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An expat gourmet in Abu Dhabi

10/31/2016

I learned to cook while growing up in Houston with five younger siblings. (That's me on the back right, next to Daddy.) Mother Joy always had things for me to do.

The advantage of shopping in the UAE is that the country's central location enables stores to get a wide variety of products from Europe, Asia and Africa. Here is a selection of imported cheeses.

Our neighborhood grocery, Spinney's, has a 'pork room' for non-Muslims only.

The checkout counter at Spinney's in Khalifa City.

ABU DHABI -- I love to cook. It's something I've done for a long time.

From early on, as the oldest child of six, I was taught to cook by my incredible mother. Growing up in Houston, I was required to do a lot of home-making and my jobs went beyond cooking. At four years old and with an infant brother, I had to sit on the steps and fold his diapers.

Mother Joy was quite particular, and the diapers had to be folded neatly, after being taken out of the clean laundry basket. The diapers were not to touch the ground and end up folded and laid neatly into the diaper basket.

At age 10 - fifth grade - I walked the five blocks home each day from my Spring Branch, Houston, elementary school, come in by the back door to the kitchen, and go straight to the refrigerator.

On that fridge was Mother Joy’s list for me of what to do for dinner that evening. While cooking, I could hear the piano students playing and being instructed by my mother in the living room.

There in the kitchen, I encountered such instructions as, “1. peel and cut potatoes and put into fresh water in pot,’ and so on. (Almost every evening included “spuds” - my father loved them.) There were always instructions for an entree (chicken, beef, pork or fish), potatoes, a salad and a vegetable. Many evenings there was a dessert - tapioca pudding, Jello, or other sweet.

I learned to cook quite well because Joy was an outstanding teacher and I a willing and fascinated pupil. Oh yes, there were some evenings I did not want to cook, but it didn’t matter, because I was the oldest of the children. As much as I would have liked to go outside to play on the patio, dinner preparation was first.

In Abu Dhabi we have a wonderful grocery store called Spinney’s. It is quite a treat for me, as the ingredients I want to make my delectable and delicious dishes are available..

Today, Claude and I usually have an entree and perhaps one side for dinner, and no potatoes. (Too starchy). I have gotten pretty good at this cooking business. It was rather a miracle. Well, ok, my childhood gave me a great base, and then in dental school when there was not money to eat out, even fast food, I subscribed to Bon Appetit magazine and spent each month cooking many of the recipes in each issue.

With all that practice, I learned how ingredients tasted and acted, and what combinations seemed to please our palates. The miracle? - the little girl who wanted to play outside quicker than she got to, became a dental student who wanted to eat out more than she got to, and then somewhere along the way my cooking just came along. Now we don’t want to eat out a lot because the food is great at home.

I delight in walking the aisles of Spinney’s, choosing the goodies for our meal preparation, diverse, and pleasing, from many countries. There are peaches right now from South Africa, Greengage plums (fantastic little fruits!) from Spain, a choice of 15 to 20 different balsamic vinegars, Cassoulet beans from France made with duck confit, clotted cream from Great Britain, sausages from Austria and Germany, all sorts of cheeses from all over Europe and farther, roasted red peppers from Macedonia, coffee from Ethiopia, Italy and many others and on and on. When I am home in East Texas, Kroger seems rather tame in comparison.

The Spinney's pork room is a particular delight. I never realized how much I love to cook with pork until I went without it here in the UAE, before discovering the pork room at Spinney’s -- for non-Muslims only, of course. Last night Claude and I enjoyed our salad, prepared by roasting sliced onions in the bacon fat after the bacon had been lifted out, and then adding the romaine and arugula to wilt just enough. In the middle of the plate was a nice large spoonful of crunchy bacon bits, chopped roasted red peppers, surrounded by the wilted greens, all sprinkled with a squeeze or two of lemon juice.

The attention to detail so important in dentistry and in orthodontics sure pays off when preparing a fabulous meal. I’m off to see about dinner for tonight.

