Taste of the town

Since arriving in Belgrade I have had some difficulty understanding the normal feeding schedule. Therefore, one day I ended up eating two lunches. I grabbed one with Rachel (my predecessor) after running errands and before returning to the office only to realize when we got back to the office that a mini feast was taking place. Of course, we were required to sit down and participate. Since I am still living in the office bedroom/storage room for another two weeks (until Rachel vacates her apartment), I do not have much control over my meals. There is a small kitchen in the office, but there is little food. There is also always someone in the office who I do not want to witness my freakishly horrid cooking skills.

In the eight days since I have been here, I have also had two days with only two meals and one day with only one meal. Going to bed hungry is an interesting feeling. In the last few days I have taken my stomach's happiness into my own hands. I have taken evening "walks" which included going to the mini mart and stopping at street vendors for food. This way I am guaranteed an evening meal (a guaranteed breakfast is a work in progress). The last few evenings have been interesting eating experiences. I end up pointing at food items and hoping that the vendor understands what exactly I want. One evening I got a delicious piece of cheese pizza, the next evening at the same vendor I got an interesting variety of pizza. After taking the first bite I realized there was some type of hidden meat on the pizza. The second bite provided the answer: a large round slice of bologna was under the cheese. I believe the look of disgust on my face was mistaken for a look of disapproval to the two teenagers making out by the bus stop. Needless to say, the bologna slice had to go.

I also had my first encounter with kajmak, a uniquely Serbian food. I am told it cannot be found anywhere else in the world. It is illegal to import into the United States, but I have read of people sneaking it in to the U.S. in jars of Nivea lotion or cream (on the requests of Serbian friends and relatives living in the U.S.). It is made with the stuff that is taken off the milk to make it low fat. Apparently, it's considered the best part of the milk. It has a consistency that is something in between hummus and brie cheese. I had some on pita bread and was pleasantly surprised by this phenomena. I promise to try to smuggle some back upon my return in two years.

Perhaps my favorite culinary experience since arriving in Serbia is hot chocolate. It is very thick, almost like pudding (especially towards the end). I am told that some cafes make it so that the entire cup is as thick as pudding. It was rich, and soothing on a cold, rainy day. I am eager to have more. I am not as eager to have more Serbian coffee which is modeled off of the Turkish coffee. I admit to being biased since I am not a huge coffee fan back home either. However, the coffee is made by pouring boiling water over coffee grounds. There are free floating coffee grounds within the coffee and tradition calls for drinking them at the very end. I will defer a final opinion on this matter to someone who enjoys coffee -- the first to come visit and offer their opinion will be posted on the blog.

Tonight I tried ice cream in order to acquiesce the demands of my online commentators (aka the Library Lady). They keep it in silver containers (very similar to the ones that cafeteria food is dished out of) and it looks delicious. There are real nuts, pieces of fruit, and chocolate bits in the ice cream. It looks more like mousse than ice cream. I ended up getting a mixed berry flavor with frozen cherries and blackberries in the ice cream. The ice cream itself was a consistency that mingled somewhere between ice cream, gelato, frozen yogurt, and a slushy. I think it will be more appealing on hot, humid summer days.