had a lovely lunch with friends today and got to taste some delicious, homemade iraqi food: a yummy mushroom soup with just a tiny touch of tartness, kubba (a dish made of bulgur, minced onions, ground beef and raisins), dolmas as well as stuffed onions (which had a slight sweetness to them on account of the onion rolls), sambusaks (pastries filled with cheese or ground chicken), an iraqi version of spanakopita, ayran which is a cold yogurt drink mixed with salt and tastes a lot like salty lassi and finally some lovely iraqi tea with cardamom served in a beautiful tea set (a wedding present brought over from iraq). so happy for my friend, our wonderful chef and hostess, who has survived the war in iraq, three years in jordan, another fresh start here in the US which included going back to medical exams and doing a 3 year long, grueling medical residency, after having worked as a doctor in both iraq and jordan. she did all of this with grace and good humor and two small kids. that’s an arab woman for u. that’s a muslim woman for u – a hijabi, no less. that’s the kind of womanism i believe in.