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Learning about gahwa in Abu Dhabi

10/26/2016

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At Heritage Village in Abu Dhabi, craftsmen create beautiful handmade Arab coffee pots.

The gahwa pot is a symbol of hospitality. It's even depicted on the UAE's 1-dirham coin.

A traditional Arab pot for gahwa displayed in an Abu Dhabi home. In the old days, gahwa pots were placed on hot coals to brew this coffee.

By Claude E. Hammond
(guest blogger, Dr Chris' husband)

This morning it was time to get a new ibrik, or Turkish coffee pot — one of those handled small pots used to create fiercely strong little cups of exquisite coffee. Here in Abu Dhabi, there are plenty of stores where you can buy a factory-made ibrik. But this is the Middle East. Coffee — gahwa in Arabic — was discovered here.

This calls for buying an authentic, hand-made ibrik. We already have a pot for gahwa.

We get our traditional Arab coffee pots made for us by Mohammed, the coppersmith who works at Heritage Village, a cultural attraction found just across the bay from downtown Abu Dhabi, near the National Theatre.

If you should ever be privileged to attend a function at one of the sheikhs’ palaces in Abu Dhabi, there’s a strong possibility Mohammed the coppersmith made the gahwa pots used there. His handiwork is well-known. It was a short drive from Abu Dhabi’s Khalidiyah area, so I went there before work. He made the perfect ibrik and I bought it. Muhammed made both our traditional coffee vessels.

To Arabs, gahwa represents hospitality and Emiratis are famous for being hospitable. This is a very nice thing for us gahwa-lovers. Gahwa pots are even shown on the front of the United Arab Emirates’ one-dirham coin.

Traditional gahwa consists of ground coffee from lightly-roasted beans, mixed with ground cardamom and cloves. The old-fashioned way of brewing gahwa was to sit a large brass or copper gahwa pot on hot coals brewing a mixture of grounds and water to make this delicious beverage. When you visit a traditional Gulf Arab home, business, or hotel, you are often greeted with a small cup of gahwa and a plate of dates.

Gahwa’s northern cousin is Turkish coffee. Turkish coffee is finely-ground dark-roasted beans with no spices mixed in. It’s a different beverage altogether.

Coffee is addictive. The dates you are served in the UAE can be just as addictive. They come in a wide variety of sizes, tastes and colors. Some dates are stuffed with pistachios or candied orange peel. Some have an explosion of flavor that closely resembles caramel while other dates can taste like honey. Dates are usually not pitted, so expect to find a hard seed within when biting one.

In the Middle East, there are two rules of etiquette to follow when you are offered gahwa and dates. Your host will likely assume you want a refill of gahwa. When you’re finished drinking gahwa, hold out your cup and shake it a little. It’s a gracious way of saying “I’ve had enough.”

Secondly, when you eat dates, only take an odd number of them… one, three, five, and so on. It’s bad manners to eat an even number of dates.

Modern science shows that dates are a rich source of potassium. Their natural sugars give energy and are healthier than processed factory-made sweeteners. An old Bedu once told me that all he needed in order to work all day was nine dates for breakfast with gahwa.

I can’t argue with that. We enjoy our new coffee pots.

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Peace be unto you...

10/24/2016

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Peace be unto you...

Where do you find peace? We all yearn for peace - peace of mind, peace in our family, peace in our community, and peace in our world.

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
~ Mother Teresa

From the moment you awaken in the morning, to the moment you close your eyes to sleep at night, you can find peace in your gratitude.

Gratitude brings you to peace.

Feel gratitude for everything that makes your heart sing. As gratitude washes over you, peace follows.

The reason gratitude is so powerful is that you cannot feel rancor when you are feeling grateful. If you are worrying, you are not being grateful.

“If you are criticizing, you are not being grateful. If you are blaming, you are not being grateful. If you are complaining, you are not being grateful.“
~ Rhonda Byrne

Shift to keeping gratitude forefront in your mind. Ask the folks around you to remind you of gratitude. (They will benefit greatly as well.)

