Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War
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qurus, 195
Rafic Hariri International Airport, 245–46
Rahbani, Ziad, 34
Ramadan, 100–104, 125, 170, 319
ramadas, 93, 94
Ramadi, Iraq, 56, 145
Raphael House, 22–23
Ras Beirut neighborhood, 170–71, 173, 174, 216, 249
Rasheed, Oday, 82, 105, 177
Rashid, Haroun al-, 94, 276
Raw and the Cooked, The (Harrison), xi
Reagan, Ronald, 1
Rebecca (friend), 66–67, 84, 187
recipes, 15, 70–71, 164–65, 218–21, 266–68, 320–21, 329–58
Red Cross, 102
Red Zone, 64, 114
Reem (friend), 102–3, 104, 108
Regev, Eldad, 253
Republican Guards, 97
Resolution 137, 140
Riad al-Solh Square, 191
rice, 49, 50
Rice, Condoleezza, 263, 264, 292
Roaa (translator), 75–76, 79–83, 102, 107, 110, 120, 125, 126–27, 128, 129, 130, 140, 142–44, 146, 158, 162–65, 176, 177, 316, 317–18, 321
rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), 302, 303, 311
Roman Empire, 70–71, 174
Royal Flush gambling den, 172
Rubini, Daniel L., 113–15, 117–18
Runcible Spoon café, 215
Rutba Wells, 55
Rym (reporter), 255, 259, 280, 289–93
saaj, 204
Sadat Street, 302, 305
Sadr, Muqtada al-, 129, 132, 152, 173, 188, 202, 257, 318
Sadr City, 132, 133, 136, 161
Sahadi’s grocery store, 315
Sahat al-Nijmeh (Star Square), 173–74, 185–87, 292
sahtain, 37, 321
Saifi Village, 175–76, 219
St. Rita Maronite Catholic Church, 299
Salaam (friend), 75, 93, 177, 246, 319
Salama, Dr., 132, 133–42, 151, 157–60, 169, 197, 221–23, 316
saluyot, 226
Samarra, Iraq, 223
samizdat copies, 106
Sanatruq I, King of Hatra, 57
Sanayeh Garden, 249
sandwichat Marrouche, 178
sangria, 160
Saudi Arabia, 78, 220, 246
Saura, Carlos, 225
Schulberg, Budd, 109–10
Secret Life of Saeed, the Pessoptimist, The (Habiby), 277
Sehnaoui, Nada, 301
September 11th attacks (2001), 28–29, 51
sesame oil, 158
sesame seeds, 17, 158
Shaalan, Sheikh Hussein Ali-, 111, 114–15, 117–19, 133–35
shabab, 281–84, 287, 293, 299, 302, 308
Shabab TV, 80
Shahbandar Café, 107–10, 144–46, 318
Shah of Iran (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi), 77
Shaitan (author’s cat), 229, 237, 248, 295
Shamkhi, Ali, 72, 355–56
Sharia (Islamic law), 27, 60–61, 96, 137, 140, 141–42
shawarma, 179, 307–8
shawrabet shayrieh, 207, 332–34
sheep, 111–12, 113
sheikhs, 111–12, 113, 114–19, 129–31, 133–35
Sheldon, Sidney, 109
Sheraton Hotel, 122–23
shish kebabs, 158
shish taouk, 64, 84, 158, 234, 260
Sidani Street, 178, 231, 312
sikbaj, 156
Simplon-Orient-Express, 55
Siniora, Fouad, 279, 281, 282
60 Minutes, 78–79
Slow Food Movement, 219
“Small, Good Thing, A” (Carver), 239
Smith’s grocery store, 181, 182, 219, 242, 248, 266, 298, 301, 308
social contract, 178, 243–44
sohan, 159
Solidère, 174–75, 183
Sonbol, Amira, 142
Souk El Tayeb, 219, 263
souqs, 34, 74, 96–97, 108, 129, 174, 219
Spain, 21, 156, 159–60
Sporting swim club, 294, 310
Stahl, Lesley, 78–79
Stark, Freya, 55–56, 57
stews, 72, 73, 159
Sting Burger, 23
stuffed grape leaves, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 26, 216
subhieh, 316–17
sufrah, 162–65
Suleiman’s Pilaf, 24–25
Sumerians, 69–73, 94, 154, 157, 318
Sumer Land Hotel, 84–89, 100, 122, 123–25, 149
Sunnyside neighborhood, 13–14, 28
“supper of stones,” 252, 276
Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, 210
“Swiss sheikhs,” 116
Syria, 33, 66, 96, 113, 157, 158, 176, 184–87, 189, 191, 194, 201, 209, 211, 213, 249, 257, 263, 282, 299, 307, 308, 311
Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), 249, 307, 308
Taanayel yogurt, 181
tabbouleh, 59, 154, 157, 163, 260
tabeekh, 216–17, 266
tabkhet bahas, 276
tahini, 17, 65, 180
tahweeshet kamuneh, 204
