Life in IraqiKurdistan.Food1

Many people have asked us, "What kind of food are you eating there?"

It all depends on if we are being served a traditional meal with the nationals here, going out to eat at a local restaurant, or if we are cooking for ourselves at home. I'm going to just focus on our meals at home since I can't remember the names of the dishes that we have been served. I'm still learning!

MANY things are different in Duhok than what we are used to, I wasn't no Martha Stewart back in Iowa, but I usually didn't have a hard time coming up with a menu for the week. Here... a daily challenge! Most days I love this challenge, but on days where I have a teething one-year old, a hot kitchen and food is burning on the stove- I could use some extra grace and a glass of wine while I'm cooking!

Methods-

1. No microwave- The bishop's be lovin' em some leftovers, and no microwave is something to get used to. We miss popping something in there to get evenly cooked, or to freshen up some bread, or not worrying about heatin up the whole kitchen.

2. Gas stove- This took some getting used to at first, but not that big of a change, except when one day you don't have any gas, so you need to call the propane man! Help!

3. Oven- works good, but it gets tricky because you don't have anyway to "set" the tempature. You just kinda guess on the dial that's numbers 1-6. Slowly turn up or down. Crazy enough...I managed to make banana bread work.

Ingredeiants:

1. Veggies- Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Potatoes, and Onions are REALLY easy to get here and pretty cheap. The local mini-markets all have them. But I really miss a head of broccoli, or a bag of baby carrots, or some spinach, or some fresh mushrooms. But I enjoy this "common" salad in our fridge.

2. Fruits- Are GREAT here. Nothing is seedless of course, but our favorites are grapes, bananas, watermellon, and nectarines. Again, all pretty cheap! Bonus: We have a pomegranate and fig tree in our yard! The figs are awesome but we have only had about 5 good ones since we have been here. But cool none the less! The pomegranates are ok, We just give a chunk to Z and he picks them out all by himself (such a big boy!) :)

3. Meat- I haven't mastered this yet. I'm pretty sure we found ground beef for $5,000 a kilo which is like 2.50 a lb. Not common though and you get some bone chunks in there. Whole chickens, I'm working on, but find it a pain and a bit nasty to work around the bones, fat, skin... eek. Boneless chicken you can get in 2 piece pkgs. and it's even tyson! However, it just doesn't taste or cook the same, it is SO tough. Kinda disappointing. :( Here's something that tasted good and easy. Whole chicken, veggies, and celery leaves (I think that's what they were anyway?)

4. Vegetarian: We hope to start eating less meat than what we are used to in the states so I've been using chickpeas quite a bit, but I'm not satisfied with the turnout so far. Felt dry and crumbly. I want to master the dried chickpea, just need some work! Since then I'm just using canned chickpeas. Made some yummy falafel yesterday! Bulgar where have you been all my life! I love this stuff! We like this recipe Chicken Bulgur Skillet, we just make it without the chicken!

Lentils, rice, dry beans are all pretty common here and again good prices! Just not used to cooking with them, or reading them in this or that language!

5. Dairy: They have cows milk here (skim,low fat, and full fat) so that's nice! Cheese on the other hand is a little slim picking. I miss a bag of shredded cheddar! But they have these little triangle soft cheeses here, which taste good with bread!

6. Drinks: Ohhhhh how I miss LATTES and my magic bullet! Java House Peanut Butter mocha, Starbucks pumpkin spice lattee... I'm trying not to think about it :) Nescafe (instant coffee) worked our first month here, and now we got a french press with the real deal coffee :) But we are turning into tea drinkers! We aren't getting any skinnier though, because they mix their tea with about half sugar. Ahhhh it's good though! :)

7. Dessert:

two words- ICE CREAM! It's about the only thing they have billboards for in this country! Great marketing, especially since it was SO hot here when we first arrived. So as we were walking... We're hot, tired, and we see this sign,

We can't resist! Plus, We're the Bishop's, sooooooo we just LOVE ice cream. This is the one thing that they have options with for groceries! Seriously, you go in a market, and they have 3 coolers with ice cream, and only one for all the meat, veggies, etc. combined Not helping the waist-line! We walk most places so that's our excuse :)

Staples:

1. Pasta- There is regular pasta here for like $1, but if you want whole wheat pasta it's about $4-5. Which is ridiculus! Also jarred pasta sauce is around $3-4 for just being OK stuff. I've been making my own.

2. Bread is AMAZING here! Less than .25 for a BIG piece Oh so yummy! Bad thing is because its fresh it only lasts 2 days! :(

3. Canned veggies- not common and more expensive

4. Spices- VERY limited! And I don't know what any of them are!

5. Ceral- Only options are Cheerios, Corn Flakes, and Coco puffs. All round $3.50 a box. So we are trying to figure out what they eat here for breakfast. Oatmeal is also expensive :(

6. Peanut Butter- There is an awesome market close by that sells peanut butter! Yes, it's about $4.50 a jar. But sorry folks, this is something that is a non-negotiable for me! And great for emergency meals for Z-man! I "try" to stick to the serving size ;)

Shopping:

There are no one stop shops. After I make my list, I probably need to go to 3 different mini-markets in order to get what I need, even then we only get what we can carry home. So we make multiple stops throughout the week. We have been shopping at the stores with price tags or otherwise we think they are trying to rip us off when we ask "Ava Chonde" (How much is this?) because we are American, that makes us "rich". So we are learning how much things cost here. Some things are cheaper, but most is more expensive than in America! Can you believe that!?

Sorry, this was much longer than expected. I hope it wasn't boring. But if so, you probably didn't even finish reading it and therefore aren't reading this right now! :) Those of you who got to the end. Your true friends :)