http://edengardencafe.com/
I know I know I am super behind on my blog post...
But for all of you who know me..know i am a picky eater...well since being married and meeting my good friend Nate- my pallet has definetly been expanded.
Above is my latest adventures in the world of food..Lebanese (see website above)
We actually went for one of TC's pharmacist graduation...Samir
Well it was supposed to start at 7pm...and we were freaking out because we were 15 minutes late...we were like sending a text like.."so sorry we are running behind"
well we got there..we were the 1st ones there other than Samir and his wife...
THey then informed us that no one would be there until at least 8 or 8:30...
And i thought our culture was always late...
so the restuarant was beautiful...we were seated outside and it was so pretty- it was like a garden outside...(we forgot our camera so I dont have any pics..sorry guys)
So then Samir let us try one of their homemade drinks...Arak
Oh my gosh..i wish I had a picture of my face...it had a licorce taste..and i despise licorce..i basically threw up in my mouth...it was horrible...tc could not even drink it and he can usually eat or drink anything...
So this is how my cultural experience started out
Arak or Araq (Arabic: عرق pronounced [ʕɑrɑq], is a highly alcoholic spirit (~50%-63% Alc. Vol./~100-126 proof). It is a clear, colorless, unsweetened anise-flavoured distilled alcoholic drink(also labeled as an Apéritif). It is the traditional alcoholic beverage of Iraq,[1] Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, and is also produced and consumed in other Eastern Mediterranean andNorth Africa[2]. Arak is also a liquor (generally >100 proof) found throughout Indonesia that is distilled from tuak, a sweet wine made from the coconut palm flower, or from brem, which is a wine made from black glutinous rice and coconut milk. Although Indonesian arak may be found bottled commercially, more commonly it is sold in warungs and other local shops filled within plastic bags sealed with a rubber band at the top. At the time of writing (2011) the price for a ~1 liter bag is ~20,000 rupiah, just around 2 USD
Well then around 9pm we finally started getting some food...one of the first things looked to be raw hamburger meat...now i know i said i was getting adventurous but that stuff was not going to go anywhere near my mouth...
Of course my husband ate it and I was pretty much convinced he was going to die of e-coli before we got home...
We got several different courses of food..and I did try several different things..i really wish i could remember the names of all the food but i was totally overwhelmed.
So when my parents come out here in sept we are taking them to some form of ethnic restaurant..and this one is on the list.
So we sat with some of Samir's family....they were from Jordan and had moved to CA several years ago...
Oh I forgot to mention this was also a hookah lounge..and the couple we were sitting beside smoked the hookah the whole night-one lady had apple flavored tobacco and one had watermelon...
It was definitely interesting to watch this during dinner...
They were there with their son and daughter...they were telling us about how their daughter was getting married to a gentleman in Jordan in a couple of months..and how they would be traveling back to Jordan for the wedding...and an interesting fact is the grooms family pays for the wedding in their culture...
A hookah (Hindustani: हुक़्क़ा (Devanagari), حقّہ (Nastaleeq) huqqah)[1][2] also known as a waterpipe[3] or narghile, is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass-based) instrument for smoking in which the smoke is cooled by water. The tobacco smoked is referred to as shisha (sheesha) in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada.[4] According to Cyril Elgood (pp. 41, 110), who does not mention his source, it was Abu’l-Fatḥ Gīlānī (d. 1588), a Persian physician at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar I, who “first passed the smoke of tobacco through a small bowl of water to purify and cool the smoke and thus invented the hubble-bubble or hookah.” However, a quatrain of Ahlī Šīrāzī (d. 1535) refers to the use of the ḡalyān (Falsafī, II, p. 277; Semsār, 1963, p. 15), thus dating its use at least as early as the time of Ṭahmāsp I (1524–76). It seems, therefore, that Abu’l-Fatḥ Gīlānī should be credited with the introduction of the ḡalyān, already in use in Persia, to India. Smoking the hookah has gained popularity, especially in the Middle East and is gaining popularity in North America, South America, Europe andAustralia.[2]
TC and I skipped out on dessert because it was now almost 11pm..and we were exhausted..it is truly an all night event to go eat..I dont see how they ever get anything done..haha
It was a wonderful night and we were so happy we got to experience the whole culture- food, stories, drinks, and the hookah- it was a pretty full evening!
Have a good weekend everyone
lots of love from CA!!
k
