Lamb Brains

Good morning, all! Skyped with my family last night and it was won-der-ful to see their beautiful faces!!! Especially my darling nieces and nephew, who I will always refer to as my own!!! ha!

So. lamb brains. When I was talking to Mom, I mentioned seeing this "delicacy" in the grocery store and how disgusting it was, so she suggested I include weird stuff like that in this blog for everyone's viewing pleasure. These are seriously gross. I'm not usually squeamish about food, but there is something about seeing something so...brain-like all wrapped up in plastic ready for anyone to just buy and fry up that I can't quite stomach. Maybe if it didn't look exactly like a brain, I wouldn't mind so much. Anyway, enough about that - but do let me know if you have had brains before and what they tasted like!

Some answers to questions from my first post:
Brenda - we did go to Jara Souk the other day - have you been there? We were surprised there aren't more souks here - in Saudi there was a very large one that I THINK was always open....Jara Souk is now closed down for the winter, so we made it the very last weekend. We bought some beautiful framed photos of Amman that were taken by a very talented teenager with a great Canon. We also bought a miniature wooden door with key hooks to hang by our front door. I'm sure we'll buy some more rugs bc we love them, but there is also a cool ceramic store here that I'm sure I'll drop some money at, as well as furniture. There is a very cool curved wooden bench that friends of ours here have, and we kind of want it!

Uncle J- entertainment here is fine. We have AFN (Armed Forces Network) on tv, which is only ok. It's only about 10 different channels with lots of Oprah, Dr Phil, and military news. I get excited when House or an HGTV show comes on!!! There is a movie theater here, and supposedly it's a very nice one, with reclining seats and tables for food, but we haven't been there yet. I do believe they play current movies that are in the US theaters, probably with Arabic subtitles. There is also a movie store close to our house - very cheap dvd's of the most current things out - movies/tv series/hbo shows, etc. I'm on the hunt for the last couple seasons of the Tudors.

Also, malls. Jordanians LOVE malls. There is a mall on every corner. They are building a huge one near our house now, bc apparently they didn't have any in a 100 yard radius. Things are exceedingly expensive here though. It's kind of shocking really. Cereal is insane - like $6 or $7 per box. I just have to express my appreciation again for all the English here. Sometimes I just feel like I'm just living in a very ethnic neighborhood in DC!!!

Erica- as far as we know, there have never been goats on Wilson, but he just meant that's how weird it looked -- as if we were seeing goats walking down Wilson!! And the weather has been FANTASTIC so far. Sunny every single day, warm days with slightly cool evenings. Much better than dreary fall back in the States!!

Some exciting news - hopefully we will be getting a maid soon. To those who have lived overseas before (Ahem, Denise and Albert), having maids is very common and very cheap. I'm just excited that someone else will vacuum up Susie hair for awhile!!

Oh, the mustard potatoes. They were just ok. I had to make so many and didn't have the right pans here, so I think that hindered my effort, but I think in a smaller batch where you have more control over them, they could be good! I'm now obsessed with roasting potatoes and swear I will master them.

Brian and I went to dinner last night to a very cool "gastro-pub". Online definition: In the United Kingdom, many working-class citizens frequent pubs, short for public houses. These neighborhood watering holes offer patrons a selection of cold beverages and basic comfort foods known as pub grub. In the early 1990s, however, some enterprising British chefs decided to upgrade certain pubs in order to appeal to a more upscale clientele. They called their new style of restaurant a gastropub, a combination of the French word gastronomique and pub.

Anyway, it offered FANTASTIC views of the city and was a cool place all around. Service here in Amman is so crappy though. We ordered an appetizer and 2 entrees, and it took 45 mins or so and then we got all them all at the same time. Did I mention, we were 2 of only 6 patrons on the WHOLE UPPER DECK??? Not sure why service isn't great here, but we have definitely noticed that at a couple other places.

Ok, enough ranting and raving for now. Have a fantastic day!