SPA farewell #2 and Iron Chef Addis #3

All right, another week / another work Saturday broken up with a blog post. I also need to try to make it to the giant market here, so this will be (somewhat) brief.

SPA farewell #2 happened on Thursday (April 4). Frances Low has been the SPA for the Soils Program here and then for the Fertilizer Blending Plants Project. ATA is helping 4 cooperative unions to build fertilizer blending plants in country. This way, once we finish our extensive soil mapping activities this year, the plants can import/domestically buy raw materials and create customized fertilizers for each area based on soil needs and crop being grown. My new roommate Fabio is replacing here on this project. The fertilizer blending plants and the EthioSIS soil mapping are definitely two of the super cool things being done at ATA.

Frances has been here about 6 months. She was at Bain before in Chicago and is going back there after a couple weeks of travel. This may be the last departure at least for a month or two.

Frances receiving a farewell present during the roof farewell party. The Director for Soil is Sam Gameda, who is on the far left in the blue and white striped shirt. Hezekiel Tasse is the Program Manager for EthioSIS soil mapping and fertilizer blending plants and is just to the left of Frances in the first picture and just to her right in the next two. Sam gave a very heartfelt speech about Frances and all her contributions.

Frances talked about ATA and how it stands apart as an organization that pushes to really get stuff done.

On Friday (April 5), I went to the third rendition of Iron Chef Addis put on by the SPA community (plus other friends). Major props go to Sarah Hewitt (SPA for Gender) for putting this all together.

As someone who has spent way (read: way, way, way, way, way) too much time watching the Food Network, it’s pretty awesome. This is the second I’ve been to since I got here. Eric Couper (SPA for EthioSIS soil mapping project and ICT – Information and Communications Technology) is the reigning champ from the first two iron chefs (they do things here based on the pickup basketball premise of winner gets to keep playing), and he was challenged by Iris Shim (SPA for Maize). They get intense about this here (see the trash talking email below sent out by Nadia, who was one of Iris’ sous chefs), which I think is great. This was even more prevalent this time as Iris used Sid and Nadia (her roommates) for her sous chefs. Since Sid lost to Eric in Iron Chef #2 – Battle Pineapple, Iris and her squad were out for blood.

As usual, I was intrigued by the competition aspect, enjoyed watching, had no idea what people were cooking (as you’ll see from my lack of descriptions below), and didn’t eat any of it.

There is one more ingredient to my description of this event…our secret ingredient…the theme on which our chefs will offer their succulent variations. Friday’s secret ingredient was…(wait for it – yes, that’s a How I Met Your Mother Reference in the middle of a long Iron Chef America reference)…HONEY! So now Addis, with an open heart and an empty stomach, I say unto you in the words of some Japanese actor’s kind-of uncle: “Allez cuisine!”

Pre-battle trash talk from Nadia (in email form…what a consultant):

Subject: which of these is not like the other?

Yeah, I went there. IRON CHEF ADDIS: rise of the underdog/return of the asian victor.

Nadia Viswanath

Sarah Hewitt - Addis Iron Chef Chairwoman

The venue - this was held at Catherine, Elise, and Nicky's house. It's really nice. I think this might be the nicest kitchen I've seen in all of Addis.

First course - appetizer. I did warn you that I wouldn't be able to describe the food. Iris made something with a pepper. I don't remember what Eric made. It was supposed to look like a fish though there was no fish in it (what's the opposite of meta?).

Second course - entree. Iris made something with seaweed and rice. Eric made something with a biscuit (I did eat a couple of those) and some kind of peanut / sugar snap pea salad (which obviously also had something purple in it) that everyone seemed to really like.

Third course - dessert. Sadly the ice cream maker was no where to be found, so no protein based ice creams :( Iris made a peach cobbler and some kind of cocktail. Eric made some kind of sorbet-type thing (though it didn't freeze right) with chocolate and honey.

Rachel playing the part of Jeffrey Steininger (one of the usual Iron Chef America judges). While everyone fills in a score to determine the winner, Rachel provides the searing commentary.

In the end, judgment declared Iris (with sous chefs Nadia and Sid) victorious over Eric (with sous chefs Alli and Elise). Clearly Iris was excited :)

Realizing I had too many pictures of food I didn't know anything about and not enough pictures of people, so below are pictures with lots of people in them.

Eric on far left (from behind). Nadia in black. Sid in the middle. Renee in gray. I think that's Stephane and Iris on the right but hard to tell from this angle.

From left to right, Darshan, Rachel, Eric, Alli, Nadia, Renee, Roxy.

From left to right, Nadia, Sid, and Renee.

Nicky in pink, and Sid serving as barkeep.

Sarah keeping track of time close in on the left. Then going right - Barry, Caitlin, Elise, Catherine, Stephane, Darshan, Rachel, and Eric.

Eric - the two-time champ.

Terrible picture, but the guy in the blue shirt is Angeles (who had the birthday party at the US Embassy a few weeks back).

Nadia and Iris.

In a stunning turn of events, Rachel (who is engaged to Eric) immediately challenged Iris in a grudge match. Clearly, Iron Chef Addis #4 will be a barn burner.

I was going to post more pictures of the awesome weekend that was March 14-17, but I've already taken too long on this, so look out for them soon.