What I did with a lamb today I have never done before. I don't really care to do it much again, just because I was hoping for something a little quicker than what I ended up getting. I got the job done, and I liked it. Other people liked the lamb too.

7 kilos of lamb today. Maybe I was expecting a big donkey leg, but what I got was the butt of a lamb and two sticks. Take a lamb, take a guilitine, and then let everything in front of the hips run away and bleed someplace else. The remainder is what I cooked for dinner. In proper Iraqi style, when I wandered into the kitchen around 3pm today, I had my lamb waiting for me by a bag of lemons. There it was, on the floor, in a plastic bag like you'd get from some liquor store. No mind that it was a good 90 degrees in the kitchen and the floor dirty. Or the ants, don't mind them, crawling about 14 inches away. That lamb was just about the same temperature as the kitchen. Who knows how long it had been there, how it enjoyed sitting in a nice hot trunk, or how the butcher was looking after it. I can guarantee, however, that there were probably no less than 92 flies crawling all over it at the time of purchasing. I think what I loved most about my lamb, was that I knew it was quality stuff, because it had the Iraqi Department of Agriculture stamp right there on it. No doubt, I'd be cooking with good meat tonight!

Now for some good details. The butt of a lamb is covered in fat...just like our butts. With a dull knife, it is sort of hard to cut off the , or cut around all the tendons wrapping up and down the legs. Unlike one of yesterday's chickens, this piece of meat did not have a long entrail with a sack on one end and a pair of lips on the other. The butcher was nice to me today. I did get some other lips. I'm a little unsure as to what they were, but I got some ideas. Seeing that I might be headed to Sudan in a few months, I figured I'd work on my FGM technique. Once I got everything all nicely cleaned up, I stabbed the butt a few times, stuffed it with some garlic, and then grabbed that booty with two hands as I rubbed it down with salty, peppery, oreganoey oil. Following that, I roasted the bad boy up on a tian of eggplant, potatoes and tomatoes. It came out pretty well, but I should have taken it out earlier. Even though I like my meat red, the lamb looked too red when I pulled it out. So I put it back in for 10 more minutes, much to the joy of the local staff. I may have been swayed by them as well, but when I pulled it out, it was past the medium-rare I was aiming for. The Iraqis were still a little wary, probably because most of their meat cooking gets crusty and dry.

All said and done, it was good. Fun to carve up, and downright tasty. The lemon basting worked well, and the garlic was nice. I might try some mint next time. But hopefully, hopefully, I get myself a lamb that ain't got a ghetto booty and that comes chilled. Preferably in two pieces...minus the bumhole.

Tomorrow, back to chicken, Moroccan style. More cabbage too. I'm wanting to do some sort of cabbage based salsa, but it probably won't go with the chicken. Cabbage, some sort of fruit, some lemon juice or vinegar...thrown onto some naan. Well, if I can find a way to keep the naan fresh. But if it does, it will just harden and get cruncy, somewhat like a chip. Hmmm.