Food in Albania

We are so thankful to God to have our internet up and running. It has been a challenge not to be able to communicate with everyone in the states as often as we would like. It makes me appreciate those who did international ministry work in years past. They left for another country and may have only had contact with friends or family every couple of years. I am so grateful that we are able to "talk" to you via the internet. I really appreciate reading the comments that you make on the blog as well. It is always encouraging to hear from you and to have that comforting word from dear friends. If you haven't left a comment yet, please do.

I wanted to give you all a taste of what the food situation is like here - no pun intended. It is quite an adventure to cook for the family. I am really enjoying the challenge of taking tried and true family favorites and making them with different ingredients. There are many items that we can easily get in the states that are unavailable or outrageously expensive here. They don't have peanut butter, baking powder, syrup, almost any kind of mix (brownie, bread, pancake, etc.), real milk (they have this super sterilized milk that you buy in a box off the shelf and doesn't have to be refrigerated until you open it - it tastes different, but we are thankful for it), cilantro, limes, frozen meals and tortillas (or any mexican kind of food or seasoning). These are just a few things. However, the fruit and veggies are outstanding because they are not injected with anything or sprayed with pesticides. The juice here is also like a burst of rainbow on your tongue. Yum! The girls have been enjoying helping me in the kitchen more. Everthing is made from scratch and so it's fun to work with them in the kitchen. Kaitlyn learned to make pancakes from scratch the other day. I just supervised and helped a little. She did a great job and was so proud that she could make a meal by herself - sort of. Here we are making chicken noodle soup. I thought that this traditional meal would be the same as in the states. What I didn't count on was the remaining chicken feathers on my whole chicken. I had to pluck some off before I could boil it. Yikes! The traditional Albanian meals here involve lots of meat. We ate with some friends a few days ago and he ordered lamb - the head of lamb. It came with the skull and everything included. I opted not to publish this photo. LOL! Needless to say, we have not become that brave yet. The qofta (chohfta), which is like a meatball is tasty as well as the burek (boorek), which is a flaky pastry with different filling. The bread here is great. I walk down to the bread store in the mornings to get fresh baked bread for 30 lek (40 cents). It doesn't preserve long, but we eat it up quickly.
I thought you might be interested in the cost of things here. I was really surprised at how expensive it is to eat. The picture above includes things that I would use in a day to make some part of 3 meals and wash hands and clothes. These items cost me 4730 lek, which is $53.51. Here is the breakdown on the cost of some of these things. The box of cereal costs $3.50! They have to import these from Italy or Greece and so they are pricey. The bag of clothes soap is $18.61. It will wash 40 small loads of laundry. They do not have dryer sheets or baggies here. The small jar of spagetti sauce is $2.60. It's a good thing my girls like their spagetti without sauce. The bag of bow tie pasta is $0.62. The box of granola bars are $2.66, but the peaches are only $0.57. We have discovered that it costs us more to eat here than in the states, because there are no generic brands available.
This is our local market. It is only about a 3 minute walk from the house. We can buy some produce here as well as bottled water (which is the only water we can drink), some staple foods, cereal, milk, as well as Bubblicious gum. It was at this market that one of our girls stole a piece of candy costing 5 cents. After I discovered it and disciplined her, we went back to the store to have her return it and ask for forgiveness. I was really looking forward to it being a great teaching opportunity. Well, first of all I couldn't explain to the owner that I wasn't trying to buy the candy, but return it. There was a man in the store who spoke a little English and so I explained to him that she had stolen it and we coming back to buy it and seek forgiveness. The man looked at me like I was out of my mind. After I finished, he looked to the owner and in Albanian explained to him with a tone of incredulity and humor what I had said. The owner then refused payment, gave the candy to my child and went on the call her by her name and make her feel like the queen of the store. So much for learning a hard lesson. I later learned that disciplining children doesn't happen very often here. They don't even have a word for spanking. The only word they have is "beat". So, the fact that I brought her back to have her apologize seemed crazy to them. I wished that I could speak Albanian at that moment to share the gospel.
This is the central produce market. There are multiple vendors and you can get a wider variety of fruits, veggies, nuts, olives, and unrefrigerated eggs. All of our produce has to be washed thoroughly with soap or soaked in bleach to make sure they are free from any germs.

This was a fun night with a friends, Justin and Gretchen Hall. They are from the states and we all miss Mexican food. When I packed our bags, I put one block of Velveeta cheese, rotel tomatoes, Mexican rice mix, tortillas, and Taco Bell seasoning mix in. These things are unavailable in Albania and I thought it might be nice to have a "home" meal for a treat. We invited them over and ate by candle light- the electricity was out. We didn't care though. It tasted sooo good! The only thing that was missing was Dr. Pepper with lime. Oh, what I wouldn't give for an ice cold Dr. Pepper. Also, we had to ration the guacamole because 1 avacodo is over $2 here. I can't wait for our container to come. I packed some of these hard to find or impossible to find items in it. It will be like Christmas. I can't wait to make a big Mexican meal for our whole team and top it off with hot brownies and chocolate chip cookies. So, the next time you drive through Taco Bell or stop at your favorite Mexican restaurant, think of us and enjoy it!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of our culinary choices. The girls are doing really well here because they have lots of pizza and pasta available. Kris is doing really well here because they have lots of ice cream. Chelle is doing really well here because they have lots of pomogranite juice. Come and visit and we will introduce you to the delights of Albanian food! Really, its great!