azdak

Yesterday Hussein, who is a very sweet boy, announced that he would like to cook for us but that the only thing he knows how to cook is Afghan rice. I said in that case I'd make something to go on top, and so dinner was a team effort. It turns out Afghan rice is fantastic. It's longer and thinner than, say basmati rice, and Hussein cooks it with oil and lots of water and then drains it in a sieve, yet it's still light and fluffy. This may solve our cooking rice on Akka problem - so far we've had to use boil-in-a-bag rice, which of course involves unnecessary plastic waste, but the alternative has always been to have it burn at the bottom of the pan. Now all we have to do is lug 20kg of Afghan rice up to Sweden with us.

My mother has joined her street's What's App group and had her first delivery of food via a neighbour, so I am feeling much better about her. The group makes her feel less alone, and she's finally starting to take self-isolation seriously, although while we were on the phone, she said "Oh, I've got to go, one of my friends is at the door," leaving me screaming down the line "At least make sure you stand six feet away while you talk to her!" Then I sent her this compilation of Italian mayors yelling at people to obey lockdown (I have great sympathy for the person who wanted a mobile hairdresser to come round, next time I hear a global pandemic is on the cards, the very first thing I shall do is get my hair cut). Anyway, have some gloriously outraged (and one very calm) mayors: https://twitter.com/protectheflames/status/1241696164782669824?s=09