Obligatory Foodie/Food Culture Post

After a hectic and totally awesome weekend, this week has seen some downtime.  That's perfectly fine by me, but since this weekend will probably rival last weekend, I thought I should do a more subdued post to keep the Feng shui of the blog aligned.  Aka, the classic foodie post.

 Albanian pot roast - a very similar, yet distinctive take on the classic.  It is pretty standard, yet a little spicier.  Plus the two pieces of meat that I could not figure out, I suspect some sort of beef cut.  There is very limited pork here. (Muslim nation)  This was accompanied by a delicious cabbage salad, which was like a sauce-less cole slaw.  This was a standard lunch serving.  I should mention that Albanians eat super large portion of food, very similar to Southern style.  The difference is they are all skinny.  (At least here in Kosovo)

This was my first apartment-cooked meal.  Just simple noodles (Bowtie and Macaroni as the Mac bag was emptied)  with some fresh peppers.  A red one that wasn't spicy or sweet, so I have not fully figured out what it is.  Then a super spicy green one, it kinda lost a lot of color while cooking it.  Think pizza-box peppers, but 10x spicier.  So delicious.  Then to top that off, yellow bell pepper.  These are all fresh and seasonal, there is a market outside my building where I work.

Cannot forgot the ingredients for washing everything down, so I went with this Pilsner.  Peja is a city in Western Kosovo.  It's a standard beer, it's good on a similar goodness scale as Budweiser.  Which they do sell the Czech Budweiser here, so I'll be sure to stock up.

 After concerns for my mainly vegetarian diet, I broke down and cooked breakfast for dinner.  They are all brown eggs, with a different shade yolk which weirded me out a little.  Clearly did not stop me from devouring it.  The top is part of a spinach Byrek, a traditional meal.  It's a thin and flaky pastry that usually is filled with cheese, meat, or spinach.  And the left hand side is some sausage that I picked up from the store.  Very easy to cook and super filling.  It might be hard to see, but I a wedge of Happy Cow cheese on there too.  See below for more.

 Happy Cow cheese, does it remind anyone of anything?  Well I purchased the salmon flavor.  It was intriguing, the picture at least. The cheese itself was delicious.  Instead of a salmon flavor, it was more a smoky flavor that one usually gets with lox.  Definitely worth a purchase if you can find it.  It would be good on a bagel, that's 100% for certain.

Rahovec Weekend Spoils!

To continue the trend of breaking up food with liquids, I present to you the aforementioned wine and raki that was purchased in Rahovec.  The far left is a Cabernet Sauvignon (my personal favorite), followed by bootleg, then bootleg raki, then finally a Vranac.  I have had a sampling of them all, and they are all delicious.

Finally, the Salads (sallatë in Albanian)  

Sallatë Greke.  Cucumbers, tomatoes, chunks of feta, olives, a little bit of lettuce, and lightly tossed with some olive oil.  This is my main stay, pretty much my choice for about 90% of my lunches.  This one in particular is served out of the Restaurant Lion, which is across the street from my office.  It's very good, very large, and most importantly: very inexpensive (1.8 Eur)  

Sallatë Shope.  While I did not take this photo, the salad looked about like this.  But bigger.  Much much bigger.  It looks awfully similar to a Sallatë Greke, but there are a few difference.  No olives, no lettuce, and no chunks of feta.  However it does have a brined white cheese.  I had never heard of brined white cheese before, but it was good!  It was light in flavor, especially as it was shredded.  


To make things easier and to teach with this blog, I have thus quoted Wikipedia:  

"Brined or pickled cheese is matured in a solution of brine in an airtight or semi-permeable container. This process gives the cheese a good stability, inhibiting bacteria growth even in hot countries. Brined cheeses may be soft or hard, varying in moisture content, and in colour and flavour, according to the type of milk used; though all will be rindless, and generally taste clean, salty and acidic when fresh, developing some piquancy when aged, and most will be white. Varieties of brined cheese include feta, halloumi, sirene and telemea, a variant of brinza.  Brined cheese is the main type of cheese produced and eaten in the Middle East and Mediterranean areas."