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