Anissa's Blog

Just back from the United Arab Emirates where I had a great time, seeing friends, eating delicious food and getting close with lady camels at a wonderful camel dairy farm where they produce the milk for the chocolates I wrote about in this post and where I finally tasted the milk properly — it is pretty delicious.…

A French friend once told me that dancing was the vertical expression of horizontal intentions. I can’t dance. So, if I need to express such intentions, I have to resort to other means! But Tahiya Carioca sure can. And the way she expresses it is beyond sexy, and without being in the least bit vulgar.…

Bessbuss greeting us from the window of her top room where she chops the parsley to keep the rest of her house clean. I recently wrote a a short piece for the markets issue of Saveur on Souk el-Tanabel (souk of the lazy people) in Damascus where well-heeled women go to buy pre-prepared vegetables. A little like our supermarkets,…

Or to be more accurate in a pick up van on the street. I love these startling sights that are quite common throughout the Middle East. I was in Aleppo I think when I spotted this poor animal. As luck would have it, I was with Jason Lowe who doesn’t need introducing, and only he can make…

Lamb testicles for sale in the souk in Damascus — these are a lot more veined than the norm; also it is not often that you find them hung like this. The butcher peels and discards the outer membrane before weighing and cutting them the way you want. A few days ago, Serious Eats tweeted about yak…