Cabbage and apple slaw is nothing special. It is a good use of cabbage, allowing me to use one entire head. However, I found it much easier to get rid of a head of cabbage by just taking it over to someone’s house and leaving it there. Perhaps today we will honor the World Cup and kick some cabbage around.

Last night I bucked the fancy cooking for some grilling time. It was our “Friday” since real Fridays are our only day off, all the staff was in town, and the big guy from DC arrived for a visit. Plus, news came in at lunch time that Zarqawi got axed, so it was time for some sort of celebration. Arrangements were made for cocktails over at the gathering house, so I did some quick thinking and had the grill taken over there. Burgers and veggie patties were the order of the night, with a potato salad made by Hil, and the insignificant cabbage and apple slaw (I had high hopes for the slaw).

What was today’s surprise? I got everything I needed! Hell, at 5:13 a guy arrived with the bread…which was actually burger buns with sesame seeds on top! I shit you not! Earlier I'd concluded that asking for hamburger buns would have been hopeless, so I just asked for "bread." I was expecting one of the two types of bread we get here: naan, or these round, 8 inch diameter bread things that are domed to a peak of two inches. If I got naan, it would be hopeless. If I got the latter option, I was going to trim it down to a proper size, unlike what the MacDonal in Suli serves. But a guy actually walked in with a bag of burger buns! It was indeed a good omen, and just added to the laughs of receiving the days shopping list two hours before.

Here was my list:
4 carrots
3 large cucumbers
.25 kg sesame seeds
4 tomatoes
3 zucchinis
8 lemons
4 sweet green peppers
3 hot green peppers
6 dozen eggs
8 red apples
8 green apples
2 kg chard
5.5 kg ground beef

What did I get?
4 kg carrots
3 kg cucumbers
.25 kg sesame seeds
4 kg tomatoes
3 kg zucchini
12 lemons
4 sweet green peppers (bell peppers)
3 kg hot green peppers (jalapeños)
6 dozen eggs
8 kg red apples
8 kg green apples
2 kg chard
10 kg ground beef

We have no place to put this food. The lunch cook was forced to use some of the ground beef in making his own hamburgers, just so he could fit the bag into the refrigerator. Luckily, food is cheap.
Everyday, we go through this process of ordering food. I figure out what we have, what we can make with it, and what additional ingredients we will need. I type that list up on my fancy computer and I print it out. I walk downstairs to the printer, take my printed list from it and hand it to our office manager who sits right there. He and I go through it to make sure we know what I’m asking for. This part is always a fun process, and usually involves 6 other people and searching the internet for pictures to describe the item. Try describing chard, sage, red wine vinegar, poppy seeds, or peas to someone who doesn't cook or shop for food. Its not that English is an issue, because his English is fantastic. It’s cultural: either they don’t have it, they don’t cook with it, or they call it something entirely different after translating it to English. To resolve all of this, we’ve actually been working the last few days to produce an Excel spreadsheet compilation of ingredients I may ask for, their Kurdi transliteration and the written Kurdi for them. This is about 90% done, with huge help from the wives of the Kurdish men I work with (the ones in Iraq and in America). It may seem simple, but it’s a pretty large endeavor. In the next couple of days we’ll actually have to take our translation list out to the markets and see what the produce merchants actually call things.

By 7:30pm the grill was lit – kerosene assisted, of course, with respectable tall cans in our hands. Burnt the first batch of burgers and patties because the grill was just too damn hot. I failed to note that the grilling surface was only about 2 inches from the coals. But we had plenty of meat to go around, and the second batch turned out a tasty medium rare to medium. In making the hamburger patties, I’d tried to cover up what I deemed “poor beef” with some extra spices and onions. The end product was good…but I put too many chopped onions in there.

Now my veggie patties looked really good. I didn’t have any to eat, because I only ended up with two to serve, and we had two vegetarians in attendance. The feedback I got was extremely good, and demands have been made to make them regularly. It was a really simple recipe I put together too: rolled oats, ground almonds and walnuts, instant vegetable broth, soy sauce, bread crumbs, thyme, basil, sage, onion, sesame seeds and some sweet green pepper. Mix it all together, make a big ball, then let it sit for some time and let the flavors get friendly. I might add a few shredded carrots next time, but I doubt there would be a need.