Eating the Globe: Iraq

85 countries, and this is the best meal!

It's so subjective. I've come to realize that all of my favorite meals came immediately after long and arduous journeys. My favorite meal ever was in the Atacama after getting stuck in a ghost town. The best sourdough bread was at a breakfast place in the Yukon after three days of riding Greyhound.

This meal was spectacular because I took the i3 to Sacramento, a distance of about 85 miles. It was hot but I didn't want to run down the battery too much, so I set the A/C on low and set the adaptive cruiser control at 72 miles per hour. So after the hot and slow journey, going to this Iraqi restaurant was literally like finding an oasis.

The restaurant was founded and employed by Iraqi refugees. There are a lot of men working the open kitchen. In the back is a hectic bakery. The market is filled with customers, who are 80% Iraqi and 20% random people from the neighborhood.

I got the chicken shawarma with Iraqi bread. This is how they write "Jim" in Arabic. The script probably has to be rotated 90 degrees.

They trimmed the chicken pieces straight out of a whole roasted chicken. You get a little bit of everything, from skin to muscle to fat. They lay on a bed of moist, flavorful saffron(?) yellow rice. The tomatoes were left on the grill just long enough to slightly soften them. The raw cucumber and onion salad and small tub of yogurt sauce complemented the entree perfectly.

Countries tried so far:
Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Morocco, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa
Asia: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, Yemen
Europe: Albania, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden
North America: Belize, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Trinidad & Tobago, USA
South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela
Oceania: Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga

How much meat do people around the world eat

Flow of Brazilian rivers

Radwood 80s 90s car show

Who is going?

As we teased earlier this week, here is the second poster in our series of 3. These will be available to purchase at the show. Limited run, hopefully some will be left after the show if you couldn't make it. #aesthetic #90s #80s #carshow #Ferrari #512TR #Testarossa #Radwood #Design #Art 🎨: @capturingthemachine

A post shared by RadWood (@radwoodofficial) on Apr 14, 2017 at 11:12am PDT

Dear reader from Reunion:

I would love to interview you and ask you about the cars there, the island's relationship with France, the pieces of MH370 that have washed up onshore, and the recent terrorist attack. If you are interested, please email me at milhousevanh at geemail. Merci!

Eating the Globe: Albania

I bought this at the Eastern European market yesterday. The cashier suggested that I slice it and eat it with fried eggs and onions. So I made this for myself for dinner.

Here it is. It's a beef sausage (Albania is a Muslim country so no pork). It is hard like beef jerky. It is quite spicy (it really kicked in after I ate the meal) and quite sour.

My progress:

Countries tried so far:
Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Morocco, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa
Asia: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, Yemen
Europe: Albania, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden
North America: Belize, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Trinidad & Tobago, USA
South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela
Oceania: Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga

Transporting an engine, shoelaces, and an Albanian sausage

I had an eventful and fun day yesterday.

Some of you may remember my Maserati engine coffee table. Well, years ago, it was deemed by my wife as a hazard, both physically and aesthetically. It was banished to the garage, where it sat, gathering dust and spider webs. Now, she wants it out completely to make room for massive boxes of Viva paper towels and 55 gallon drums of laundry detergent.

Fortunately, someone wants it. All I had to do was deliver it to them in San Francisco. But how? I'm about as handy as Donald Trump, so I researched extensively and asked the friend who originally helped me transport the engine from Santa Rosa to home. (Friend and truck no longer live in the area.) I even went to the local hardware store to get advice. I ended up buying a rope and deciding to put the engine in the TSX wagon.

I needed an extra set of hands to lift the engine so I recruited my friend (and friend of this blog) Chris. He brought some bungee cords. Bungee cords?!

I really wasn't sure if this was a good idea. My greatest fear was that we were going to get into a crash and the engine was going to fly forward and decapitate Chris. But as I closed the hatch, I said out loud and thought to myself-- Chris is an engineer; he knows what he's doing.

We delivered the engine to San Francisco without incident. The new owner was stoked. Mission accomplished. I took Chris out to lunch as a thank you.

It was over pan fried turnip cakes that I learned I was in the presence of an engineering rock star. I was lamenting about how I was five Economist issues behind in my reading when he told me that he was in last week's issue in an article about why shoelaces get untied. OMG!

After lunch, we walked across the street to an Eastern European market to check out its merchandise. I picked up this Albanian sausage, which I will count in my Eating the Globe series. The energetic Bosniak cashier recommended that I just fry up ten thin slices with some eggs for breakfast.

90 year Chilean police anniversary ad by Dodge

Here's to the most professional and honest police force in all of Latin America!

