Sunday, December 09, 2007
Food and Drink Column
Proper news first. a friend of mine who needs to be annonymous had to be out of the country a few days and reported that the return flight was full of reporters. Kosovo may declare unilateral independance tomorrow. I hope that they do not do that. If they do, I hope everyone here please acts like GROWNUPS!
By the way, I actually like our Ambassador here, he seems to be one of Bush's better appointments. A friend who has met him says he is a very warm person, and really cares about Bosnia, which is all to the good. I am speaking as someone who did not vote for Bush, but fair dues to him if he does the right thing, I always give credit where it is due.
Now to the promised trivia. Sometimes living abroad, one tries to find local equivalents to foods one may not even have liked that well from back home. This can be a good thing or not so good. I went to the local branch of Konzum and among my purchases was a can labeled 'Haše' Well the phonetics made me wonder if it was some local variant of 'hash' an American thing, so I read the label, noted the presence of lung, and kidneys, and the absence of potatoes and thought 'Oh what the Hell, let's try this!' So I bought one can. small.
Last night, I diced up some already cooked potatoes, and began frying them, opened the can labeled 'Haše' and threw it in the frying potatoes, onions and sunflower oil. It was not so bad. on the handy dandy Snail o Meter, it rated as slightly better than snails but not as nice as American hash. The taste of kidney was off-putting for me. I just don't care for it or how they smell. It was not awful, but it was also something I am not eating again.
The locally available curry powder is decent, so I can have my curry in some form and a lager weekly again. I found coconut powder, kind of expensive here but very good quality. Coconut powder is the magical anti-flatulence ingredient. It goes into things like a dish of garbanzo beans, or I just eat a couple tablespoons and it settles things down very nicely. I found anise seeds too, for fairly cheap, at Badem which has two stores in Sarajevo. They carry a lot of unusual things. Anyone who is a vegetarian planning to live here needs to check them out.
As far as doing stuff, it's been a bit bleak out, so I haven't wanted to go many places. I have stayed home, and watched some T.V. as always. Star Wars is on tomorrow night, and I of course like the good Nerd I am, will be watching.
Last night's domestic film was 'Život Radnika' and I really liked it, it. It was very sad though. It was filmed in several towns not far from Sarajevo. I thought the acting was very good, and the screenplay was very good. Sets and costuming were perfect.
I hope I don't have to miss out on all of 'Sivi Dom' which is a prison drama, set in a Serbian prison. It has some violence. My significant other doesn't like programs which have violence. I am alright if it is an integral part of the story, same goes for sex, if the story would not work without it, fine, just no random and gratuitous violence or sex.
I find the way that 'Sivi Dom' is written to be very effective, it is well filmed, and it gives a fairly realistic picture of prison life in general. It's probably more true to life than 'Oz' which I like to watch sometimes.
There are a lot of fairly cheesy films this week. I watch them to use the subtitles to speak the language better.
'The Hunting Party' the film with Richard Gere, which concerns an effort to capture Karaddžić is premiering here on the 14th of December. These things are at night, and as a person who values their ankles, I am not going. I wish I could go, I'm sure it will be covered on T.V.
By the way, I actually like our Ambassador here, he seems to be one of Bush's better appointments. A friend who has met him says he is a very warm person, and really cares about Bosnia, which is all to the good. I am speaking as someone who did not vote for Bush, but fair dues to him if he does the right thing, I always give credit where it is due.
Now to the promised trivia. Sometimes living abroad, one tries to find local equivalents to foods one may not even have liked that well from back home. This can be a good thing or not so good. I went to the local branch of Konzum and among my purchases was a can labeled 'Haše' Well the phonetics made me wonder if it was some local variant of 'hash' an American thing, so I read the label, noted the presence of lung, and kidneys, and the absence of potatoes and thought 'Oh what the Hell, let's try this!' So I bought one can. small.
Last night, I diced up some already cooked potatoes, and began frying them, opened the can labeled 'Haše' and threw it in the frying potatoes, onions and sunflower oil. It was not so bad. on the handy dandy Snail o Meter, it rated as slightly better than snails but not as nice as American hash. The taste of kidney was off-putting for me. I just don't care for it or how they smell. It was not awful, but it was also something I am not eating again.
The locally available curry powder is decent, so I can have my curry in some form and a lager weekly again. I found coconut powder, kind of expensive here but very good quality. Coconut powder is the magical anti-flatulence ingredient. It goes into things like a dish of garbanzo beans, or I just eat a couple tablespoons and it settles things down very nicely. I found anise seeds too, for fairly cheap, at Badem which has two stores in Sarajevo. They carry a lot of unusual things. Anyone who is a vegetarian planning to live here needs to check them out.
As far as doing stuff, it's been a bit bleak out, so I haven't wanted to go many places. I have stayed home, and watched some T.V. as always. Star Wars is on tomorrow night, and I of course like the good Nerd I am, will be watching.
Last night's domestic film was 'Život Radnika' and I really liked it, it. It was very sad though. It was filmed in several towns not far from Sarajevo. I thought the acting was very good, and the screenplay was very good. Sets and costuming were perfect.
I hope I don't have to miss out on all of 'Sivi Dom' which is a prison drama, set in a Serbian prison. It has some violence. My significant other doesn't like programs which have violence. I am alright if it is an integral part of the story, same goes for sex, if the story would not work without it, fine, just no random and gratuitous violence or sex.
I find the way that 'Sivi Dom' is written to be very effective, it is well filmed, and it gives a fairly realistic picture of prison life in general. It's probably more true to life than 'Oz' which I like to watch sometimes.
There are a lot of fairly cheesy films this week. I watch them to use the subtitles to speak the language better.
'The Hunting Party' the film with Richard Gere, which concerns an effort to capture Karaddžić is premiering here on the 14th of December. These things are at night, and as a person who values their ankles, I am not going. I wish I could go, I'm sure it will be covered on T.V.
# posted by Katja R. @ 3:07 AM 
