Friday, March 21, 2008

Loving funky foods

So I'm loving eating all the American foods that got the nose crinkle in Albania...things like sweet meat (that includes BBQ, ketchup, anything sweet that we don't even realize is sweet), a little bit of salt in our sweet cookies (I tried explaining that we use it to activate the rising agents, but the response was "They were good, but make them without salt next time."), french toast and pancakes that are not deep fried or eaten with salty, sour cheese, and hamburgers that do not have cucumbers or yogurt sauce on them. Some of the food there was quite a challenge for me, especially since they eat "salad" daily that consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, olive oil and some salt. Anyone who knows me at all knows my avid appreciation for tomatoes. And then there was all the sour yogurts, cheeses, and something that resembled cottage cheese, but it was sourer and drier. Things that are not available in Albania include: brown sugar, peanut butter, chocolate chips, caramel, maple syrup, salsa, only three kinds of cheese (only one kind that melts), McDonald's!, fountain pop, free refills, and until recently cheddar cheese, pecans, and limes. There are probably more that I can't recall at the moment, so I'll have to update the list later. But there are some foods that I do miss from Albania...like sufllaqe (a pita with rotisserie chicken or pork, french fries, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and yogurt) and byrek (phillo dough with an assortment of fillings (the cottage cheese stuff mentioned eariler, meet and onion, spinach, or tomato and onion. Very flavorful.

2 comments:

-- said...

Hi. Nice Blog.

Krystal Zollinger said...

So glad you are back to blogging! We miss hearing your stories no matter where you are!