Food lessons

Yesterday I was a guest for lunch at some friends' apartment where, with the delicious dishes expertly cooked by the lady of the house, I also enjoyed learning a lot more than I ever thought of about food shopping and preparation.

BTW, these friends I have known for a dozen years have a very talented son, who was a gifted painter since age 7. He earned several honors for his early works, and now is pursuing a degree as an architect.

When I arrived the father was out shopping, while his wife had ready on the stove the vegetable soup, made from scratch with chicken stock, and the potatoes and chicken were roasting in the oven. Upon his return he personally wanted to prepare a 'little' appetizer, as he called it.

He had bought freshly baked white corn bread, which he topped with feta cheese, crushed garlic, pitted olives, fresh parsley, and finally drizzled some extra virgin olive oil upon it.

After a few minutes in the oven this was a delightful beginning of a very good meal that included a carrot mixture that was served in addition to the never lacking (on albanian tables) tomatoes and cucumber salad, and some small byreks filled with cheese.

The light and lemony tasting dessert, topped with crushed walnuts, was also made from scratch. I was astonished to learn that one of its ingredients was "panda's" milk (yes, the milk from the real animal!).
This is another product that I am surprised is available in Tirana, where nothing is lacking anymore, imported from anywhere in the world, as long as one can afford it.

When I questioned the husband about his shopping habits I had quite a lesson and learned a lot about how to choose food. We were talking about fresh foods that Albanians buy on a daily basis and that come directly from local suppliers.

The mandarins that are extremely sweet and grow in a lot of backyards, are deliberately picked with their stem and a couple of leaves attached to them. From their cut one can determine the freshness of the fruit. The leaves of mine below look shriveled since they have been stored in the fridge, but Albanians usually buy daily what they consume within the next 24 hours.

In addition to the fresh vegetables and fruits that come to street markets within a couple hours of being picked, the large supermarkets also stack packaged foods, imported especially from Greece and Italy, which are of excellent quality. One example I came across recently is about a series of Italian soups contained in pouches, such as the one pictured below, made of a variety of beans that takes 3 minutes to serve and it's delicious.

I also think that the frozen foods, of which there is a great variety here, are much better prepared and tastier (probably due to fresher basic ingredients) than the ones in NY stores.

My friend also talked about how to distinguish meats, from organically or not fed animals, from their color and smell. Lamb, pork, veal, beef are excellent here and very tasty everywhere they are served. After all, most animals are still raised in free ranges, and the chickens like the one I ate yesterday can be picked personally from a suburbian farm.

Thus, yesterday afternoon turned out to be pleasurable from both a culinary and educational point of view. Of great help in furnishing most of the detailed explanations to me was also another member of my host family (the wife's sister), who joined us for lunch, and spoke fluent English. She and I will also meet again soon since, I discovered, she resides not too far from my apartment.

What is surprising to me is that all this information comes from people that do not operate or have been educated in the food field, but have gained personal experiences from their families, who are also well versed in old fashioned house remedies. I might add that most persons I deal with, including some laborers, have quite a knowledge of what we consider today as good eating habits, and I believe that this is probably their secret for keeping fit and prolonging longevity.