#Dodge con tremendo inserto celebrando 90 años de #Carabineros ! #OrdenyPatria 🇨🇱💪🏻

A post shared by Ramón Rivera Notario (@riveranotario) on Apr 27, 2017 at 5:38am PDT

Iraqi food!

I try to be home as much as possible now so eating out is a rare treat. I found this place in Sacramento on the way to Nevada City so I'm going to go there this weekend!

Impressive truck driving video compilation

G550 4x4 Squared

For some reason, the local used luxury car dealer has a 4x4 Squared with less than 100 miles on it. I had never heard of it before running across this ad on Craigslist.

And here is a very honest take on the car, by the ICON guy:

Ethiopian intersection without traffic signals

Beautiful and terrifying.

A walk with Cooper

This is the wettest season on record. Usually, by late April, this would all be yellow.

Engine disassembly and assembly video

Chinese government destroying Uyghur spirit

#China's #Uighur heartland turns into security state https://t.co/zEOILxFBkZ pic.twitter.com/x5av8Li5tl

— dwnews (@dwnews) April 18, 2017

Insightful car guys tweet thread

If you want insight automotive content, read this entire thread. Better than 99% of blogs of mag articles I've read in years https://t.co/ESoL8TNwbF

— Derek Kreindler (@DerekKreindler) April 20, 2017

Intrigued?

@DerekKreindler @greatistheworld @PandaOnWheels @midnightdorifto @rchen @TamerlaneBlog @uhalevi This thread basically justifies the existence of Twitter.

— Alex Núñez (@Noonz) April 21, 2017

Go here! (The thread is 60+ comments long. I don't know why most are not showing up.)

Pre-auction estimate: $depressing.00 https://t.co/i6JOxOuU7w

— Team Radar Love (@midnightdorifto) April 20, 2017

Fastest lap at Le Mans

H/t to Alan.

One-handed tire change

Like a boss!

One handed tyre change by @porsche mechanic, you don't see this kind of pit stop somewhere else!  #WEC #6hsilverstone #endurance #motorsport #pit #porsche #power #thor

A post shared by FIA WEC Official Instagram (@fiawec_official) on Apr 19, 2017 at 8:06am PDT

Endless train loop

Endless toy train loop robot pic.twitter.com/L0Bus7kX3o

— Internet Palace (@InternetPalace) April 19, 2017

A gift from BMW

A question for you fathers out there...

I got this in the mail.

It's a cool USB stick with some marketing BS about how eco-friendly the i3 is.

The package also came with a free one-day car control course at either BMW's track in Thermal (between Palm Desert and the Salton Sea in Southern California) or next to the Spartanburg, South Carolina, factory, where they build the X3, X4, X5, and X6.

The easy choice would be to fly down to Southern California for a day. But if I go to South Carolina, I can get a factory tour and visit the BMW Zentrum museum.

The question for you fathers: At what point do you feel comfortable asking your wife who just gave birth for permission to fly across the country for a few days for cars?

Fueling up my i3

I have to go to Nevada City in a couple of weeks for work. It's in the Sierra foothills (around 2,500 feet in elevation) and 150 miles away. Normally, the i3's battery runs out of juice after 125 miles. But since I'll be going uphill, I suspect my electric range will drop to 80 to 90 miles. Then, the gas Range Extender generator kicks in (I have yet to use it).

This has led to some thinking. The easiest solution is to take the TSX wagon. But we have family visiting so I'd rather let my wife and guests drive/ride in the TSX. The Civic is fine, but I'm relegating it to transporting the dog and transporting sweaty-me from the gym.

The next solution is to call the BMW dealership and borrow a gas-powered BMW for free under its Flexible Mobility program. Under the program, electric BMW owners can get around 10 days of free rentals when they have to travel long distances. The caveats? You are limited to 100 miles per day (dumb) and the vast majority of dealers do not participate in the program (dumber).

But you know what's even dumber? The dealer where I got my i3 participates in the program. But recently, I found out that while I was filling out paperwork to lease the i3, the dealer slipped in, unbeknownst to me, an application for a BMW credit card. When I received the card in the mail, I was pissed. Needless to say, I don't want to go back there.

So I have to drive to Nevada City in the i3. I am plotting out a route that would take me to DC Fast Chargers. These chargers are indeed fast. I found one that's only 1.3 miles from my office. It's free and will charge 80% of my battery in less than 30 minutes. I can catch up on email and voicemails in that time.

Young me as a farmer

Now here is a good story.

