Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Dinner with the Yemeni Space Program

I can't remember if I've written about this or not. Apologies if I have.

Do you all remember that scene from Apollo 13 near the end of the movie when the astronauts re-enter the earth's atmosphere? The world watches with bated breath as the space capsule breaches the atmosphere and seemingly bursts into flames. The fate of three heroic astronauts hung in the balance that day. A similar instance happened over dinner tonight. In the balance? My beans.

Yemeni chefs love, read LOVE, to crank up the gas when cooking. From my seat I could see the roaring foot high flame curl around the poor pan in which my dinner to be either cooked or incinerated. I remember asking my parents at some point why we baked cookies at 350 degrees for 11 minutes and not 450 for 6 minutes. More heat, faster cooking time, cookies in my belly sooner. It's a win win. Yemeni chefs totally embrace that logic. To their credit, no meal arrives cold.

I hope I'm not ruining a good movie (or history story) for some of you but the astronauts survive. Fortunately, my beans did as well. And they were tasty too.

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