Taif, Saudi Arabia, 185, 282
Taif Accord (1989), 282
Taliban, 27–28, 30
Tango, 225
Tango Night, 225–28, 311
tanoor, 85, 98–99
taqiyah, 213–14
Tareeq al-Jadideh neighborhood, 310
tashreeb, 156
Taurus-Express, 55
taxis (servees), 174, 178, 179, 184, 188, 265, 300
Tayuneh neighborhood, 199–200, 229, 250
tea, 39, 61, 95–96, 108, 148–49, 290, 291
tebsi baitinjan, 159, 163, 355–56
Teixeira, Pedro, 94
terrorism, 28–29, 36
Tet Offensive (1968), 19
Thesiger, Wilfred, 106–7
Thomas, Bertram, 115–16
Tibneen, Lebanon, 215
Tigris River, 63–64, 73, 78, 87, 88, 90, 91–94, 96, 97–98, 122, 123, 155–56
Time, 106, 191–92
tinuru, 73
Tito (Josip Broz), 160
T-Marbouta café, 274
“toilets installation,” 301–2
tomatoes, 47, 74, 148, 182, 321
Torn Bodies (Dr. Amal Kashif al Ghitta), 139–40
tortilla, 269
torture, 122, 210
Tourette syndrome, 290–91
Triangle of Death, 127, 151
Tribal Disputes Regulations, 116
Truman Show, The, 80
Tueni, Gibran, 211
tuna fish, 266, 272–73, 306
Tunis, 226
Turkey, 14, 74, 154, 156, 158, 181, 256
Tyre, Lebanon, 274
tzatziki, 32
Umm Adnan, 192, 320
Umm Hassane, 12, 20, 21, 26–27, 36–41, 46, 47–48, 49, 50, 51–52, 72, 126, 164, 188, 189, 190, 194, 198, 200, 205–8, 217, 220, 229–37, 243, 244, 248, 249, 250, 251, 254, 256, 257, 258–62, 265–69, 275, 285, 289–93, 295, 296, 297, 310, 311, 315–16, 320–21, 339–40, 345–48, 352–53
Umm Paula, 251–52, 276, 299
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, 109
United Nations, 27, 48, 56, 61, 65, 78–79, 88, 102, 164, 211
Uruk, 69
Usama (friend), 106, 126, 133, 177, 245
Vassilikos, Vassilis, 33
“veiled rule,” 115–16
Viccini Suites, 305–6
Vietnam War, 19–20
Wadi Abu Jamil, 173, 212, 300–301
Walimah restaurant, 214–18, 225–28, 273–74, 296
Wall Street Journal, 29
Wardi, Ali al-, 76, 79
warlords, 187, 190, 213, 299–300
War of the Hotels, 173
wasta, 202, 232, 273, 275
Watergate scandal, 19, 139
watering holes, 60–61
Wendy (friend), 24–25
West, Kanye, 197
Western Queens Gazette, 20
wheat, 59, 72, 78
White Palace restaurant, 97
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nbsp; Whitman, Walt, 15
wilayat al-faqih, 140
wine, 75, 94–95, 160, 317
Wolfert, Paula, 220
women:
Afghan, 27
centers for, 125–31
equality of, 95–96
Iraqi, 79–83, 86–89, 92, 95–96, 125–49, 152, 161, 221–22
Lebanese, 176, 189, 205–8, 221–22
marriage of, 36, 39, 41–44, 47, 76, 87, 194–98, 208, 222
Moroccan, 141–42
rights of, 132–49
salaries of, 142
Shiite, 205–8
suffrage for, 76, 130
working, 38–39, 74–75
Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), 153
Women for Women International, 127
World Bank, 77
World War I, 115, 156, 173, 186, 218–19
Wright, Clifford, 227
yakhnes, 49, 216–17
yakhnet kusa, 339–40
yakhnet sbanegh, 354
yaprak, 15, 16
Yazid, 106, 128
yogurt, 16–17, 26–27, 32, 180, 181, 242–43
youm aasl, youm basl (day of honey, day of onions), 319
zaatar, 204–5, 220, 243, 265, 288, 300
zaeems, 187, 189–90
Zainab (Bazzi relative), 128, 272
Zainab al-Hawraa Women’s Center, 129–31
Zaire, 215–16
Zaiter, Shehadeh, 245, 246
Zangas, Robert, 125
Zarif neighborhood, 310
Zico House, 274
Zionism, 77
Zubaida, Sami, 157, 158, 227
zucchini, 16, 21, 72, 339–40
zucchini stew, 16, 72
zuhurat, 203
Zulfikar sword, 286
Zuqaq al-Blatt, 184
About the Author
Annia Ciezadlo was a special correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor in Baghdad and The New Republic in Beirut. She has written about culture, politics, and the Middle East for Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and Saveur. Her article about cooking with Iraqi refugees was included in Best Food Writing 2009. She lives with her husband in New York and Beirut.
