Friday, September 30, 2005
Stove of the Pharoahs
(I think I will use this as the title to my memoirs).
I have decided to post my favorite drawings from Egypt. There aren't many of them, so I will prolong the glory one post at a time. Actually, each picture has a story, so I might as well tell them instead of just posting the drawings at once and making you wonder. There was a time when we didn't have a camera, a camcorder, a scanner or even a computer (Yes, primitive, wasn't it?) so I had to use my imagination and a touch of crea
tivity to "photograph" those soon-to-be memories that surrounded me. It not only gave me something to do, but I think it added a little "glamour" to the journaling experience.
The drawing posted here is the actual stove on which we cooked, with some trepidation, our daily meals, which, in Egypt consist of no less than three dishes. Two burners don't generally make for quick food preparation, therefore, one might imagine that we had to do a lot of shuffling and a lot of "preparation" to make sure everything was done at the same time.
I have always felt that this was the lost treasure stolen from the tomb of King Kookeneaten only this was the one "treasure" that the Ministry of Antiquities conveniently forgot, and so it ended up in our kitchen, the ancient Stove of the Sun God Raw. (May he eat in peace).
The tiny burner (front and center), which would probably not be found on a stove here in America very easily, is intended for turkish coffee . It was probably about the same size as a coaster, and had it's own little baby flame. We rarely used it as it was caked with a couple millenia's worth of grease and grime so that the kanaka, (tiny coffee pot used for turkish coffee) would not sit on it straight. All of the knobs at the front were in the same grimy condition, which made it difficult to clean. The oven door no longer held a spring, so we had to make sure that we let it down gently and didn't let go of it until we were sure it was all the way open. It did, however, have enough spring when it was near closing to hold itself closed, although it didn't seal itself, and heat always poured from it while we baked anything, which was never a problem in the wintertime. (The summertime was a different issue altogether!) We never had but one pan with a handle and that one was only for deep frying, so we couldn't use it for anything else. Despite all the problems we had with this old stove, we managed. The stove held a certain charm regardless of its faults and if we had it here today, I'm sure it would hold a place of honor somewhere in our living room as a decorative conversation piece, complete with books and plants.
I have decided to post my favorite drawings from Egypt. There aren't many of them, so I will prolong the glory one post at a time. Actually, each picture has a story, so I might as well tell them instead of just posting the drawings at once and making you wonder. There was a time when we didn't have a camera, a camcorder, a scanner or even a computer (Yes, primitive, wasn't it?) so I had to use my imagination and a touch of crea
tivity to "photograph" those soon-to-be memories that surrounded me. It not only gave me something to do, but I think it added a little "glamour" to the journaling experience.The drawing posted here is the actual stove on which we cooked, with some trepidation, our daily meals, which, in Egypt consist of no less than three dishes. Two burners don't generally make for quick food preparation, therefore, one might imagine that we had to do a lot of shuffling and a lot of "preparation" to make sure everything was done at the same time.
I have always felt that this was the lost treasure stolen from the tomb of King Kookeneaten only this was the one "treasure" that the Ministry of Antiquities conveniently forgot, and so it ended up in our kitchen, the ancient Stove of the Sun God Raw. (May he eat in peace).
The tiny burner (front and center), which would probably not be found on a stove here in America very easily, is intended for turkish coffee . It was probably about the same size as a coaster, and had it's own little baby flame. We rarely used it as it was caked with a couple millenia's worth of grease and grime so that the kanaka, (tiny coffee pot used for turkish coffee) would not sit on it straight. All of the knobs at the front were in the same grimy condition, which made it difficult to clean. The oven door no longer held a spring, so we had to make sure that we let it down gently and didn't let go of it until we were sure it was all the way open. It did, however, have enough spring when it was near closing to hold itself closed, although it didn't seal itself, and heat always poured from it while we baked anything, which was never a problem in the wintertime. (The summertime was a different issue altogether!) We never had but one pan with a handle and that one was only for deep frying, so we couldn't use it for anything else. Despite all the problems we had with this old stove, we managed. The stove held a certain charm regardless of its faults and if we had it here today, I'm sure it would hold a place of honor somewhere in our living room as a decorative conversation piece, complete with books and plants.
