SUSTAINABILITY
LINKS
SMART STUFF

Time in Macedonia

Time in Aberdeen, Scotland

Time in Hudson, OH

Time in Chicago, IL

Time in Seattle, WA

Time in Fairbanks, AK

Time in the Philippines

Disclaimer: The comments on this page do not express the views of Peace Corps, the United States Government, or any other organizations named in these pages.

food glorious food
2009-02-10 � 1:17 p.m.

Warmest Greetings to my readers and happy belated 2009.

I am sorry for my long absence from the internets. I signed up for the internet on Tuesday December 23rd, which for you math nerds is 49 days ago. Customer service does not really seem to exist here. I call them every day. Constant vigilance as Mad Eye Moody would say.

Anyhow, I have been composing some entries for y�all in Word so I can do some quick posting while I have some internet access at my job site. I also have been keeping a semi-travel log via text messages, and the funny parts will be included in future entries.

Here is a list of the most notable food I was served to eat during my time here so far. Don�t forget, they do not drink anything with their meals here, only before and after, so washing things down with a beverage is generally impossible, and I have mostly spelled things phonetically:

  • Avar (pronounced ivar) � it is a dip like substance made with red peppers and eggplant that has been roasted and then blended together. You put it on bread like jam and it is delicious.

  • Macaroni � Spaghetti over cooked until it is an indistinguishable mush and then covered in copious amounts of ketchup and mayonnaise. An �al dente� texture and tomato sauce topping are frowned upon.

  • Alva � you know those green foam things people stick fake flowers into? It is like that but made from sugar and is sometimes great and sometimes not great. Sometimes it is eaten like cake and dessert and sometimes served in thick slices on a hoagie roll like a sandwich.

  • Mooshmula � a fruit here in Macedonia that tastes really sour and disgusting while it is green and so most people wait until it is rotten and suck out the rotten insides and spit out the giant hard seeds

  • Turi Tava � it is sort of like a pot roast and rice dish that is baked, extremely lovely, a personal favorite.

  • Salama � don�t get too excited, it is not salami, it is sort of like spam in a giant roll like ground beef, so lots of unidentified meat parts and chunks of interesting colored things.

  • Sarma � This is a cabbage leaf or grape leaf stuffed with ground meat or soya flakes and rice with some good spices, extremely lovely.

  • Cornmeal and Intestines and Giant Leaks� mix the corn flower with lard to give it a nice gritty texture like wet sand. Then eat chunks of it alternating bites with pig intestines and leaks over cooked together for hours that sort of taste like dirty socks.

  • Toast - this is like a fast food version of a panini sandwich, usually melty cheese, salama or ham or kielbasa and French fries all inside and usually covered in tons of ketchup, mayonnaise, red pepper, and oregano

  • Hamburger - sort of like ours but usually made with a pork patty instead so it is different. also served with French fries inside the bun and usually covered in tons of ketchup, mayonnaise, red pepper, and oregano

  • Bean soup - use about a whole bottle of sunflower oil as broth then cook onions and beans for many hours, generally bearable.

  • Cabbage and Pork soup - use about a whole bottle of sunflower oil as broth then cook onions, a slab of un-sliced bacon that still has some bones on it to add as crunchiness later and cook for many hours, bearable sometimes.

  • Cabbage and Intestine soup � use about a whole bottle of sunflower oil as broth then cook onions, cabbage and intestines for many hours, also sort of tastes like dirty socks.

  • Rice, Chicken, Spinach, and Yogurt � cook the rice and spinach in a casserole dish with the chicken on top. Then mix the rice with a lot of yogurt before eating. Very interesting.

  • Egg over hard and dill pickle sandwich � surprisingly delightful (served for breakfast)

  • Un-refrigerated mayonnaise salad � I saw them make it and put it in the cupboard for 3 days then serve it to me again. It is 80% mayonnaise, 15% salama, and 5% peas

  • Sandwich with un-refrigerated mayonnaise salad, sardines, and salama slices (served for breakfast)

  • Plate piled high with sardines that had been smashed up with a fork served with a whole onion (not sliced) and a whole lemon (served for breakfast)

  • Jemerkey � pieces of pork fat that have been deep fried to be crispy and visually resemble calamari and have a taste I can not really describe, generally not a huge fan

  • Sliced bread, sliced discs of raw giant leaks, a tub of lard, jemerkey, and avar � I was supposed to spread the lard over the bread like butter, cover it with leak discs, then with avar, and then jemerkey and eat it, instead I just spread the avar on the bread.

  • Stocklow - Candied figs - delightful

  • Pastramylea (Sveti Nikola) � pizza dough in elongated circle shape covered with sometimes mozzarella type cheeses sometime feta type cheeses and pork medallions and right before it is finished you crack an egg to cook on the top. Extremely excellent, a personal favorite.

  • Pastramylea (Kratovo) � pizza dough in elongated circle shape covered from crust to crust with bacon. Extremely excellent, also a personal favorite.

  • Urda � let milk fat curdle then pickle it in vinegar to create a gritty ricotta looking cheese type substance that tastes like poop smells.

  • Pizza � pizza dough covered in ketchup (they even sell something labeled �pizza ketchup�) with sometimes mozzarella type cheeses sometime feta type cheeses and various toppings from salama to olives.

  • Pita/Bonitza � this round pastry with about 1000 thin layers of pastry dough and you can fill it with various things like feta cheese, salama, spinach, urda, meat, onions. I am not a fan of urda and that is one of the most common fillings so I generally avoid it.

  • Mayonnaise, Canned meat paste, and Salama � picture a mayonnaise packet then picture it about the size of a postcard. Then get yourself some canned meat chicken paste. Slice the salama into 1/4inch slices, spread the meat paste over it and then cover it in mayonnaise. My host family was disappointed that I could not really eat very much of this and that I did not finish my giant mayonnaise packet in one sitting.

  • Cornmeal and Urda and kielbasa � mix the corn flower with lard to give it a nice gritty texture like wet sand then mix it with urda and eat it with a polish type sausage. Generally I just ate the kielbasa.

  • Compote � various fruits jarred in sugar water, apricots are the best

  • Cabbage juice � get a barrel, fill it up with about 10 green cabbages and 4 purple cabbages, water, and about 10 pounds of salt. Let it all rot in the barrel for about 5 weeks. Then grab a cup and fill it up with florescent pink liquid that tastes like salty laundry water.

  • Homemade apricot jam � delightful

  • Chicken gizzard � chicken livers cooked until rubbery and sliced up into bite sized pieces. I only ate a tiny piece once.

  • Crap � yes, it is pronounced crap � it is actually a giant river carp and usually it is baked with capers and it tastes good except that there are hundreds of treacherous bones.

  • Piftea � will be explained in a later entry

Notable brand names:

Potato chip brands:
Chipsy Chips
Chipsish Chips
Chipi Chips
Stobi Flips

Peanut Butter brands:
Pami Smoothy
Kikiriki Cream

(to be fair the word for peanut is pronounced Kikireeki)

that�s all for now folks.

byeness

Leave a Comment!

Chicago to Seattle - 2014-05-27
LOG: Balti-Malti Part 3 - 2011-07-24
LOG: Balti-Malti Part 2 - 2011-07-23
LOG: Balti-Malti Part 1 - 2011-07-22
LOG: NoVa � The Panda Council Part 4 - 2011-03-27

BLOG ROLL
POP/BLOGS
THERAPEUTIC
NYT BLOGS