Dawa Restaurant

My cousin Hamawand took us out for lunch after we came back from Byara. We had told him we were tired of the same Kurdish fare, but he promised this would be quite a unique experience. The restaurant is Turkish, and they served the meal in courses. There were about ten courses overall. A guy would come every few minutes and give us all a piece of something, we'd eat it, and then another waiter came with something else. The food was very unique and the presentation was wonderful, and of course the taste was amazing. Definitely one of the best dining experiences I have ever had.

They served about 6 or 7 different salads as soon as we sat down
First course, stuffed eggplant
Second course, chicken soup

Third course,this amazing bread with sesame and sunflower seeds:

4th course was cuba, fried rice balls stuffed with ground beef and spices

5th course was a clay pot full of something we didnt know, on a bed of coals cooking:

6th course was one of my favorites, it was this creamy potato mixture topped with a fried chicken patty with herbs and spices:

7th course was spiced chicken in a steaming clay plate:

8th course was marinated chicken served on a sword with flames burning below it:

Sword chicken up close:

Waiter shaking out the contents of the stuff in the pot after cooking on the fire for a few minutes:

The contents of the pot up close:

Finally, the main course. Marinated shoulder of lamb, slow cooked until so.so.so tender and juicy, tossed with rice and served with a variety of sauces and soups:

Desert: These incredibly delicate, crumbly cookie things stuffed with almonds:

Also, custard:

And tea to finish everything off:

Byara

My dad was born in the village of Byara, on the very border of Iraq and Iran. The regin is known as Hawraman, and its believed that the Prophet Ibrahim R hailed from there, thousands of years ago. One of the oldest maps in the world was found in this region, in that language, which is very different than the regular Kurdish dialect. For example, the Kurdish word for chicken is "mireeshk" but in Hawramani its "kargey". Alhamdullah my siblings and I can speak both, because my father is Hawramani and my mom is Sorani Kurdish, which is the main kind of Kurdish.

Hawraman is made up of dozens and dozens of breath taking villages all built on the mountain sides, full of orchards and streams. You cant really tell from the pictures, but Byara is very big compared to other villages, there are at least 1,000 homes there now, along with a market, hospital, and police station. It is the closet to the mainland, about a 20 minute drive from the main road, about an hour and half drive from Silemani.

For the trip we went into the family orchards to have an all day picnic. We went along with my dads nieces and all their kids. This is the area where my mom and dad lived in a tent for over 4 months when Saddam was bombing their city:

My dad getting out walnuts from their fresh green shells, soooo delicious!

These are tart plums a family just picked to sell at the market:

The meat after its cooked:

My siblings and I dont eat lamb much so we made toast from the bread and cheese my mom got us from Sweden, you should have seen the looks and comments our cousins gave us

Tea being boiled on the coals:

Road leading out of Byara:

View of Byara from a distance, on top of a hill near the towns exit:

Close up of Byara, you can see the beautiful blue Majid in there:

The newer side of Byara on the other side of the hill:

Me and Byara

Behind Byara, behind the hill we faced, this is facing Halabja and Sirwan Lake

Moms back!

My mom left to go to Sweden to visit her only full sister and brother, a week ago, and came home today. Alhamdulillah she had a great time, but we all missed her a lot, and glad she's back. It was ...interesting to have my dad be the only parent. Normally I would have taken over for my mom, but I got really sick and was in ned for the majority of 4 days, and just felt mostly better today. Instead of going to the airport with my family and uncles, I decided to stay home and make a nice dinner to welcome her back.

My little brother Bawar also stayed behind to blow up balloons, and he ended up helping me a lot. I taught him how to cut potatoes, tomatos, and green beans. Hes going to be my assistant from now on, hopefully he can learn to cook in the next few years, I was just a little older than him when I started.

Green Beans, one of my favorite foods:

Green Biryani with potatoes, pasta, almonds, and rasins:

Chicken with lemon juice and black pepper:

We also got a cake in bazar, it was soooo yummy:

Inside of the cake, there was a layer of almonds, Kurds put em in everything!

Chaq Chaq

Kurdish people Love to party. They love dressing up, they love music, they love dancing, and they look for any and every reason to celebrate. All around town, there are places specially designed for families to have BBQ's and picnics, and places to dance the traditional Kurdish dance, called Halperke. Silemani is a very crowded city, its about half the size of Columbus, with just as many people. Most of the houses are attached, and the cost of real estate is through the roof. The city has grown more and more the past few years, and even real estate at the very edges of the city are very expensive. A plot of land enough to build a 2 bedroom, one living room, one kitchen home in the city will cost you about 50K to 80k, while the same plot of land at the very outskirts of the city will cost you betwee 25k to 40k.

These picnic and resort places are usually built on the edges of town, or about 30 minutes to an hour away. The place we went to, which is called Chaq Chaq (weird name even for Kurds) is just on the edge of town, situated on a little hill overlooking the city.

We went with my favorite cousin and his wife and kids. We grilled meat, played games, ate, talked, and had a really nice time. Its always nice to out in the evening with the lights and cool breeze.

Bad view of the city

The place we hung out at

This delicious layered chocolate and cookie thing my cousins wife made, we at two huge ones!

My cousin eating yummy grapes

Randome pulling game

My cousins daughters adorable expression

Naan

Naan, the main Kurdish bread, is eaten with every meal, almost any kind of food. My dad especially likes eating naan with watermelon. There are naan tandoors in almost every neighborhood, people go and get fresh bread every day, and 8 large pieces of naan costs about 75 cents. The tandoor is made up of a special kind of stone, and is on the whole day. These men that work in the naan shops work non stop all day long.

Its hard work, and many of the workers have their hair burned off their arms from the being so close to the heat of the tandoor. Usually 4 or 5 men work in those shops. One mixes the dough, one kneads the dough, one forms it into balls, one shapes it and stretches it, and the other takes it out of the tandoor. Some of these jobs can be combined, in order to save some money for the shop.

Strange things

Walking around here you come across all sorts of things that an American would find a little bizzare. I try and take pictures of whatever I catch, and here are some:

Ever heard of the car brand called "Great Wall"? Yeah I didnt think so:

Swastika's can be found on walls and sold in stores as charms, dont ask me why

This is a vegetable similar to a cucumber in taste and appearance, except times 100. They really are as big as toddlers. You go up to the cart, the guy cuts u off a piece, and gives you salt and sumac to put on it, and you just eat it there. Its quite delicious.

Apple soft drink. I wouldn't recommend it...

WHY IS MILEY CYRUS HERE??

Yep, thats a rabbit on top of a multi million dollar building

Toyota I dont think you made this

Sheep crossing the road in the countryside, the shepherd is just chillin

Cow cruising the neighborhood in my uncles town

Kurdish Clothes and Hawar

My family and I spent the past few days in Halabja, visiting various relatives and seeing the sights. People here go on picnics that last all day long, where they grill meat and make tea on an open fire, and pick fruit while relaxing. Often times on these expeditions people wear traditional Kurdish clothes, which are three layers thick. For men, you wear silk or satin undershirt and pants, a sparkly beaded dress over it, and then a sleeveless vest over that. Most include a coined belt made of real gold or silver. My mom sister and I all had an outfit tailored:

We went to a place called Hawar, its a valley village on the order of Iran and Kurdistan, literally one side of the mountain was Kurdistan and one was Iran. The village is one of the only non Muslim area's in the country. We then stopped on top of a mountain to see the views:

This is me in green Kurdish clothes:

My mom and sister in theirs:

The food being cooked at another location, where we had lunch in the forest: