I like Middle Eastern food, I really do (Iraqi food isn't very different from that of any neighboring country). Hummus, babaganoush, lamb, bring it on. In general, I'll eat almost anything. But the food at our house is truly terrible.
The main problem is meat products I can't identify. Often I'll get a plate with a grayish, shiny piece of something. I try to avoid consuming any piece of meat whose animal of origin is unknown. Around here, that means I eat mostly vegetarian. Let me be clear in saying I don't think this is a problem common to all Iraqi food, but specifically created by our lousy cook (I feel bad about saying it, because she's very sweet, but...) I was surviving basically on flatbread and hummus for a while, but inexplicably we haven't been served hummus in a week. Consequently I think I'm a bit protein starved.
And oh, the oil. Everything is cooked in gallons of the stuff. It makes it fairly unappealing to look at, and it doesn't feel so good sitting in my stomach an hour later. Some of these dishes could be fairly tasty if not for the overpowering taste of canola oil.
Today for lunch I was served unrecognizable meat in a sauce that tasted like ketchup, rice and cucumber and tomato salad. I ate the salad and rice. For dinner it was the oiliest sausage patties ever, another unidentifiable cut of meat, bread and more cucumber and tomato salad. I ate bread and salad. We've got to bring back the hummus around here.
3 comments:
I love Middle Eastern food, too, and that sounds horrible. My advice, as someone with a lot of years of experience trying to eat vegetarian and not starve in random places, is to try to get some nuts. I don't know how possible this is for you, but if you can ask someone to find you or send you a package of almonds or peanuts or something, you can make it through what looks like it might be a dire protein situation with non-perishables. If there's an address you want to send me, I'd be happy to send them your way. UN delivery ;)
sounds like the food at the camp here. makes a certain seminary refectory seem yummy. plus its just about polar opposite of the cooking you grew up with. its not going to sit well until you have eaten it for many many months.
in my 14 years of veggie-hood and sojourns into questionable institutional food i will not go without a bag of sunflower seeds. a handful of unshelled seeds has the same amount of protein as a typical serving of steak. and i tend to pack little packets of instant soup (miso for me). maybe next time.
blessings
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