Interview with Roza Otunbayeva the Former President of the Krygyz Republic

Peace Caravan Journey along the Silk Road: New York documents the people from the Silk Road nations who have settled within the five Boroughs of New York. Exploring through video and photography their customs and traditions. This interview with Roza Otunbayeva, the Former President of the Krygyz Republic, was held at the Bulgarian Consulate in New York, December 2012, just a few minutes before the concert of classic Kyrgyz music. The former President expresses her thoughts on the special quality of the Krygyz people.

Cho'chura: Uyghur Style Dumplings with Soup

The Women in the Tash Family make the Chuchura Dumplings  Kashgar, Xinjiang Province, China

Prepare a flavorful lamb broth, and stir in diced, seeded tomatoes. In a separate pot, simmer chuchura, Uyghur "soup dumplings," for two or three minutes until the wrappers become slightly translucent. Drain, and transfer the dumplings to the soup.

Cook the dumplings in the soup for another 10 minutes, to absorb flavor from the broth. Garnish with freshly-chopped cilantro, and serve hot. Chuchura are similar to tortellini or wontons, but are filled with lamb or mutton, minced onions and a dash of cumin.

Steam manti, another type of Uyghur dumpling, in an oiled bamboo steamer for 25 minutes. Manti are wrapped in thin wheat dough similar to wonton wrappers, and can have a variety of fillings. Mutton and lamb are the most common, but pumpkin and other fillings can be used. Serve hot, with a chili-based dipping sauce or vinegar.

Use the oiled bamboo steamer for Hoshang dumplings, as well. These are similar to Chinese pork buns, with a thicker and chewier pastry, but are filled with mutton and onions. After steaming, they are pan-fried to a crisp and golden surface on each side.

Simmer Uyghur "potstickers" in an open pan with just enough water to cover them, for 10 to 12 minutes. Drain any remaining water, and pan-fry until the dumplings are golden brown on bottom, about two to three minutes. Serve with hot dipping sauce or vinegar. Uyghur potstickers are similar to Chinese jaozi or Japanese gyoza, but with lamb or mutton filling.  recipe courtesy of YouAsk.com

Tamlik  thats Delicious in Uyghur 

Meatless Days

Egg Vendor Old Souk, Aleppo, Syria

Whenever I am traveling for long periods of time, I always eat eggs, especially as I try to avoid meat.  For several days, I will go with a vegetarian diet but, I can't give up my eggs. Usually, I prefer to eat omelets, and the best I've tasted were made a few miles from Sogmartan, in the Upper Mesopotamian plains, just north of the border of Syria, in Southern Turkey. After walking for the entire day, I came upon a remote farm house where my guide asked for some food and what came  were delicious eggs fried in sheep's fat, served in the cast iron pan they were cooked - simply divine!

Red Eggs Kabul, Afghanistan

Egg Maze Old City SanliUrfa, Turkey

All the Tea in China..........!

The Drink Dujour through-out the entire Silk Road is TEA. From the fertile tea plantation on the Black Sea in Trabzon, to the Tea Houses in Xi'an, China tea is the ubiquitous libation morning, noon, and night.  Up to twenty glasses a day!

Here are a few of my favorite tea drinking spots

 Bedouin Tea in front of the Monastery Petra, Jordan

Green Tea overlooking the Oasis Turpan, Xinjian Province, China

 Final Pour Green Tea  100 year old Tea House, Xi"an, China

Tea Plantation overlooking the Black Sea Trabzon, Turkey

Bedouin Spiced Tea in Tent  Desert near Palmyra, Syria

 Black Tea with Teachers and village Elders  Dewan, Bamiyan Province, Afghanistan

Black Tea in ancient Cave Harran, Southern Turkey 

Remembering Aleppo

 Armenian Quarter in the Old City Aleppo

My laptop was on New York time and so I arrived a day early at Beit Wakil, once an upscale family home and now a small Boutique Hotel in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City. The frazzled young girl at the reception could barely cope with my presence and began ringing a bell at an alarming clang. From somewhere deep inside the walls I heard  baritone sounds that seemed to be getting closer… "No Problem I will fix" the burly man was saying as he scurried down the steps in a long Arabian Thobe, the casual robe that Middle Eastern men where in the intense heat. "Hello, I'm Habib, the manager and we will take care of your room.  Find her a room", he says to the receptionist as he takes my arm and leads me down a stone hall to the inner courtyard. "Have you eaten, don't eat because I am taking you for dinner. Aleppo has the best food in the Middle East. i promise you what ever you don't like we won't charge you!"

That night we sang all the songs from Fiddler on the Roof as Habib filled glass after glass of Arak the sweet, anise drink of Syria. The more he drank the more he began to look like Zero Mostel's Tevye


                                                              Courtyard of the Beit Wail

                   

Destruction of Biblical Proportions

Women Entering the Umayyad Mosque Old City, Damascus, Syria
Christ Statue  Christian Quarter, Damascus






How we do some things

connects us all.

A response of historic numbers

to a focused mission. 

Hands getting it done

in a grand job for Peace

A car bomb in Bab Touma

sets off a storm of Destruction in the Old City of Damascus.

Where Muslims, Christians and Jews

lived in quarters side by side behind walls three men high.

The warning rises on the Four Winds.

Driving a storm of epic proportions.

As the deluge of violence in Syria

spreads throughout the Middle East.

War planes thunder over Damascus

ensuring its destruction,

sadly the prediction delivers true.

A passionate echo from the ancient Prophet Isaiah his words

knitted on the back of a sweater in Aleppo:



"THERE WILL COME A TIME"
                                         Marla Mossman  New York,  2012

  There will Come A Time  Old Souk,  Aleppo, Syria 

Ram in home of two Sisters  Jewish Quarter  Old City, Damascus, Syria

Mez Aynak, Afghanistan Conference in Washington 2012

        I took this photo of Dr. Cheryl Benard with the Mez Aynak experts 

Mes Aynak is located in Afghanistan Logar Province in remote desert region about 45km from Kabul. It is one of the oldest and richest copper mines in the world. Above it, lies the ruins of an immense ancient Buddhist complex. Today, a Chinese mining consortium threatens its destruction. I was invited to attend the conference in Washington where reports from the archeologists, mining specialists, art historians were presented on how best to preserve the artifacts. For more information read, Dr. Cheryl Benard's Daily Beast article encourages all of us to act now for the responsible preservation of one of Afghanistan's historical treasures.  To learn more: thedailybeast.com/  

Peace Caravan:Afghanistan Lecture at the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada

I had the great pleasure and honor to speak about the Peace Caravan Project and talk on my journey through Afghanistan. Lecturing serves the real mission of the project - to educate and provide first hand information about the people living in Silk Road countries.  The images and stories help to dispel myths and misconceptions resulting from a media focused on war and violence. Seeing women harvesting the fields, caring for children, families working together shows that we are all similar.

 I could not be more appreciative for the warm hospitality offered to me by the gracious Francesco Alvaraz, Director of the Institute for Contemporary Culture.  The Royal Ontario Museum is more beautiful and richer in culture and arts today than when I lived in Toronto over 30 years ago and filled every one of my visits with the awe for mankind in all our creativity.