Food glorious food

aahhh yes.... food glorious food –

Food has been such an issue for me here in Moldova.  Moldovan food and I just don't get along that well. For 6 months I couldn’t eat, I was hungry, a lot. I just couldn’t and still can’t, adapt to Moldovan food. The majority of it is fried in a great deal of oil (sunflower). Our host families are told ahead of time that when cooking for volunteers they must cut down on the oil, but of course they don't (maybe they do and what we see is half of what they use).   While in training it was not unusual to get a daily rundown of who was sick because it changed day to day. Bathroom habits just aren't that personal anymore.

There are also the strangeness of some of it that I simply cannot try, such as chicken feet, chicken heads,  chicken hearts, pig skin with fat rolled and covered with gel. Of course there are some very good things, Plachenta (a fried bread with  brinza сыр (cheese),  фрукты (fruit), картофель (potato),  капуста (cabbage), inside, it is everywhere. My favorite Moldovan food is some of the супы (soups) my host mother makes - except when there is a chicken foot in it. But, when I leave Moldova I probably won't eat brinza cheese or cabbage for a long long time. Things you wouldn't think possible to 'pickle' they've done it  -  imagine pickled лимоны (lemons) mixed with сквош (squash) and dill. Not so bad really, just and odd flavor. Dill is in everything. They have pickles down to a science, very good.

In 6 months I quickly (too quickly) lost about 25-30 pds. not a recommended diet, throwing up on the side of the road or in bushes next to the outhouse (and a few chickens to the sound of donkeys) is not fun (somewhere along the way I realized I didn’t need to go INTO the outhouse, where the smell just made me sicker). Most people adapt quickly to the food and love it, many complain about gaining weight. But not me...  now I am eating as much "American" style food that I can create on my little hot plate and I am healthier and happier.

Now that we have are 2 large магазин (markets) seems every time I go there are new treasures to find, oh what excitement it brings to the day! The most recent, lasagna noodles, mozzarella cheese, Heinz ketchup, Lays potato chips, Mars bars, Kit Kat, Lipton ice tea, oriental sweet sauce!  It is disappointing  not having an oven, oh what I wouldn't give for some lasagna. Veggies are often not  in great condition, but I've managed just fine with soggy broccoli, cucumbers... I'm just grateful to have them. We now even have frozen veggies! .Although they have an outdoor market, every village does,  most of the veggies are “root veggies”, potatoes, cabbage, carrots. Fruits are apples, pears, peaches and plums when in season, oh and grapes. Lots and lots of grapes, I have never seen a home without them, they wrap around porches and posts, they create canapés and walls, they are a beautiful site. Most people make their own versions of wine and juice, sharing it with neighbors and friends.

 

 

 

There are walnut groves and trees everywhere, along the roads, in yards, you find buckets and buckets of them all over town. I can crack 1 or 2 to their 20 or 30.

 

For the first 6 months you are required to pay the families for meals, after that it’s our choice. I now pay for only 2 dinners, my host mother makes the best soup. Although I have had it served with a chicken foot in it, once it's removed the image stays with me and it's hard to eat. I just can't figure out what happens with the chicken breasts, seems we always get other parts just fine. However NOW we can get them in my new local markets,  but its a very limited supply, sometimes I find them, sometimes I don't. They, as well  as pork shops, are very expensive, especially on a Peace Corps budget, so they are considered a special treat. The  majority of the meat you find is sausage, I'm not always sure what's in them so I tend to avoid them. I have not seen any beef - no steaks or hamburger. I miss steak on the grill with mushrooms and onions, burgers, meatloaf, fajitas.... When in the city a McDonalds Big-Mac,  which I didn't eat at home, is like heaven (as are the fries). I have become very close to being a full-blown vegetarian, not such a bad thing, but it isn't by choice.




