentially faster wave of energy and matter.
5. A chain reaction is created as more and more galaxies join the party, creating a wave of destruction so massive, absolutely nothing survives.

The process described above produces a new, very hot “primal” universe. The larger chunks will attract more matter, and slowly grow into larger chunks and then into heavier planets. Some will attract other chunks into orbit, as all chunks are hurtled against each other. Some will grow large enough to form black holes and then the story begins all over again.

What do you think?

I know this post may disturb some of you, but I have noticed some guys (who’s names I will not disclose here) find the sight of certain crippled people arousing. A friend of mine saw this blond girl on a wheel chair and I swear if I didn’t hold on to a nearby lamp post, his errection would send me flying to Zimbabwe…

Is it because supposedly that person in the wheelchair is helpless, and an easy prey? Is it this kind of inner ferocious instinct usually found in carnivorous mammals?

Or is it because he thinks she is desperate for Sex and will do anything? Or maybe he is imagining her stiff legs and the thought of her dead limbs is arousing in a very perverse way?

This reminded me of the story of Safran and his dead arm, from the book “Everything is Illuminated” by Jonathan Safran Foer. In that story, Safran, supposedly the author’s grandfather, has a dead arm from birth. This somehow gets him into the arms (and underwear) of most of his village’s women… to the point where it has become a sort of a “secret weapon” for him, which he used to “fish” for his gipsy, non-jewish girlfriend. I seriously recommend that book by the way, it’s awesome in so many ways. And definitely read the book BEFORE you see the movie.

What is nature? Nature is all around us. It is the people, the animals, the buildings, the roads, the atomic power plants, the power cables all around us, the oceans, the forests, television, mobile phones, the radiation we humans emit on ourselves, the trash we create, the metal cars we dismiss within a few years to rot, the vast amounts of plastic we throw into the environment, the floating islands of junk, the homeless, the airplanes, the effects we have on the environment, the wars, the poor, the rich, the enslaved, the enslaving, the sick, the healthy, the crazy and demented, the young, the old, the rivers we stopped, the rivers we created, the people we displaced, the species we murdered, the species we consumed to extinction, the new species we created, the people we medicated, some of which were healed, the people we medicated and killed by mistake, the people we medicated unnecessarily, the people we killed for oil, gold and diamonds, the people we rescued, the coca cola we made, the burgers we sold, the societies and cultures we created, the societies and cultures we abandoned or killed or stifled, the games we played, the drugs we made, the drugs we consumed, the drugs we sold to little children who don’t know better…

All this is nature. We are the planet, part of it. The planet produced us, and we can continue existing, or we might cease to exist soon. It is our decision, but our decision is natural, guided or misguided as it may be, and we will either kill ourselves, or allow ourselves to continue to exist. It is up to us, up to our “nature”, to control our own future.

At least until planet Nibiru comes for a visit in a few years and kills us all

I’m 35 years old today. Goodness…! <gulp>

I decided I’m going to skip being weird this year, on my birthday. I guess this defeats the purpose because I usually am weird on my birthday, so not being weird this year will be weird in itself

To all my friends and family, I’m proud of you all, and thank you for being part of the journey so far. Here’s to our future together, may it be a glorious one

[UPDATE: August 30] I ended up being weird anyway, the majority of the day. I took half a day to walk aimlessly (some call this “walking meditation”). After half an hour of walking without thinking about a thing, I started thinking about life, and ended up performing some inner accounting of the many strange events of late. My wife ended up coming back from University after all, to spend the evening with me, and this seriously raised my happiness levels to the point where I stopped being weird