I was raised by 19th century Mandarins. Specifically, I was raised by my maternal grandparents, who were born in 1900 and 1911. My grandfather came from a well-to-do background. Manual labor was foreign to him. He spent his childhood reciting ancient poems and practicing calligraphy. My grandmother was never taught how to read or write. And her feet were partially bound.

Hilarity ensued when they raise a grandchild in the late 1970s. Progressive and forward-thinking they were not. I was discouraged from playing outside or even to sweat. And even though we lived in Taiwan, speaking Taiwanese was strictly forbidden.

So one day, some family friends thought-- Wouldn't it be funny if they took me to a farm for a week?

On the first day, I encountered mud. I didn't know what it was, except it looked like wet dirt. I took a step and was ankle deep in it. The result can be seen in this photo, which I recently uncovered.

On that trip, I was also introduced to thousand year old eggs. I found them revolting then, but now I love them.

Buying Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars

Whenever I am at a drug store, I go to the toy section to look at what die cast cars are available. So far, I have been disappointed. I guess Matchbox and Hot Wheels are owned by the same people now. I don't like most of the models and when I see a model I like, I don't like the color scheme.

Where locally can I find a better/larger selection? And is there anywhere in the Bay Area that sells Tomicas?

But then again. Should I be pushing my taste/preferences on the boy? Or should he, when he is old enough, pick the cars he likes?

These multi-packs seem very popular.

I like the SP2 a lot, but I don't like the racing livery.

Again, cool car, but I don't like the colors. Also, what a drab package.

Now if I saw this 6x6 at CVS, I'd get it!

Andre the Giant flying out of 1980s Japan

OBEY.

BMW E1, BMW's first electric car

Matteo the car designer was at the BMW museum today and this tweet caught my attention.

The oh-so-90s green interior of the #BMW E1 EV prototype from 1991 #BMW #cool pic.twitter.com/FloN6NEpOm

— Matteo (@Roadster_Life) April 15, 2017

I learned that the E1:

• debuted at the 1991 Frankfurt Motor Show
• developed by BMW's Technik division
• 93 mile range
• 43 hp
• aluminum chassis, plastic body panels
• first prototype caught fire and burned to ground

Follow this car designer on Twitter

Watching this Mazda ad on TV last night reminded me to remind you to follow Matteo on Twitter.

Matteo is an Italian car designer who currently teaches in Barcelona. I don't know how I found him. Perhaps via Sanchez? I really dig Matteo's brief observations and posts about current and past car designs. 

Largest non-nuclear bomb dropped in Afghanistan

Remember when the History Channel showed informative documentaries instead of pieces on vampires and Dan Brown novels?

And here it is in action.

Citroen XM/SM mash-up

Is this Photoshopped? Or real?

citroen xm coupe pic.twitter.com/IvAN7bIq0R

— Autonostalgy (@dennylopino) April 13, 2017

Standby, folks

Having a week-old baby takes a lot out of you! Who knew?!

I've got several post ideas. I just need free time. I have an interview with a Range Rover/Land Rover nut. I have interviews regarding Lima and Cartagena with Ramon. I am going to write about why I am pissed off at my local BMW dealer (they applied for a credit card I never authorized). I am planning an out-of-range trip to the mountains in my i3. Etc., etc., etc.

Maybe I'll have time this weekend. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Weapons by Canadian province

Now that Texas will have an official "state gun", these are the Canadian weapons of choice.

Japanese ketchup/mustard packet

1950s lawn mower with air conditioning

Tamerlane Jr has arrived!

A new chapter begins!

US/Canada at same latitude as Europe

Baby Driver trailer

I can't tell if this is going to be great or awful.

Phaeton drawing coming along!

#workinprogress: Probably the last #VW design from me, because they get constantly pulled by #volkswagen  for legal issues. Obviously they not only want their diesels back. | #monkeycrisisonmars #vwphaeton #vdub #vwlove #vdublove #w12 #phaeton #wip #carart #automotiveart #cardrawing #carsketch #pencilsketch #rotring

A post shared by Tom Mayer | Automotive Art (@monkeycrisisonmars) on Apr 4, 2017 at 7:15pm PDT

Brake light activation on the i3

The i3 regenerates aggressively. As soon as I let my foot off the gas pedal, it slows forcefully. If I time it right, I can get around town without ever using the brake pedal. But paranoid-me thought: Can people behind me tell if I'm slowing down quickly? The answer is yes. The brake lights sometimes go on even when I don't have my foot on the brake pedal.

Top cars used in movies

Bugatti Chiron

A friend shared this Nat Geo documentary about the Chiron and I'm now totally fascinated.

And here's SaabKyle04's video. Lots of trivia. Funny that the TPMS light is on.