Day of Honey
A Memoir of Food, Love, and War
Annia Ciezadlo
Reading Group Guide
Author Q&A
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The following reading group guide and author interview are intended to help you find interesting and rewarding approaches to your reading of Day of Honey. We hope this enhances your enjoyment and appreciation of the book. For a complete listing of reading group guides from Simon and Schuster, visit http://community.simonandschuster.com.
INTRODUCTION
IN THE FALL of 2003, Annia Ciezadlo spent her honeymoon in Baghdad. Determined to make a life and a career in the Middle East with her new Lebanese husband, Annia spent the next six years in Beirut and Baghdad, cooking and eating with Shiites and Sunnis, refugees and warlords, matriarchs and mullahs. It is from these meals that Annia discovers what she calls a “shadow war”—a hidden conflict that slowly destroys lives, divides families, and poisons daily life. In war zones, the precious ordinariness of cooking takes on new meaning. From hurried meals accompanied by gunfire to lavish family feasts, Annia discovers that civilians use food to feed the soul as much as the body in times of war.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Day of Honey opens with an introduction, titled “The Siege,” that takes place soon after 9/11 in New York City. Why do you think Annia begins her memoir here, with a taxi ride down Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue? How does this introduction set the scene for the rest of the book?
2. One important theme of Day of Honey is the question of home. Do you agree with Annia that “home could be something you made instead of the place where you lived” (p. 25)? Is home a fixed location, or is it a movable feast?
3. Discuss the relationship between Annia’s nomadic teenage years and her personal connection to food. Do you think Annia’s travels through America influenced her experience in the Middle East?
4. “How do you like Beirut?” (p. 34). It’s the question everyone asks Annia during her first visit to her future home. What are Annia’s first impressions of Beirut? Which of the city’s pleasures does she discover right away, and which does she find later, as a resident?
5. Annia identifies what she refers to as a “shadow conflict” in times of war that she defines as “the slow but relentless destruction of everyday civilian life” (p. 8). Of all the everyday freedoms that are lost in Baghdad and Beirut, which loss seems the most tragic? Which of Annia’s new friends and acquaintances fall victim to this “shadow war,” and which manage to adapt during times of conflict?
6. Compare Annia’s childhood to Mohamad’s. How were their early environments different, and how were they similar? What challenges did each of them face growing up? What factors made each of them a “reluctant nomad” (p. 25)?
7. Annia writes: “You are reading my account of one war—my imperfect memories of what I saw and felt and did. Others had their own perceptions and their own realities.” What does she mean by this? Is she writing as a journalist, or a human being, or both?
8. When Annia arrives in Baghdad, she finds that most outsiders describe Iraqi food as “the real weapon of mass destruction” (p. 66). Why does Annia take this as a personal challenge, and how does she prove them wrong? Why have outsiders misjudged Iraqi cuisine?
9. Discuss the theme of hospitality in Day of Honey. How does Annia react to this Middle Eastern tradition? Annia learns early on to “never, ever turn down a meal” (p. 113). What kinds of homes, meals, and dangers does Annia encounter as a result?
10. Consider the story of Roaa, Annia’s translator who grew up in war-torn Iraq. How does Roaa feel about her country’s history and its prospects for the future? Do you think Roaa and her husband, now living in Colorado, will ever be able to “make” themselves settle down, as Roaa puts it (p. 318)? Why or why not?
11. According to Annia, “My idea of paradise is more like Mutanabbi Street, in Baghdad’s old city: an entire city street with no cars, just books and cafés” (p. 105). How does Mutanabbi Street demonstrate Iraqis’ love for the written word? What solace does Annia find on Mutanabbi Street, and why must she eventually stop going there? Have you ever encountered a city, street, or place that felt like your idea of paradise?
