Food Coma Sunday

Who knew that I had been missing the exquisite delight that is Burmese food? Last night was absolutely wonderful - both the food and the company. I've rarely had such a wonderful foodie night, and the fact that our host's parents planned the evening with the goal of teaching us how to make these delicious dishes was even better. Everything was home made. Dish one: Egg rolls with sweet and sour sauce. No. 2: Papaya salad. No. 3: Noodles with coconut chicken and fish cakes. No. 4: Grilled beef in garlic-sesame sauce, accompanied by twice-fried green beans in black bean sauce. No. 5: Ginger salad. No. 6: Brownies!! They even gave us some of the more exotic ingredients (dried shrimp powder, ginger salad mix, pickled papaya) so we can make our own. I'm so excited to try it out! And who knew Burmese food had so much in common with Icelandic culinary traditions? Dried fish and fried onions are stapled of this cooking. It's a natural fit for me! :-)

Ome more thing today. I highly recommend an article from today's Washington Post. It's called Failing in Baghdad - The British Did It First, and it's something the current administration should have read about 4 years ago. Here's a sample paragraph:

"Lt. Gen. Sir Frederick Stanley Maude was head of the British army in Mesopotamia when he marched into Baghdad on a hot, dusty day in March 1917. Soon thereafter, he issued the British government's "Proclamation to the People of Baghdad," which eerily foreshadowed sentiments that Bush and his administration would express 86 years later: British forces, Maude declared, had entered the city not as conquerors, but as liberators."

Read it!