kibbeh-project-pomelo-cocktail-arak.jpg

Arak and Pomelo Middle East Cocktail Recipe

Pomelo fruit and the Middle East arak are making one of the year’s hottest and refreshing new cocktails. Here’s the recipe. Baffled Once: Purchased as wacky Christmas gifts, the four bottles of arak inside our New York-bound suitcases were packed more carefully than human transplant organs are, but their bottle caps were as leaky as […]

swine-flu-image-560x388.jpg

Swine Flu Death Toll in Middle East Region

Are you at risk? Get swine flu updates for the PA, Israel, Yemen, Iraq, Tunisia and Jordan. Health officials in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) are calling on residents to get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus (“swine flu”) after 25 deaths in recent weeks.Over 700 infections of H1N1 have been reported in the West Bank […]

1024px-Cole_Thomas_Expulsion_from_the_Garden_of_Eden_1828.jpg

Floods, Climate Change and the Garden of Eden?

Are Jordan’s snow and Israel’s floods signs of climate change or are they simply flukes of weather?  People might argue this for decades there is strong evidence that Mideastern climate has changed dramatically over thousands of years and there is evidence that humans can negatively impact their environment over a much shorter time period. The […]

rsz_shutterstock_3305832.jpg

Iraqi Stuffed Grape Leaves RECIPE

In the Middle East, recipes for stuffed vegetables and leaves evolved from a simple, thrifty way with meat to a culinary passion. Careful housewives have long known that a little ground meat goes a long way when artfully seasoned and combined with rice. But it took imagination and care to develop the recipes of stuffed […]

pita_bread_Israel.jpg

Eggplant Lovers Get New Sabich Restaurant in Tel Aviv

Iraq meets Israel in Tel Aviv at this new sabich restaurant. Givatayim’s legendary eggplant-maker Oved Daniel, whom they call the “professor of sabich [Iraqi eggplant dish] science,” is opening up a new restaurant in Tel Aviv. Previously a gifted soccer player, today Daniel is a local food celebrity whose specialty sabich is one of Israel’s […]

shisha-pipe-hookah.jpeg

Baghdad Fights Tobacco Trend Among Youth

Nearly seven percent of adolescent Iraqis have smoked shisha, and more than three percent have smoked tobacco, raising concerns among health officials about future diseases that could arise as a result. This was one of the findings of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey carried out recently by Iraq’s Ministry of Health. Shisha, also known as […]

133599534.png

Arabs Undressed, Artfully

Paris art exhibit tackles Islamic taboos in a show aimed at broadening Western views of Mid East culture. Oooh la la…The Body Uncovered, at Paris’ Arab World Institute (AWI), presents two hundred controversial paintings, photographs, sculptures and videos that tackle variations of a provocative theme: the naked body. A mix of art forms created by […]

hadramut-yemen.jpg

Iraqi Mud Architect Wins Prestigious Sustainability Award

Iraqi architect Salma Samar Damluji has won the ‘Global Award for Sustainable Architecture’ for her mud-brick renovation work in Yemen Mud. Muck. Dirt. Clay. Earth. Call it what you like – it’s the stuff of life and also of sustainable architecture. From the stunning mud mosque of Djenne in Mali to the clay tower homes […]

zubair_ali_2012007.jpg

How NASA Sees the Changing Middle East Landscape

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q4YTpa3Bwg] Who would have known 50 years ago that Angel Falls can be experienced like this? Flying in a motorized paraglider over one of the most diverse continents in the world I find it absolutely awe inspiringly mind blowingly beautiful that nowadays we have the technology to provides us with new perspectives on this spherical […]