12. Annia was living in Baghdad when Saddam Hussein was finally captured. How do Annia’s Iraqi friends respond to this historical event? Annia writes, “The flavor of freedom was more complex, more bitter than we imagined” (p. 120). Did Annia’s account of the United States’s occupation of Iraq change your perspective or understanding of current events?
13. Discuss the unique challenges that women—the “face of Iraq”—must contend with (p. 141). Why is Dr. Salama, a popular female politician, a complicated spokeswoman for women’s rights in Iraq? What does Annia learn about Iraqi women and politics from her conversations with Dr. Salama? How did you react to these events in the book?
14. Consider the strong personality of Umm Hassane, Annia’s mother-in-law. What are Annia’s first impressions of Umm Hassane, and how does Annia’s opinion of her mother-in-law evolve over the course of the book? What can we learn about Umm Hassane’s character from her cooking style? How does Annia find “the real story” of the war by cooking with Umm Hassane (p. 275)? Does Umm Hassane remind you of anyone you know?
15. Discuss the early years of Annia and Mohamad’s marriage. What are the main sources of tension in their relationship? Were you able to relate to their everyday squabbles? Why or why not? Why do you think she includes these incidents in her accounts of historic events?
16. Why does Annia return to Beirut in the fall of 2007, after Mohamad finds a job in New York? What do you think Mohamad means when he says, “the war would never end . . . you
ended it yourself” (p. 313)? How does Annia manage to end her dangerous attachment to Beirut?
ENHANCE YOUR BOOK CLUB
1. Move your book club to the kitchen and try out one of Annia’s delicious recipes! Decide in advance which dish to try, and ask each member of your book club to bring ingredients. When it’s time to eat, wish everyone “Sahtain!”
2. Annia imagines an “edible map” of Beirut, with all her favorite shops and restaurants marked (p. 178). Make an “edible map” of where you live by marking your top food spots on a map of your town. Compare your edible map with other member’s maps from your book club.
3. Annia states that every city has its own question—Beirut’s is “How do you like Beirut?” while New York City’s is “What do you do?” Discuss this idea with your group and decide on a question that embodies your own city or community.
4. Donate to a charity that helps citizens in Iraq. For a list of effective organizations working in Iraq, visit the website of the American Institute of Philanthropy: http://www.charitywatch.org/hottopics/iraqaid.html. You can also volunteer to help Iraqi refugees in America by contacting the International Rescue Committee.
5. To read more by Annia Ciezadlo, including many of the articles she wrote in Baghdad and Beirut, visit her website at http://www.anniaciezadlo.com.
A CONVERSATION WITH ANNA CIEZADLO
Please tell us how you chose the title for your book. What does the Arabic proverb “day of honey, day of onions” mean to you? Where did you first learn or hear of this saying?
It’s from an old Arabic saying that goes youm aasl, youm basl—day of honey, day of onions. I don’t remember exactly where I first heard it, but I’ve seen people use it in a multitude of ways: sometimes to comfort each other, at other times ironically. It’s hopeful and cynical at the same time. One day might be sweet, the next bitter, but you keep going. You taste the honey while you can. For me, it sums up a wise, beleaguered optimism that the Palestinian writer Emile Habiby called pessoptimism: that no matter how bad things get, you don’t lose your faith in human nature. Or your deep conviction that something disastrous is just about to happen.
When did you start writing Day of Honey? How did you decide to focus your book on the struggles of everyday life in Beirut and Baghdad?
It was July of 2005. I was standing at the sink—the tiny little sink I wrote about in the book—washing dishes and thinking about how different Lebanon was from how I’d pictured it. Our tiny kitchen was stuffed with zaatar and wild arugula that I’d bought from Umm Adnan, the woman who sold wild greens on the sidewalk in our neighborhood, and gorgeous little intense tomatoes, and it suddenly struck me: What if Americans could see this side of life in Lebanon, not to mention the entire Middle East? The side of Lebanon that’s ridiculously generous, down-to-earth, and lush—the side we so rarely see depicted, because we’re focusing on militants and conflict. I had been writing mostly political analysis out of Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria, because that’s what most editors wanted. But readers are always interested in the little details that make up the fabric of everyday life: What do people look like? What do they eat? What do they talk about over the dinner table? What are their hopes, fears, and dreams? I realized that if I wrote about these things it would translate the abstraction of Middle Eastern politics into something that people would be able to relate to. So the idea for the book literally came from the kitchen sink.