Efes Beer Cafe, Nohadra, Duhok. December 2018
Culturally appropriate bar snacks and bootleg whisky
Efes Beer Cafe in Nohadra - a lot of good memories were made there. That place reminded me of something forgotten since my Japan years: bar snacks are often determined by culture. I love to sit at a bar, snack a bit, and have a few drinks. I may have learned more in my time overseas doing that than I did at any of my official jobs. I remember the bar district of Sendai, Japan - "Kokubuncho" - and countless evenings with colleagues, friends, and students drinking cheap whisky and eating a wide array of "strange" foods. That was my early 20's self, so I was a lot more open to everything. Edamame, yes! Shiokara (fermented squid guts) -no! Eventually I came back to the USA and "remembered" that bar snacks were little savory bits of familiar food like peanuts, pretzels, or chicken wings.
When I next lived abroad, it was in SE Asia where bar snacks are all "neo-colonial" - read: same as they are in the USA. Thank you UK, Netherlands, and France! No complaints, I liked it, but those experiences only helped to bury the memory of all that weird shit I ate in Kokubuncho years before. Fast forward to the Middle East - in the Saudi years, I often drank in Dubai which caters to vacationing Westerners. Bar snacks in Dubai are, of course, "familiar". By that time, I had completely forgotten that tidbits taken with alcohol CAN be something more. Kokubuncho no otsumami mo wasureta.
I moved to Duhok, Iraq. My first experience at a bar was the five-star Rixos Hotel which served international bar snacks, no surprises. Then I went to Efes Beer Cafe and I noticed people eating small plates of beans or raw vegetables with their whisky. I will not lie. My reaction was "ew". My beer days having been largely left behind, I was drinking whisky, so I did need something to nosh on. Nothing else available, I became a convert to beans, carrots, and cucumbers. In fact, with the exception of Rixos, all the bars in Duhok served up the same snacks. Did I get used to it? Sure. Did I ever actually like it? No. Gomen, Kokubuncho. maitta na.
This leads me to another crucial element of drinking in Iraq, the whisky. The HUGE market in bootleg alcohol (actually, in many products) is inescapable. After the war, Iraq became totally dependent on imports, mostly from Turkey or Iran. Quite literally off-the-grid factories producing knock off cheap whisky sold as "the real thing" churn out their illicit products to turn a quick dinar and to put name brands in reach of people without much money. After I became close with WMF, the bartender at Efes, he would tell me which drinks were: 100% sure to be original, 50% sure, and for sure fake. The fake stuff not only tasted odd, it would give a massive headache the next day. It became a game at the bars I frequented. If I spend a LOT of money on top shelf drinks, they would be original. If I rolled the dice in the mid-range, I might get something original too. (I mostly rolled the dice.) Johnny Walker Red - almost always fake; Johnny Walker Black - 50/50; Johnny Walker Gold - for sure the real deal. Of course, safety also existed in drinking the liquors the locals rarely touched. If there was no market, the bootleggers didn't make it. If I found tonic water in a bar, gin and tonic would be "safe" with even the cheapest gin. Humorously, finding tonic became my "holy grail" the whole time I lived in Duhok - popping up at a place for a short time and then disappearing again. I even occasionally bought tonic overseas and brought it with me to Efes!
I had come full circle in about 40 years - from eating challenging bar snacks in Sendai to eating non-traditional ones in Iraq. That was an awfully long journey just to realize I really DO like peanuts with alcohol.