Sunday, April 12, 2015

Wasta? Me No Wasta!

In casual terms, wasta translates into influence. It's a little more complicated than that though, isn't it my Salalah peeps? (Peeps is my cool hipster word for people).Wasta is one of the first words I learned after arriving in our fair city, so I did a little research. People said it worked out as a "who you know" kind of thing, where jobs and contracts and favors boil down to well...who you know.

I thought what the heck is so different about that? The whole dang world operates by "who you know" whether we want to recognize it or not! Right! Right?

So what is different, if anything, about Vitamin W? Wasta is supposed to be an honorable process. Tribes and families in the midst of a blood feud (back in the old days of course..heaven knows there are no blood feuds now between tribes) could name intermediaries to negotiate a peaceful solution. It wasn't supposed to be about who had bigger guns, or more money. It was a system of mutual respect, or so the history books say. Did you know the root of the word in Arabic, w-s-T, means "middle'"? Kind of gives you a warm fuzzy glow about wasta now eh. Yeah baby. I feel it. It was also used by one family to approach another in order to arrange marriages. Nice right? One thing the wasta gained by using his  influence, along with prestige and honor, was favors. Nothing in this world is free my friends.

I remember joking with a few students back along about MY wasta over in Amerika. I told a story about how my younger daughter was followed by a copper for quite a while as she toodled around town (at 1 in the morning mind). She went into a convenience store and the police officer was waiting for her outside.  As it turns out, he was a former student of mine, and she knew it. She said hello, and "I'm Felicia's daughter." He nodded politely (he was always a good kid), told her say hello to your mother, and drove away. Wasta baby. Who's your daddy!

There are those who know far more about this than I, and who will tell you it is a pernicious evil in the Middle East, keeping Arab countries from truly progressing. I couldn't say. As one article pointed out, even though wasta is pervasive here, very little has been done to study and understand it. I think those who live here grasp it intuitively. I hope it goes away. I do. I don't think it's healthy, speaking from my loftly pillar of ignorance.



For the cake, I made something I normally consider a little trashy. I made a funfetti style box cake into a "poke" cake. 


I'm not going to copy all the directions for this cake, because everything comes from a box or a packet. For some of you this is a big heck ya, others not so much. 

1 box mix yellow cake (I used funfetti cause sometimes it's that kind of day)

2 small boxes banana pudding mix

4 ripe bananas

2 cups whipping cream (if you like loads of whipped cream use 3 cups)

1/4 cup sugar

crushed vanilla wafers for topping (not my thing)

Bake the cake according to the directions. While the cake is still warm, poke holes in it. 

Prepare the pudding according to the directions. Pour the pudding over the cake. 

Cool cake completely. Slice bananas onto the top of the pudding. 

Add the sugar to the cream and whip on high until soft folds form. Do not overbeat.

Spoon and smooth over the layer of bananas. 

Sprinkle it all with crushed cookies if you like. I think they are gross.


Her cake. It's really easy to make. 


My cake. I heard it was yummy. I am still not eating sugar and flour so how would I know?


This is why I don't use box cakes hardly never. They are too soft. 

I haven't done a post, or a cake, for ages. Sorry about that. It's just been too hard to make one and not eat any of it. It's been almost a month though since starting this bloody regime, so I feel a bit more solid. I think more cakes will come, and thus more riveting blog posts. I'm also going to try my version of Tunisian spring rolls, so keep yer eyes peeled. 

Love,

Felicia El Aid





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