Its all about fruits now in Azerbaijan...part II

Since its all about fruits now in Azerbaijan this also implies that season of "mürəbbə" is officially open. I have mentioned "mürəbbə" ealier on this blog here. It is a sweet preserve to be served with tea but its not a jam...this preserve is not jammed; fruits stay whole and "undamaged". Well prepared mürəbbə should keep the colour and flavour as much as possible and convey the special taste of THE fruit. Well my post is not really devoted to mürəbbə today. Those of you who is interested in Azeri cuisine please visit Farida's Cookbook here.

Yesterday I popped in to bazaar where I bought some fruits and took below photo. I only had my four year old son with me who is too young to help me with load and bargaining :).

I am all for equal rights and woman emancipation if you wish but I kind of still expect men to offer help to carry heavy bags and open the doors for ladies. Fortunately this is still the case in Azerbaijan (mostly:) and few women would get offended at extra attention they usually get. There is of course that fine border when being extra polite to women can become extra familiar and this is something to be handled...But...when I was offered help yesterday and my hesitant offer of tip was interpreted as offence and old man at parking said couple of kind wishes/praises in addition to thanking for the coins he received (his usual habit:) I kind of felt good and thought to myself that being a gentleman never harms and does not belittle any man or woman. In modern life when all rights and obligations have mixed up and men and women work shoulder to shoulder I am not sure if hierarchy etiquette allows men to stay gentlemen and women feminine. Well personally I hope that men would continue to be confident/strong enough to stay gentlemen and women confident/comfortable enough to stay feminine. These are the thoughts I wanted to share with you today...:) 

Be well :)