The mists around the top of Mt. Aragats had dispersed by the early afternoon, but after eating the meat and drinking the vodka I could only hope to be still able to put one foot in front of the other. ...
... were permeated by Syrian humour. "What could happen", he chuckled, "if a plane ever crash-landed on the Memorial obelisk?" That was, in short, the tragedy of the genocide, the misery of the civil war played ...
... the three roads meet I walked to a little market held on the outskirts of town. There was essentially meat on sale, the last that the Orthodox are allowed to eat before the long Lenten fast preceding Easter. ...
... a stomach still filled with the cud of the bovine's last meal. The intestines are given to dogs; liver, lungs and stomach are eaten by people; the hide is used to make mats; the meat is sold on tarpaulin ...
... and got ready to leave the next day at 6. I ventured to have my second kitfo, or raw meat. It was delicious, probably the best I had ever had, but as always I ate it with a lot of circumspection, especially ...
... handlers to come and said I could go and have breakfast. While gulping down unpalatable meat strips with injera I realised I had a nasty itch on the hips and on the groin. I had felt something creeping ...
... a platter of injera with a bowl of raw meat. Kitfo is a much valued dish that I was definitely going to try some time, but maybe not right then with no preparation. I reluctantly pinched a lump of soft ...
... painted on the panes. Since it was not a fasting day the landlord was surprised when I ordered a vegetarian shiro but had to give in to the evidence that they had run out of meat so in practice there was ...
... meat, or a chunk of thick skin, dunked it into the tremendously spicy pepper dip and took it mechanically to my lips. I was given a bottle of beer. An old man poured a glass of baijiu for me, the only ...
... made me feel as if I was wielding a bazooka. Surrounded by embarrassment, I decided it was time I broke the ice and I asked them about the dogs. “They are not for eating. We don’t eat dog meat in Weining”, ...
... more to the people they were with than to me.
Weining may have been a disquieting place to many, but I didn’t mind, even in spite of the dog meat restaurants. Above all, after a long series of beds that ...
... it was not because of a religious taboo that I was asked not to snap any pictures, but because it was illegal to kill these animals. I asked if it was good meat, and the man confirmed that the butcher ...
Listening to my flight announcement at Heathrow airport, I had a first linguistic surprise in discovering that Accra is pronounced with an accent on the second syllable. Of course I expected far bigger ...
... a small pickup that doubles as a taxi to reach the big bazaar. Today, not being Sunday, its activity does not hit a high and lots of shops are closed. Like in the centre dirt is everywhere. Meat is grilled ...
... for chops of meat to be sold at the stall next to it. The meat hangs on the hooks and is not a pleasant sight after breakfast and, above all, next to the animal of origin. I turn around and on the opposite ...
... up at a hostel and immediately got in touch with our friend. We were invited to a delicious zhuafan lunch with yak meat in a private house. Then we took a walk to the grassland where quaint wooden gangways ...
... streets are invaded by a fleet of chairs and tables. The town turns into a gigantic restaurant, steeped in the smoke from the grilled meats. This place emanates a definite festive character.
Just south ...
... night in Plovdiv an Italian chap had just finished telling me he had eaten the biggest dinner ever when all of a sudden we were presented with a dish of grilled meat and salad. We looked at each other, ...
... meats wafts around restaurants and the terraces of cafes are crowded by punters that spend leisure time in the shady areas sipping coffee and smoking heavily.
The Church
This afternoon I met another ...
... of the topping. It’s my well-deserved break from the past days of ingera with tough meat stripes (tibsi), something I’ve grown fed up with.
In the late afternoon I go for a second stroll to the market, ...