I generally spend about 1-2 hours per day on food shopping and cooking. By American standards, this is a lot of time, and it's probably a lot of time for the average 30-something Romanian as well. Yes, I cook because I enjoy it. I also was very fortunate to have grown up with parents who made home-cooked daily family meals a high priority, something that undoubtedly shaped my ideas and values of food planning and cooking. Mostly, though, I spend 1-2 hours per day on food-related activities because I strongly feel that it's a worthwhile use of my time. If I were living in the U.S., I'd still spend a good amount of time in the kitchen, but there are several reasons why it takes significantly more time to put a good meal on the table each evening while living overseas:
1.) Food shopping in Cluj, Romania is not particularly easy. There are many big European chain supermarkets (Carrefour, Auchan, Billa, Metro) nearby, but these stores do not all carry the same products. Perhaps they carry a different brand of pasta than the one I usually buy, or maybe they have different suppliers for their meats and vegetables, and therefore the selection and quality vary drastically. If I want to buy ground beef, for example, I always go to Billa. If I want to buy shrimp or salmon, Carrefour's the only way to go. Billa's across the street from the Farmer's Market, which is within a walkable distance and very convenient, but Carrefour is a taxi ride away, on the outskirts of town, inside the mall.
2.) As is often the case in the U.S., the best place to get fruits & vegetables is definitely not the supermarket. There are Farmers' Markets scattered throughout the city, and that's the place to go for seasonal, mostly local, less expensive, fresh produce that hasn't been treated with as many pesticides as the supermarket variety. And for anyone who's lived in/visited Europe, you know that the markets here are the best! Especially during this time of year, the markets are bursting with pears, grapes, apples, zucchini, eggplant, spinach, leeks, tomatoes (all grown in Romania), and peaches (which are imported from Italy.) There's a great sense of community, people know you by name or face, you can discuss what's in season or what's going to be available in the weeks to come, and here in Romania, individuals sell products that they've produced at home in small batches: tapenades, pickles, jams/preserves, hand-ground paprika, etc. The last great thing about the market I go to is that there's both a little wine store and a fresh milk machine nearby; just bring your own container and fill it up with whole milk or locally produced wine for the equivalent of a dollar or two.
3.) On any given day, the Farmers' Market or the supermarket may not have the product that you're looking for. In the U.S., we're definitely spoiled (and I say spoiled in a good way; we're truly light-years ahead when it come to customer service, marketing strategies, shipping techniques, data mining, and inventory methods/technology- i.e. knowing what customers want, how much of it they tend to buy, installing and maintaining complex inventory software to re-stock shelves when quantities get low, thus ensuring that what we want to buy is ready and waiting for us, each and every time.) Friends here tell me that if I'm disappointed in the availability now, I should have lived here in the 1980's, when the line for eggs was out the door before 6 a.m. (They're right; I really shouldn't complain.) But in the U.S., we go to the store with a shopping list, and 99% of the time, we leave with the recipe ingredients to make that evening's meal. Not so in Romania. It's taken me a long time to get over the frustration of going to Billa with the intention of having Stuffed Peppers for dinner, putting the peppers, the rice, and the tomato paste into my cart, just to discover that there's no ground beef today. That means that I always have to have an alternative recipe (and know that recipe's ingredients) in mind, just in case. Alternatively, I can just go to a given store with an open mind, see what looks good, buy it, and figure out how to cook it once I'm home. Fun, but definitely not easy.
4.) Even the best products I've found here don't have the same shelf-life and are usually not as tender as the U.S. equivalent. If I buy chicken two days before I plan to cook it, there's a good chance I'll open my refrigerator to a terrible smell on Day 3 and find out that the chicken has gone bad. Meats almost always need to be marinated or tenderized before cooking, something that's not necessary for a lot of meats in the U.S. anymore. I've learned by trial and error that a Round Steak tastes great, but only if I bake it in tomato sauce for 3-4 hours (which takes some planning ahead.) (As an aside, I haven't yet figured out if the U.S. or Eastern Europe has it right. Granted, it's convenient to have preservatives in our food, but is this really the best long-term strategy for a society?)
5.) There is a small shop that sells the most amazing bread. Of course, it's not located near any of the supermarkets/markets that I frequent. And of course bread here lasts two days max. But it's worth the extra trip/time spent since nothing beats a loaf of delicious, hot-out-of-the-oven, crusty white bread.
6.) There aren't nearly as many easy/pre-cooked/pre-packaged options available here. If you want to eat spinach, you buy it, soak it, rinse it again, and chop it; no pre-washed, ready-to-go alternative. I might get laughed out of the market if I ask where I can find a plastic container full of peeled cloves of garlic. There's no such thing as a can of Manwich or Hamburger Helper or Rice-a-Roni or a Taco Kit (not necessarily a bad thing, though I would totally buy an over-priced, imported taco kit without thinking twice since I crave Old El Paso taco sauce and Mexican food in general- I've been able to make my own tortillas, but just haven't found a replacement for good, old "American-style" Mexican taco sauce.) Until I began cooking overseas, I didn't realize just how much we Americans rely on quick & easy products to assist in preparing a meal. (And again, it is what it is. This Post isn't here to judge whether the U.S./Romania has it right or wrong; I'm just saying that it's just a different ballgame over here!)
All this adds up to a lot of time and energy spent gathering the ingredients to cook a great meal, which can be exhausting. On a positive note, however, I'm happy to be implementing many of the tips/suggestions given for healthy eating from a book I recently finished (and loved!), "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. By putting in the extra effort, I'm already well on my way to accomplishing the following: Avoiding food products containing unfamiliar ingredients and high-fructose corn syrup; Getting out of the supermarket whenever possible; Drastically increasing the amount of fruits, vegetables, and especially leaves that I eat; Eating like an omnivore; Eating according to the rules of a traditional culture; Eating actual, prepared meals; and Not eating anything that my great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
So, what have I been cooking these days? Here's a quick list of my typical week-night go-to dinners:
-Creamy Chicken Pesto with Penne
-Chicken with Sundried Tomatoes
-Spinach Salad with Bacon, Hard-boiled eggs, and homemade "sweet" dressing
-Stuffed Peppers
-Whole Stuffed Chicken- (leftovers get made immediately into Homemade Chicken Soup)
-Meatloaf; ("How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman's Recipe)
-Salmon with mustard & balsamic glaze
-Shrimp Scampi over pasta
-Chili & Homemade Cornbread
-White Bean Chicken Chili
-Leeks cooked with Proscuitto
-Butternut Squash Soup
-Eggplant Parm
-Round Steak in tomato sauce with cooked carrots- bone marrow included
Every meal includes some sort of salad (with homemade salad dressing), one or two vegetable sides, and fresh bread (if we happen to have it on hand.) Oh, and a big thank you to my favorite Sociology Professor and person-who-inspired-me-to-blog Heather Johnson for many of these all-time favorite recipes.
No comments:
Post a Comment