Tell me have you ever experienced chronic hunger?
It is the month of Ramadan and I am fasting daily, but in all honesty I have not felt the feeling of chronic hunger. I have a substantial breakfast before dawn and break the fast at sundown with enough food to satisfy my family of five's appetite. Although I admit I may feel a bit peckish during the day sometimes but it seems to me that it is nothing compared to the real thing...
You see I am reading this book called "A small corner of hell, dispatches from Chechnya" written by a Russian journalist, Anna Politkovkaya, who documented the plight of refugees and people of Chechnya at the turn of this century. One account is of Khazimat Gambieva, a 51 year old woman whom she described is the first person she encounters that is swollen from hunger, an image she can't dispel from her memory . Khazimat is a grandmother who used to work as a nurse for twenty years but as a refugee fleeing from the atrocities of war, she gave most of the food that came her way to her eleven children and grandchildren, and now the disease dystrophy or chronic hunger has turned her in Politkovkaya own words, "into a living woodcut... Woodcuts , as everyone knows, are drawn in one color. Khazimat Gambieva, a withered old refugee with swollen joints and an inflated stomach, looks exactly that way-- as if she had been drawn in black and white , with her black wrinkles standing out on her parchmentlike skin. "
Politkovkaya goes on to explain that there isn't really enough food for everyone in the Chiri-Yurt settlement, as they only receive humanitarian aid called a '3 day ration' every couple of months. How could a person, let alone a family with 3 cans of evaporated milk and 1 can of processed meat each, survive for a couple of months at a time?
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4 comments:
that's a horrific description.
Makes you feel so blessed to be able to have iftar (and a little guilty as well).
by the way, I made your choc cake last night. I had to substitute blackberry jam with mixed fruit jam , and it was slightly sweeter than I would like it. DO you think I could subtitute with blended prunes? (masam2 manis and chocolatey.. mesti sedap)
Pastu are we supposed to wait for the chocolate buttercream to cool down before spreading it on the cake? Coz mine was like a little cair when hot and it like flowed everywhere.. .
Tapi sedap, walaupun sedikit manis.
eh eh teruk, kan? Post you about ppl with rationed food, and here I am talking about choc cake pulak.. :P
Elisa,
You can try prunes if you like as long as it doesn't overpower the chocolaty taste of a chocolate cake! I'm not sure why your cake tasted sweet as the ones I baked according to this recipe turned out moist and chocolaty. Perhaps you can compare notes with swahili as she also tried it , but I'm not sure which variation of jam she added though but she says guests liked it so much as to ask for seconds.
As for the chocolate buttercream, I think it is supposed to be poured that way, as when it is cooled down it will turn kinda solid and makes it difficult to administer. I suppose technically you have to wait til the cake cools down first before cooking the chocolate buttercream and spreading it on top with a butterknife.
Hope this helps. :)
what an interesting book. I want to scour for some russians poetry when i go home, will include this book too
I use Strawberry jam, self-made. only because it's calling for help & we dont fancy blackberry jam. mine wasnt sweet.
I usually frost my cake after it cooled down completely. Gateau has to be hot&thick, it will spread well that way.
Tq swahili for the tips.
Concerning the book, I have to say that the subject matter is very serious and depressing, and the fact that the acclaimed author was murdered in 2006 in the midst of her work documenting the atrocities in Chechnya makes it even more melancholy. I can only stagger through it even though it is only 200 pages....
Perhaps "The Angels of Grozny, Inside Chechnya( Orphans of a forgotten war)", by Asne Seierstad is much easier to read as it is written like a novel and is more up-to-date (published in English this year.)
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