пача (pronounced Pach that rhymes with botch, the second a is silent I guess)
Picture One Picture Two Picture Three
Piftea is a traditional Macedonian dish typically eaten during the winter months here in Macedonia. You over cook a pork bone with meat on it for hours and hours in hot water until the meat falls off. Then you remove the meat and the bone but keep the water that contains the melted fat. Put the meat in the bottom of a casserole dish. Then scrape out the bone marrow into your pot of water. Then add about a shaker full of salt. Then grind up about 50 cloves of garlic and add that to the water. Mix it up well. Then pour the fat/salt/marrow/garlic water over the pork in the casserole dish and let it �gel� overnight. Make sure not to refrigerate because we want there to be as many bacteria as possible. The next day, you have your self some jiggly lovely piftea.
Usually families just eat it once a year on either Orthodox Christmas on January 7th or on Saint Jordan Day aka Epiphany on January 19th. It is a Macedonian winter tradition possibly to commemorate times of �prosperity� when this dish was made out of some sort of desperation due to lack of ingredients. Unfortunately, my host mother and father loved it so much that they made it all year long and tried to serve it to me about once every two weeks during my home stay from October through December 13th. Fortunately, my host brother did not like to eat it at all, commenting that it was creepy the way it went like �ju ju ju ju�(pronounced like jug with out the g) while wobbling his arms back and forth like he had a jello mold in his hands.
Please check out the pictures in the links above to sort of get an idea of what it looked like, though my host family put in so much salt and garlic in the water that you could not see through to the meat and the top just looked white and salty. Below is the Text Log with fun exchanges between me and other volunteers about piftea.
Text Log: Piftea
8 October 2008
Me � so I ate something that can best be described as pork jello
J � nice�hot or cold?
Me � cold. I hope we do not have this often
J � argh. I hope so too for you sake.
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Me � so I ate something that can best be described as pork jello
K� yum�sounds�delicious?
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Me � so I ate something that can best be described as pork jello
A � pork jello, do they at least get you drunk?
Me � no they don�t. the pork jello is called piftea.
A � forewarned. Sounds like an STD. tell them dr. darth vador says you have to practice safe eating
22 October 2008
after I broke the coffee table glass...
J � oh no! what happened? Too much pork jello got you woozy? I�m glad you�re ok!
25 October 2008
Me � my host mom is cooking an entire pig�s head. I am nervous about dinner
J � you should just tell them you are a vegetarian. draw the line at heads gal!
A � gross. Plan to come visit next weekend and we wont serve any pig
Me � they are going to make piftea from the pig head!
J � oh no! I just asked my host sister what that is and she vomited a little in her mouth. She cant even describe it to me. Don�t eat it. Don�t.
27 December 2008
A2 � I had pork jello with dinner last night & thought of you�&~)
18 January 2009
R's host mom � R goo to my home for jelyy gh gh ha ha Oyour madder
Translation: R go to my home for pork jello ju ju ha ha from your host mother