I have a hotplate that has one burner that works, and no oven. Though most ingredients are in the stores, I recognize them by the pictures on the package, I could make many  more things than I do. But it's is just so much harder to figure it all out, and besides, I’m tired, I want quick and easy. Most of my :American" meals are homefries, grilled cheese,  pasta (they call the tomato sauce pasta and the noodles макароны (macaroni), omelets, and salads.  Calling the sauce pasta caused me some big problems in the beginning. The “sauce” is equivalent to our “tomato paste” so it takes some major doctoring to make it taste good, I find adding сахар (sugar) works well.  I have since found stewed tomatoes so I often use that as the base. Then there are the old standbys, злаковый (cereal) and thanks to boxes from my family, chicken salad and tuna sandwiches (with Lays chips of course).

молоко (milk) comes in the strangest package!  What is up with the triangle? Don’t know, but this is easy because it stands on its own. You can buy it by the bag and once you’ve opened the corner you better have something to stand it in fast, it makes a mess. In the new stores it is available in cartons.
 


Oh the thrill of a salad with зеленый салат (green lettuce), just not something they eat here, although my understanding is that the younger generation is opening their horizons.  It's availability in the stores is up and down. But they don't have salad dressing. EVERYTHING is eaten with mayonnaise,

Mayo and mustard come in these packages, no bottles or jars.

 Everything is cooked in sunflower oil, it is a major crop here. Miles and miles of them, truly one of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen. My partner laughed at me the first time I saw them, I had my nose against the window saying "WOOOOWWWW"". She said she doesn't even notice them. The seeds are the favorite snack around here.

I don't like the taste of it, I have  "invested" in olive oil (expensive) and vinegar.
A repeated photo from another posting but OH LOOK AT IT! It's BEAUTIFUL. If you could have seen the limited product I had available for a long time, you would understand this is like striking gold.  It has been a couple of months now but still  I am filled with such excitement and joy buying these products, I'm like a kid in a candy shop.

Thanks to brother Jim and Sharon, Sylvia and I enjoyed a dinner of CHILI! Sylvia  even found an avocado, thanks to her family sending guacamole mix  we enjoyed some of that too (but no chips, they are in the city but not bringing them back, you'd get a bag of crumbs). I can't tell you how much those boxes full of treats mean to us volunteers, we couldn't survive this without the support of family and friends back home.  With veggies and Mexican  seasoning (they don't eat spicy foot here although they do eat raw garlic and that is HOT) I am making something close to tacos.  Some friends gave me some freeze-dried salsa, astronaut food, but I'm  saving that for a special day.

While at In-Service training in Chisinau there is NO shortage of food. Some people that don’t have markets in their villages  have to gather supplies and get them home, not an easy task, as I know since I use to do it. 

This was our “wine tasting” evening. Two of our volunteers visited a winery and came back with about 12 bottles.  Moldova is known for it's wine, it is even sold in my small town in MASS! Next time you are looking at wine, see if you can fine some. The food was AWESOME -  as American as it gets.                   And look at that! TORTILLA CHIPS!!!!

 

 

Notice romance novels, there was a stack of them in the apt we rented, someone thought they'd use them as a decorative tablecloth, pretty clever, PC volunteers are always thinking of ways to reuse things, this is a perfect example.  Good job my fellow PCVs!!!

 

This last visit to the city a new surprise MOROCCAN

 

(Channel, Haylie, Emma, Brian)

Every Saturday Sylvia and I meet for pizza - it is AWESOME!    I will be lost when she leaves in June. It’s a routine I have come to love, and look forward to, both the food and her company.
 

This is a Masa which is a Romanian term. I believe it translates as “Sh#@load of food”. This is my host mother Maria, it was here birthday. She worked for a week cleaning and cooking. Even the outhouse got a good wash down.

