Arabic Coffee

First, tell me, is it Arab coffee, Arabian coffee, or Arabic coffee? I think Arabic refers to the language and Arabian sounds like horses, so I'm always stumbling over what the correct adjective might be. I really should look that up before I write but it's before work and I want to write this down before I start thinking about something else.

I don't know if any of you remember my raving about how good Dona Tina's coffee was? She ran a small restaurant in Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Hers was the first coffee I had consciously registered as having spices added, and it was dark and delicious. It was flavored with cardamon. My mind wanders to the realization that there might have been a Middle Eastern connection there, that the Yucatan Peninsula is an area of great diversity of origins. Digression: I brought Gary Nabhan's book, Arab/American: Landscape, Culture, and Cuisine in Two Great Deserts, and Dona Tina's coffee is reminding me of the diversity written about in this book.

So here I am, in the UAE catching whiffs of coffee with spices and thinking about what I've read about the coffee shops in the Middle East and their wonderful coffee. Unfortunately, I can't drink coffee past about noon so I haven't had a chance to try it from a cafe but I am trying to make it at home.

As I've said before, it's Ramadan right now. This is a huge food time for Muslims with daily Iftars and other food-focused events. So the supermarkets have displays of special foods. I was perusing a display at the Lulu's market and a container of coffee caught my eye. I'm almost out of the Olympia Coffee Roasting Co.'s coffee that I brought so I've been aware of needing to buy more. What will it be, Costa or Starbucks? Well, I decided to get a package of Al-Alwani Arabic coffee (there, it's Arabic coffee, on the package, I have my answer) flavored with cardamon and saffron. Sounds exotic, don't you think? But when I opened it, the color really put me off. It's pale, almost yellow (saffron, of course) and it's very finely ground, almost a fluffy texture which reminded me of instant coffee. So I was not really sure about this stuff. I tried it once and was still put off, perhaps the saffron? If you don't have one of their coffee makers (I don't know yet what these look like) it's prepared by putting a water in a small sauce pan adding a measured amount of the coffee, and sugar if preferred sweet, heating it to a point where foam rises, turning it down, then repeating the foaming and bringing back, twice more, then letting it settle out a bit before pouring into cups. Yes, there's sludge on the bottom, you just don't drink it. After trying it once, and telling my neighbors, Tim and Liz about it, Tim told me that the grocery right down the street has coffee beans and they probably add spices and grind it there, too. Sure enough, I went to the Abu Dhabi Cooperative Society grocery and there were four colors of coffee beans, two levels of light colored beans which were called Arabic, and two levels of dark referred to as Turkish. I chose the darker of the Arabic and asked to have cardamon added. The guy scooped up some beans, threw in some very large pinches of cardamon (me thinking, no, no, too much!) and asked me how I wanted it ground. At that point language barriers became apparent as I said less fine and he said more fine and neither of us understood the other. I bought this huge bag for less than 10 Dirhams (less than $2.72). That's what I'm drinking this morning. Unfortunately, as I was writing this, the coffee boiled rather than just bringing it to foaming. Making Arabic coffee is something that should be done while paying attention, no multi-tasking allowed. I will try again tomorrow when I am not getting ready for work. (Tomorrow is the beginning of our weekend and also the start of our Eid holiday which includes having the entire week off from work! And it's another food holiday. I think I'm in my element!)

As I learn more about this coffee, I will let you know. Now, off to work!

Book Groups and Books in the UAE

I've decided that I will post little reports often rather than thinking in my mind of all the things I should research before writing a post (such as my Dates posting which will happen in the future after I receive the Dates book I requested). So this is the first of my small reports.

I am attending my first book group event in the UAE with the meetup group, Abu Dhabi Book Club, on Sept 3rd. We're reading The Great Gatsby which I have little interest in re-reading forty years later. I want to be reading and learning about Arab literature, there's no time to re-read the old stuff. But I want to give the group a good chance so I'll at least skim it beforehand. The meeting will take place at Cafe Arabia which is described as a place where both expats and Emiratis meet. I will be interested in both the meeting and the cafe, if not the book. I wonder if they'd be interested in the Oly Reads style book group, where no one reads the same book unless it's by accident.

I joined the Goodreads UAE Good Readers group (and mentioned Oly Reads in my introduction) and found 2 suggested links to Arab literature there:
Kutub: Reading into Contemporary Arab Literature
and the blog, Arab Literature (in English)

I've checked out the two main bookstores in Abu Dhabi, McGrudy's and Jashanman. I bought five books at McGrudy's last weekend:

A Middle Eastern Feast / by Claudia Roden
The Middle Eastern Kitchen / by Ghillie Basan
Real Flavors of Arabia: a nomadic gourmet's journey from Marrakesh to Muscat / by Mike Harrison

Gardening in Oman and the UAE / by Anne Love

The Native plants of Oman: an introduction, with notes for gardeners / by Clive Winbow

The newspapers here have book reviews and author interviews at least once a week. After reading an interview with Alaa al Aswany, I found a copy of his The Yacoubian Building in the library. I recommend it. I've read that it was made into a movie of the same name in 2006. My library doesn't have a copy of the DVD but I think I'll suggest that we buy it.

I'm currently reading From Rags to Riches: a Story of Abu Dhabi / by Mohammed A.J. Al Fahim. It's a personal account of life and how it has changed in the UAE during his lifetime. He was born in the late 1940s and experienced the extreme changes that the people of this place have lived through. It's rather mindblowing and it seems like a good book to get a perspective on the country.

I have a lot to explore in the literature and culture of the area, and plenty of time for it. I'll try to be better about reporting more often.

Leaving Olympia

These are my last ten days in Olympia as I prepare to move to a job in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. I have accepted a position as Acquisitions Librarian at the Higher Colleges of Technology.

I am most interested in literature and food/food plants so most of what I write about will probably be those subjects although I also hope to write about the culture and the place.

This is being set up before I leave so I can make sure that people can find it. Nothing fancy or terribly interesting.