Food Mishaps

One of the two questions I am asked most often about Albania is, What is the food like? (And just in case you're wondering, the question I am asked most often is, What language do they speak in Albania? The answer: Albanian, which is unrelated to any other language. It's in a class of its own!)

Back to the first question.



My answer always goes something like: The food is AMAZING. Think Mediterranean, with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, olives, bread, cheese, and incredible pastries. While carnivores may find the diet a bit lacking, that is not to say meat doesn't exist here. It is always available but it considered more of a luxury to be indulged in sparingly, unless you grew up in America and moved here to work a job or as a missionary. hehe :)

Much of what makes food so amazing here is that it is a vital part of relationships. Anytime you go to someone's house she always offers you at least a piece of candy and something to drink (I say "she" because it is always a woman's job to serve guests, and she is always incredibly friendly and gracious when she does so!)

I visited my former landlady's home a few times now. The first visit was a big deal since we hadn't seen each other in a year, so she insisted on inviting me in for Turkish coffee and watermelon. Tradition is huge here, including very specific rules such as standing to greet the elderly whenever they enter the room, greeting everyone in the room beginning with the oldest and chronologically proceeding to the youngest, and toasting to everyone's health every time you pick up your cup to drink (this is more true of Albanians from the south; northern Albanians only toast once).

I tend to be highly conscious of being culturally offensive, so I watch closely to see how everyone else does things and fit in with daily social traditions. This is a problem however, because one of the traditions requires the guest to take the first drink and bit of food... no one else does anything until the guest does it first.

I debated about how to eat the watermelon... Should I remove the seeds with my fingers before putting a bit in my mouth? Or should I remove it with my fork? Or is it okay to put the bit in my mouth and spit the seeds out? In my paranoia about eating correctly, I forgot the guest-first rule. So the family waited, and waited, and waited for me to take a bite. We all waited for about 15 minutes for each other to take the first move, and finally they got impatient and nudged me to eat.

With quite a bit of anxiety, I decided last-minute to put the entire bite of watermelon in my mouth. I thought, Since Albanians eat with their hands, eat from the same dish, and burp out loud, surely it's okay to spit seeds into my plate.

It was an amazingly sweet, juicy first bite. When I found a seed I moved it to the front of my mouth, aimed for the plate, and BOUNCE the seed went from my plate to the floor.

Thank goodness hospitality is the most highly-held Albanian tradition, and the family graciously laughed and said, "It's no problem! Don't worry about it!" I learned that maybe I should lighten up a bit.

Today I had a second mishap involving food. The process of eating was quite enjoyable. I was sharing a meal with my directors' family, of hotdogs, potatoes, cucumbers, and bread. The hotdogs were a bit of an experiment, since its hard to know the quality. Two hours later, I was lying on my bed, trying to shrug off waves of nausea, until I could no longer abstain from running to the bathroom. I will leave it at that.

I wasn't the only one who got sick, so the family easily identified the hotdogs as the problem. Those darn hotdogs have put me out-of-commission for the second half of today. I haven't slept at all with the discomfort, but at least it eased off enough for me to write a good blog post. And at least I know now to stay away from Albanian hotdogs.