“There can never be peace between nations until there is first peace within the souls of men.”
~ Black Elk

“If you let go a little you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace.”
~ Ajahn Cha

“Imagine all the people, living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. “
~ John Lennon

Let us dream, feel gratitude and love each other.

Peace be unto you.

In love,

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The Art of Orthodontics

10/22/2016

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Before: "Art in process." Molly in mixed dentition with orthodontic treatment begun.

After: "The finished work." Molly as a student at Texas A&M University (besides the fabulous smile, note the Corps of Cadets uniform).

Art ~ Expressing the author's imaginative or technical skill, producing works that are beautiful, to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

What could be more beautiful than the gorgeous smile of someone you love?

Think of the emotional power that smile has!

Orthodontics is art in the truest sense. I love the definition above, “expressing the author’s imaginative or technical skill.” The author is the orthodontist.

The imaginative skill makes it possible to visualize the beautiful smile that hides behind the “wonky” teeth and bite.

Without a mind picture of what the smile could be, there is no goal. The big, bold goal of orthodontics is the most gorgeous smile possible. And, the technical skill used is the engineering!

So, once again, love and orthodontics. Without love there is no impetus for the imaginative picture of what the smile can be, and thus, they weave together, using the energy, motivation, and desire of the patient and of the orthodontist.

In the end, the art is beautiful and appreciated every time your smile is shared. Sharing your smile has been shown to reduce stress hormones - yours and theirs, increase health - yours and theirs, and enhance the mood hormones - yours and theirs!

Your smile shared, lowers your blood pressure, AND the blood pressure of the people who see your smile.

Talk about powerful and life-changing emotional power - a fabulous form of art!

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The Engineering of Orthodontics

10/21/2016

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Use of electronic games, phones, computers and pad computers can train children to poor posture and forward head position.

Open-mouth posture in a child (probable airway issues).

Adenoid Facies

Low tongue position caused malformation of face and a Class III bite.

A severe open bite, resulting from forward tongue position.

Effects of thumb-sucking on a patient's bite.

Orthodontics is a blend of engineering and art. Engineering - design and mechanics - includes
• architecture (the plan),
• physics (movement),
• chemistry (body physiology),
• ongoing changes in the smile, and
• work to stabilize the results in a dynamic (changing) human body.

How does the body change?

I tell the kids, “The toe bone is connected to the tooth bone,” like the old song. Indeed, the teeth, the bone around the teeth, the muscles and ligaments attached to the teeth, bone and joints, are connected to the muscles that hold and move our heads. They are also connected to the muscles and bones of the neck which are connected to the muscles and bones of the back, and the shoulders and arms and the hips, and the legs, down to the toes.

Each part of the body affects the rest of the body. That's the reality of it.

When a tooth is biting or chewing, ALL those connections are in play. Really. Then, we think about moving teeth orthodontically and “fixing” them. But, the teeth are moving targets, like shooting a Nerf dart toward a slowly shifting target.

Wouldn’t it be nice if braces could put teeth into a nice smile and bite and you’d be done? It doesn’t work that way.

Even without braces, everything constantly changes under and around the teeth. Baby teeth go, permanent teeth come. Bones grow. Muscles respond.

And, then other stuff is going on in the mouth - chewing, biting, grinding, clenching, nail-biting, sucking habits, chewing on pens… These all create forces on the teeth.

The tongue, cheeks and lips should balance each other with the tongue inside and the cheeks and lips outside, so the teeth sit comfortably between. Often they don’t.

For example:

Conley breathes through his mouth - a lot. Mouth open and the tongue pushing forward and down, so the lower jaw grows down.

Agnes is a mouth-breather too - her tongue pushes forward against her front teeth and jaw which grow more forward into a Class III.

And Andre’s thumb habit keeps his tongue low and allows his cheeks to push in on the upper jaw. So, his maxilla is too narrow, and he needs expansion.