 

 

Some traditional food - there is cake of course, just like ours.  Shredded carrot salad, stuffed peppers. The peppers are cooked in a steamer an then stuffed.  The first time I ate one I thought I was biting into a mushroom, turns out it was a chicken heart!  I have a hard time eating them now even without the hearts. They are also served unstuffed at meals, they are browned in a special pepper cooking pan then soaked in lots of oil, you peel the skin off first.  baked apples that are baked with wine and pasta stuffed with sausage, look just like tortellini. Sometimes they're just cheese, those are one of my stand-bye meals with the pasta sauce I make.

 

 

Veggies and fruit platters, beautifully laid out. Moldovan women take great pride in their food,  presentation and impressing their guests. Chicken - not shown, was baked in a large metal box-looking cooker (for lack of a better description, I had no idea what it was until I asked) then re-baked in a casserole dish with potatoes and covered with oil (of course),  Plachenta in the middle that looks like chicken.

 

Crepes, sometimes fruit or cheese inside, sometimes not. These are YUMMY

 

 

 

Pork in gelatin , mama Maria keeps trying to get me to eat it, I understand her Russian "просто один укус просто один бит Сандра"  "just one bite, just one bite Sandra" "спасибо, но нет Спасибо Мария Я вегетарианец"  "No thanks Maria I'm a vegetarian" this statement comes in very handy. This is actually more appealing then the rolled pig skin in the gelatin.

 

 

This is their "potato salad". Took a little getting used to, its pretty good. potatoes, ham, peas, dill, carrots, mayonnaise. And of course there are good ol' stuffed eggs.

pickled  fish with peas and onion (no thanks I pass)



Each  meal is served with plenty of homemade wine and cognac and the men will not take no for an answer. In training we were told you must say NO 3 times to get them to stop,  give in once, forget it, they gotcha. And yes... I always give in once and they got me.

I taught the table "cheers!", a wonderful thing, seeing a room full of Russians raising their glass saying "cheers!" I also taught them "bottoms up!"

Every meal is finished off with tea, not coffee. This is Maria's daughter Lilia, she is the art teacher at my school.

 

Every PCV's best friends.... water can make us American's very ill. In my town there has been a pesticide dump thanks to the good ol' communism days. Little by little the UN has been removing it. the last load went this summer, the town celebrated!

 

boil water 3  minutes and filter.... better yet, just buy bottled water.

This year I received 2 boxes from home. My sister-in-law Sara sent homemade cookies, WHAT A TREAT! she packed them with mini-marshmallows, they arrived unbroken and fresh.

I shared them with other members and they helped themselves to the marshmallows too. I opened the other box from my wonderful co-workers at Umass, and surprise,  DARK chocolate Swiss Miss (amongst many other wonderful gifts such Peanut Butter! what a great surprise). Now we do have hot chocolate here but it's not real good, it takes 2 packs per cup. HELLO! DARK chocolate!! ( I ordered more to be shipped from home). When I saw this I very sternly and loudly told my co-volunteers "OK HANDS UP... PUT ... THE....MARSHMALLOWS.... DOWN!!! And I salvaged most of them.

Returning from the city I had a 1/2 hr walk in the horribly bitter, windy, snowy winter weather carrying 3 heavy bags, it was torture. I hid behind anything I could find to catch my breath and I dug through my bags to find anything that I could add for warmth to layer upon my already many layers. A new pair of gloves from my Umass friends, and the most beautiful and the warmest scarf my niece made me!  I lost track of how many layers I had on. Once I arrived home I was ready to kiss the ground. After I unpeeled  all the layers, and there were a lot, this was my reward. It was by far the BEST cup of hot chocolate I have ever had.... so good in fact, I had to take a picture of it.
 

 And that is the story of food (and drinks) in Moldova. When I think of those volunteers in countries in far away villages that will eat rice and beans for 2 years, well, I thank my lucky stars I ended up in Eastern Europe. When I go home I suspect I will eat my way across town....Thai, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Indian, even a good ol' sports bar for a big-a#@ mushroom covered burger and an onion covered hot dog. AND to top it off, an ICE COLD BEER! Sorry Moldova, drinking something cold does NOT make you sick.

Over and out from Moldova!