Awell-stocked grocery store is a great place to kill time, second only to memory lane, which has additional benefits such as a zero carbon footprint and the absence of a dress code. As Frank Zappa said: "It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice. There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."
Sentimentality, a word that once reminded me of cheap perfume, is the most primal form of recollection. Though it lacks the complications of longing that come with nostalgia, it's still the reason I can't listen to Jim Croce, smell L'air du Temps, or eat buttered basmati rice without getting choked up. When you're flooded with the past, it acts as a filter.
The process by which my brain makes memories often starts with a taste or an aftertaste. Maybe it's my blood chemistry or the time of year, but these days, there's no underestimating the transportive power of the senses. Proust's iconic madeleine would have crumbled into literary sediment if it hadn't found a place to flourish in the collective consciousness of his readers.
If distance were a dish, what would it taste like? How about sadness and joy? The hothouse cucumbers I buy in the US are slender and sweet, but when I visit my Lebanese cousins, their home-grown varieties are bitter, astringent and thorny with hairs. Still, they taste like summer to me, and I love them.
Good times also taste like vinaigrette. My uncle is the salad master. All his nieces and nephews were raised on his signature dressing, a claggy and assertive muddle of garlic, shallots, salty soy and sweet maple swirled into good Lebanese olive oil. He dresses the greens heavily and is generous with the tomatoes.
And I associate the drive to the Abu Dhabi airport with heartburn and heartache. My mother stockpiles chilli pickles while I am visiting and I have a tendency to ignore them until the last night, when I finish them off, mechanically and melancholically, like vitamins for my spirit.
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital by Lorrie Moore is a jewel I discovered in 1995, soon after it was first published. On the brink of 14, I was already racked with a kind of anticipatory nostalgia for things in life I feared I would never get to experience because the world felt too big and out of control. Moore's novella is the story of memory with notes on loneliness and longing, girlhood and disappointment, memory and reality, and the tenuous relationship between happiness and hope. It is told from the perspective of a woman named Berie, who finds herself with a lot of time on her hands in Paris while her husband, from whom she feels increasingly estranged, attends a medical conference.
Wandering around the city alone, Berie discovers a pastry called divorcé, which she eats daily with an urgent and ironic yearning. A divorcé consists of two choux pastry puffs held together by a placid, neutral cream filling. One choux puff is filled with silky dark chocolate custard and the other is discordantly - or perhaps harmoniously - filled with coffee custard.
It's certainly true that nostalgia is counterproductive - at least the way I enjoy it. Rumination and diligence tend to be combative. It's hard to pay attention to what's right in front of you if your eyes are fixed on the rear-view mirror. Some people wear their heart on their sleeves; I wear mine in my mouth.
Nouf Al Qasimi is an Emirati food analyst who cooks and writes in New Mexico
Picture of Joumblatt and Hariri breaking bread sets Twitter alight
Mr Joumblatt’s pessimism regarding the Lebanese political situation didn’t stop him from enjoying a cheerful dinner on Tuesday with several politicians including Mr Hariri.
Caretaker Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury tweeted a picture of the group sitting around a table at a discrete fish restaurant in Beirut’s upscale Sodeco area.
Mr Joumblatt told The National that the fish served at Kelly’s Fish lounge had been very good.
“They really enjoyed their time”, remembers the restaurant owner. “Mr Hariri was taking selfies with everybody”.
Mr Hariri and Mr Joumblatt often have dinner together to discuss recent political developments.
Mr Joumblatt was a close ally of Mr Hariri’s assassinated father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri. The pair were leading figures in the political grouping against the 15-year Syrian occupation of Lebanon that ended after mass protests in 2005 in the wake of Rafik Hariri’s murder. After the younger Hariri took over his father’s mantle in 2004, the relationship with Mr Joumblatt endured.
However, the pair have not always been so close. In the run-up to the election last year, Messrs Hariri and Joumblatt went months without speaking over an argument regarding the new proportional electoral law to be used for the first time. Mr Joumblatt worried that a proportional system, which Mr Hariri backed, would see the influence of his small sect diminished.
With so much of Lebanese politics agreed in late-night meetings behind closed doors, the media and pundits put significant weight on how regularly, where and with who senior politicians meet.
In the picture, alongside Messrs Khoury and Hariri were Mr Joumbatt and his wife Nora, PSP politician Wael Abou Faour and Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon Nazih el Nagari.
The picture of the dinner led to a flurry of excitement on Twitter that it signified an imminent government formation. “God willing, white smoke will rise soon and Walid Beik [a nickname for Walid Joumblatt] will accept to give up the minister of industry”, one user replied to the tweet. “Blessings to you…We would like you to form a cabinet”, wrote another.
The next few days will be crucial in determining whether these wishes come true.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
DOB: March 13, 1987
Place of birth: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia but lived in Virginia in the US and raised in Lebanon
School: ACS in Lebanon
University: BSA in Graphic Design at the American University of Beirut
MSA in Design Entrepreneurship at the School of Visual Arts in New York City
Nationality: Lebanese
Status: Single
Favourite thing to do: I really enjoy cycling, I was a participant in Cycling for Gaza for the second time this year
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
U19 World Cup in South Africa
Group A: India, Japan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka
Group B: Australia, England, Nigeria, West Indies
Group C: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Scotland, Zimbabwe
Group D: Afghanistan, Canada, South Africa, UAE
UAE fixtures
Saturday, January 18, v Canada
Wednesday, January 22, v Afghanistan
Saturday, January 25, v South Africa
UAE squad
Aryan Lakra (captain), Vriitya Aravind, Deshan Chethyia, Mohammed Farazuddin, Jonathan Figy, Osama Hassan, Karthik Meiyappan, Rishabh Mukherjee, Ali Naseer, Wasi Shah, Alishan Sharafu, Sanchit Sharma, Kai Smith, Akasha Tahir, Ansh Tandon
Turning waste into fuel
Average amount of biofuel produced at DIC factory every month: Approximately 106,000 litres
Amount of biofuel produced from 1 litre of used cooking oil: 920ml (92%)
Time required for one full cycle of production from used cooking oil to biofuel: One day
Energy requirements for one cycle of production from 1,000 litres of used cooking oil:
▪ Electricity - 1.1904 units
▪ Water- 31 litres
▪ Diesel – 26.275 litres
The biog
Name: Timothy Husband
Nationality: New Zealand
Education: Degree in zoology at The University of Sydney
Favourite book: Lemurs of Madagascar by Russell A Mittermeier
Favourite music: Billy Joel
Weekends and holidays: Talking about animals or visiting his farm in Australia