Robbie slumps forward to play on his phone or iPad. Robbie’s back neck muscles are pulled longer and as his head becomes used to that posture, the bones grow to where the muscles are pulling.

After a few brief years of this in his young life, Robbie’s head and neck now droop forward. His teeth now bite differently (not in a good bite), than they would if his posture were more ideal.

Before, during and after braces, the teeth and smile live with amazing ongoing forces, from every direction.

But, while in braces, it is up to our engineering to work with, and “on”, and in spite of, these forces, to “fix” the teeth. The engineering of orthodontics.

Tomorrow -- the art of orthodontics.

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Why blog about Love and Orthodontics?

10/20/2016

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ABU DHABI -- It occurred to me today in the clinic that it is truly “love and orthodontics.”

There is nothing more joy-making than the beautiful smiles of the children and teenagers that I treat.

Oh, maybe there is - the incredibly wonderful connections with the children and their parents. It’s the happy grin of the bashful little Maryam I see as I approach her sitting in the corner of the reception room couch, drawing on paper. She won’t quite look up - she just grins and keeps drawing - until I am standing right there, and insist on getting a hug. Now the grin broadly covers her face and she stands and gives me a long, affectionate and happy hug.

Here in Abu Dhabi a medical (dental) office is called a “clinic.” Our clinic is the Advanced American Dental Center. What I do there is love and orthodontics.

One of the dads today said, “You know you are famous?” I thought for a minute, and realized, and said, “I do love being famous with the children.” Indeed. Famous because so many schoolmates see each other there at the clinic. (It’s fun how, to children, their teachers and dentists are “famous.”)

I regale Claude every night with stories of my day. And he patiently and interestedly listens. Oh do I have the best husband!

Tonight Claude and I walked down the steps of the clinic toward our white Honda CRV. Claude had parked it right at the clinic entrance.

I was anxious to tell Claude about Natalie’s mom offering to give me her daughter. But, our attention was taken by a calico Arabian Mau cat, walking from under our car, pausing to notice us, and our pausing to notice her.

Natalie and I had a talk about how and where to brush her teeth more effectively, and how the reason her retainer doesn’t fit now is inadequate wear.

And her mom asked me, “Do you miss Molly a lot?”

“Of course I miss my sweet (daughter) Molly a lot.”

Natalie’s mom, smiling wryly, “So would you like to take Natalie home with you?”

Me; ”I would take her in a heartbeat; but then you would miss her.” Both of us smiled at each other and Natalie.

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We are all connected

10/17/2016

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I like to think of you - and me - and each person - as a drop of the great ocean of God.

A drop of that ocean has no awareness of the depth and breadth of the ocean. A drop of its moisture is barely noticeable, if at all. Yet, all the drops together make a cacophony as the waves of untold numbers of drops wash in as waves on the shore.

When we splatter a drop of water on the kitchen counter, that drop has not much power, or significance. But when that drop vaporizes into the atmosphere and rains back into the ocean, it is part of abundant power…amazing power.

We heal each other and together. We create love and share love. We walk together, powerful together.

“Remember you are all people and all people are you.” ~ Joy Harjo

“All things are connected like the blood that unites us. We do not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.”
~ Chief Seattle

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.”
~ Albert Einstein

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh?" he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?"
“Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh’s hand.
“I just wanted to be sure of you.”

“If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever.”
~ A. A. Milne

Forever, and ever, together,

In love,

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Dr Chris Baker

Dr. Chris Baker is Past President of the American Orthodontic Society, a pediatric dentist and teacher of orthodontics, An author, dental practice consultant, mentor, and a current or former faculty member of three U.S. dental schools, Dr Chris practices and blogs in beautiful Abu Dhabi, UAE, and glorious Texas, USA.

An expat gourmet in Abu Dhabi

﻿Learning about gahwa in Abu Dhabi

Peace be unto you...

The Art of Orthodontics

The Engineering of Orthodontics

Why blog about Love and Orthodontics?

We are all connected

Dr Chris Baker

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