By David Mac Dougall

One of the most wonderful things in Iraq is their bread. I admit, I’m a carboholic. There’s two main types. One is called “samoon.” It’s shaped like a football, thick and soft and doughy. The snag with samoon is, it’s only good hot. Once it goes cold it tastes like cardboard. Many people like to cut the samoon open and fill it with cheese or vegetables or meat (it’s hollow inside, like a pita pocket).

The other type of bread is called “khoboz”. It’s flat un-leven bread (like a giant Mexican tortilla or Greek gyro). This type of bread is good spread with humous, piled with grilled chicken and sweet purple onions, then rolled up.

The samoon bread is baked in a kiln. The baker puts a row of un-baked dough onto a long thing paddle… which he slides into the oven (which looks sort of like a pizza oven). The khoboz bread is baked in a traditional tanoor oven - slapped on the side, it’s super heated and very soft when it comes out.

Here’s some video of two women bakers in our neighborhood: they bake khoboz bread, wholemeal and rustic. It’s delicious, and we buy some every day.

Here’s another video of bakers in Mosul & Baghdad baking khoboz and samoon, so you can see the process.

By David Mac Dougall

Iraqis are feeling the squeeze of food price rises which affect consumers all round the world. This week, we got local camera crews to shoot video and interview people in two different cities: Mosul in the north, and Karbala in the south.

So often the video you see on TV from Iraq is gray and not very colorful: whether it’s buildings, or military uniforms or the aftermath of some terrible bomb attack. However, the video from the markets is lively and colorful, and hopefully shows you how much vibrant life there is here.

Something I didn’t get the chance to mention in my story for TV: each Iraqi gets monthly rations from the Government. Since so many millions of people here live in poverty, they receive essentials like cooking oil, flour, powdered milk, beans and rice. Unfortunately, since January, the Government has only been able to provide a few items from the list (bars of soap, washing powder, rice & sugar) and so people have to buy more with their incomes. One thing that’s going up in price: cooking oil.

I’m told that’s because the cheapest vegetables are the ones Iraqis like to deep fry (eggplant and potatoes) and since they’re buying more of the cheapest food, they need more vegetable oil to cook with.

By Malini Bawa

Sadr City just LOOKS like a rough place.  You see piles of rubble and trash everywhere.  But once in awhile you drive down a street where the shops are open, and people are walking around normally.

Soldiers from the 1-68 Silver Lions say they’ve seen daily combat in Sadr City since a Shiite uprising began last month.  They’ve been attacked by gunfire, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and the deadliest type of roadside bombs known as EFP’s.

By Malini Bawa

During my embed in Sadr City, I ran into several K-9 teams.

The first dog I saw was a fellow passenger riding in a Blackhawk helicopter.

When I reached COP Callahan at the edge of Sadr City, I talked to several K-9 handlers.  They told me the dogs are mainly used to sniff for explosives.  But most of the K-9’s are also trained to chase down suspects and hold them at bay.

In Iraq and other Muslim cultures, dogs are considered unclean, and many Iraqis are terrified of them.

By Malini Bawa

I spent part of last week at COP Callahan, a small U.S. Army outpost on the edge of Sadr City, home to the 1-68 Silver Lions.

They set up shop in an abandoned shopping mall, with chipped marble staircases and crumbling escalators.

It’s not all rubble and ruins. The areas where the soldiers live and work are fairly clean and comfortable. But they’re definitely roughing it, compared to the relative luxury of life on a large base.

“I’m Jonathon Cote, I’m from Buffalo, New York, I’m being treated well. I can’t be released until the prisoners from the American jails and the British jails are released”