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Saturday, June 5, 2010

Zumeeta زميطة in a love package from Tripoli-home!


A package of Love from my mom

 
Whenever people ask me what do u miss from home. I say; apart from family and friends, I miss hearing the call for prayers five times a day and from different source at the same time, especially in Alfajer prayer. On my laptop I have two different accesses with two different account users, I have set the program of Athan to call by different Muezzin (مؤذن) in each of the two accounts. Sometimes when I go to sleep I leave both of the accounts on, on my laptop, in this way I could simulate the call for alfajer prayers as I used to hear it in the serenity of the early morning hours back home in my lovely city of Tripoli.

 
The second important thing which I miss here is Zumeeta! So, what is Zumeeta?
Zumeeta is a traditional food prepared from barley. I don't actually like any kind of Zumeeta, I like the one which is prepared from the fresh green barley, it is called Zumeetat makhdoor
( زميطة مخضور) it is more harder to prepare than the usual Zumeeta which is made from the old already dried barely. I am not the right person to describe how it is prepared, but basically it is a fried and finely ground barley. The flour of this fried and ground barley is called Zumeeta. It is kept as flour in-store and each time you want to eat some Zumeeta, you mix this flour with some water and olive oil. It is extremly healthy and delicious when you start your day with it.

After it gets mixed, I like to eat it with honey or sugar along with a cup of milk or green tea. I know that some people eat it with rub ( date syrup). Some others eat it with onion, I couldn't perceive this way of eating Zumeeta, I was raised on the fact that Zumeeta is categorized as sweet food. My father though started to eat it with onion in the last few years. If there is other way of eating Zumeeta that I don't know, feel free to enrich my knowledge about it.

 
Yesterday, I received a love package from my mom back home,  and guess what there is Zumeetat Makhdoor in the package, along with some headscarves as you see in the pictures up there. The headscarves are the other thing which I find difficult to get my choice here where I live in Seattle/WA . I can easily find the heavy thick one. But I'm not comfortable wearing those thick ones even in winter. And the other lighter designs which are available here are either transparent, or very short, with very limited choices, obviously not suitable for Hijab.
As my mom know me best, she sent me some love along with headscarves and Zumeeta .

Thank you Mom

PS: I tried to google Zumeeta on line to find if anyone talk about it in English, I only found this post for our old Libyan fellow blogger Libyano... I changed the spelling of Zumeeta in my post to be spelled in the same way as he wrote it, so in the future it might be easier to reach the resources if someone googled it in English.

 

11 comments:

Cafe Pepela said...

Maşallah
Very nice post..
I can understand your feelings, very well. I am from Turkey, together with my husband and daughter live in Libya. :)
What is Zumeeta, I can not fully understand? Where can I supply?
I wondered. :)
Hope to see you again.
Yours

Cafe Pepela said...

Maşallah
Very nice post..
I can understand your feelings, very well. I am from Turkey, together with my husband and daughter live in Libya. :)
What is Zumeeta, I can not fully understand? Where can I supply?
I wondered. :)
Hope to see you again.
Yours

Anonymous said...

So touching, the way you described the glidding sound of many "Athan" in the hushed moments of " fajr"
Once in Cairo I stayed in bed unable to move, I was charmed by more than 5 Athans following each other in a spiritual harmony byond describtion!
Allah!
Sa7a alzumeeta :)رغم اني اول مرة نسمع على النوع هذا اللي من الشعير الاخضر
Mabrook elwshahat
Enjoy wearing them in this hot summer.
ربي يحفظ والدتك
نوهمة

Meme said...

zumeeta? i'm not a big fan..in my house we eat bseesa more..

i bought some scarves from accessory store at the northgate mall..not as those your mother sent ofcurse but also not thick or heavy.
u know there's this international store "monsoon accessorize" they have wonderfull stuff and they have scarves as well try to google it maybe there's a store near you.

have fun

Unknown said...

Pepela ...
Thank u.
Where do u live in Libya?
from ur profile I understand u r in the east part of the country, I hope if someone living in that side and read my words will tell u where u can find Zumeeta there. As I said it is basically a barley fryed in a specific way then it get's finely ground.

Enjoy ur time in albeeda, it is one of the most beautiful cities in regards to it's nature. I have never been there, but I wish to visit the east part of my country one day.
Hope to see u here again.

نوهمة...
Glad my post got ur approval :)

This kind of Zumeeta it very popular in Tripoli, but u can't find it easily, because it has to be prepared when the barley is still fresh and green. If u tried it once u will not be able to eat the regular Zumeeta again...
الله يحفظك ويحفظلك كل عائلتك

Meme...
In the contrary, I'm not a big fan of bseesa... I can not tolerate the strong taste of Helba (Fenigreek) in it.
Yes,of course, when u look carefully and spend weeks in shoping u have to find something good. But I hate shoping, I never fo to the mall except if I'm really in need of something, or if I want to eat a special brand icecream, but to go and look around every once in a while, that is totally not me.
I googled the store u have given me, I find one in Washongton DC. Let's see, if I went there by summer I will try to look for it.


Thank u All

Dr.butterfly said...

good to hear you are doing great..!
and yes i as well love to hear the numerous athans at once at fajir time...!!

i know how it feels to be living away from your family. and the rush of joy you get when you receive a package from them...!!
sa7a to you about the zumeeta... and wishing you all the best!!

sallam

Herr Esharif said...

hey u ya mo`3treba ^_^
zumetta one of my fav traditional food its official " terdeda " in our house bt " khador " 1st time i hear abt it !!

i like what u wrote about 2 account sounds so emotionally when i read that ....

abt headscarf " did u wanna more ^_^
i can send one for u ^_*
did u try nto check " ebay website " u may find somthin u like " loool " seems good idea right !

yala tc & good luck

salam ya mo`3treba

Unknown said...

Fasateen - Mashrou' Leila [Official Video]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HqHdBlQEe8

I owe you a song from last post and response but response will be posted later.Have a nice week end.

Unknown said...

Fasateen - Mashrou' Leila [Official Video]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HqHdBlQEe8

I owe you a song from last post and response but response will be posted later.Have a nice week end.

Anonymous said...

You reminded of the suitcase I got from my mom last summer. One bag of Zummeta and one of Bssisa. The bssisa finished quickly and the zummita is still untouched in my kitchen cabinet. We may do some trading :)

Unknown said...

Dr.Butterfly...

Salmek (:
Long time no see
Wish u the best of luck in ur last year of Medicine!
hear the good news soon.


Abdullah Sh...

Ahlan y mwaten ... hahaha
I wonder why every body don't hear about Zumeeta Makhdoor ... Is it only popular in Tripoli?

eBay is good, but what my mom send will be enough for long time. Then it finding the suitable headscarf is not that difficult, my taste is the difficult one.


MusicLover...

I didn't like this one, thanks for the effort of sharing it though.
Appreciate it.
I'm waiting for your un voiced response.


Anonymous ...

Agree if it is Zumetat Mukhdoor (: