Lamb and Stuffed Grape Leaves

Zitouni Restaurant: Enjoyed a wonderful buffet at Zitouni Restaurant. Zitoun means olive tree in Arabic. Lentil soup. Tremendous Mediterranean salads. Vegetables played a primary role in the dishes. Onions, garlic, and tomatoes, surrounded by olive oil. Eggplant abounded, as did squashes, peppers, mushrooms, cucumbers, artichokes, okra, and various greens and lettuces. Legumes too were plentiful: lentils, chickpeas, fava beans here in Egypt. Fresh herbs included rosemary, basil, cilantro, parsley, mint, dill, fennel, and oregano. I really liked the artichoke salad if I had to pick one; and I always like olives. Roast lamb and stuffed grape leaves, potato kebbah (lightly spiced small hamburger patties between thin layers of potato, onion, and eggplant with some baked tomato wedges on the side were some of the main course items. Many trays of sweets and sorbets. I had to pass on them, but enjoyed some fruit and cheese to finish off the meal. So tried the restaurant serving Egyptian food today; and it was delicious. Robespierre: In my spare time, am reading Fatal Purity by Ruth Scurr. To quote Amazon's description, she "explores Robespierre's reformist zeal, his role in the trial of the king and the fall of the monarchy, his passionate attempt to design a modern republic, even his extraordinary effort to found a perfect religion. And she follows him into the depths of the Terror, as he makes summary execution the order of the day, himself falling victim to the violence at the age of thirty-six." I don't think even the Muslim Brotherhood will get that extreme. However, it may be torn between the poles of ideological commitment and pragmatism. When France had its first chance at democracy, it replaced one tyranny for another. The Brotherhood could take a lesson from George Orwell. "Orwell was against abstractions of every kind: fascism, Communism, especially nationalism; “Americanism,” he once said, was a term that could easily be used for totalitarian ends. His socialism was pragmatic, anti-utopian, perhaps little more than an expression of his hope that the conditions of the poor and the powerless could be improved," says Barry Gewen. Many won't like his support of socialism. Orwell's main point, however, is that: "abstractions were the enemy of the powerless. They destroyed the diverse particulars of everyday life and necessarily culminated in some type of inhumanity, killing people for the sake of an idea ("Patriotism and Poultry: George Orwell’s ‘Diaries’," Barry Gewen, NYT Sunday Review of Books, August 31, 2012)." Lights Went Out: All of the lights in my 30-story building were off (for only about 15 minutes) at about 7:35 PM. I found my way into the bedroom and got the COD flashlight I had brought to give as a gift. It might be a good idea to keep it around. Since this is a building inhabited by those among the more affluent, I thought the electricity probably wouldn't be off too long. However, I was worried–and scared–for awhile. With my experience though, I should have known what I was getting into. I imagined myself sitting all night on the 14th floor with no air conditioning (temperature is 86° at 8:00 PM) and no internet! In some big cities in developing countries, power outages are a common occurrence for those not able to pay for better access to power and service (which is the majority of people). Fortunately, all services are running again in my apartment. Yeah!