There are many things that are different here in Albania. In this article, I’m going to discuss a few things pertaining to food.
Their coffee is stronger and served in tiny espresso cups.
It is made either in a moka pot like the one on the right, or a Turkish coffee pot which is on the left. They don't sell half and half, but you can buy fresh milk and it's creamier than the milk sold in grocery stores in America. Our younger kids have become quite good at making coffee with foamy milk.
Food coloring is a little hard to come by. It comes in these little packets with little colored granules. Don't believe what you see pictured on the box. The red is actually orange which does limit me when I try to decorate my children's birthday cakes.
Last summer I broke down and made tomato sauce from scratch because I couldn't find any canned or jarred. I have since found a store that sells it for a good price.
Here's a meal that we have often. Fresh, local vegetables with fresh bread and homemade butter, rice topped with qoftë(chohf-tah), their version of meatballs, and xaxiq(zah-zeech).
We have a really sweet lady that we buy our vegetables from in our neighborhood. She also sells many other things there in her small shop., including eggs. Unless we are buying 30 at a time, which we have been recently, we would not be given a container. We just have to carefully transport them home in a bag.
What's very different from store-bought eggs in America, is that the shells are dirty. They might have blood, poop, or mud on them. This is purposeful and normal. (When we were raising chickens in America, my kids were always so eager to bring the eggs in that the eggs didn't have a chance to get dirty!) Eggs can last for about a month at room temperature, as long as they haven't been washed. This allows the stores to be able to store them on their counters.
In America, we all know that a lot of our trash problem comes from product packaging. I Albania and Romania their packages are simpler and less substancial. Spices come in packets, as well as baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Coffee comes in vacuum sealed packages. Plastic wrap and foil are often sold without boxes.
These things aren't dramatically different, but it is something to get used to. Having spice shakers, coffee cans, and electric coffee makers is convenient, but it's also interesting to experience another way of doing things.
