Cooking/Eating

Well, I thought since I’m in the spirit of blogging about banal things, I would move on to cooking and eating.

Although for the first week or so I tried eating just a couple of pieces of bread for breakfast, I found this left me very hungry come mid-morning and also, since I have a sandwich for lunch, eating so much bread got really monotonous, really quickly. So, after the first week I switched (back) to cereal, which, although it isn’t a traditional Arabic food – which makes it expensive since you have to buy imported Western brands – is a traditional Old Man breakfast. I have also discovered this brand of fruit juice called Trapeza or something like that, and the sweetened grapefruit is really nice first thing in the morning. All this is washed down with a cup of tea, which helps to warm me up a little too. I think I’ve had a sandwich for lunch everyday, which is basically a pita, with some sliced turkey, tomato and cucumber in it. I also bought some apples last week. I’m not sure where they are from (Golan is famous for it’s apples) but they’re really juicy and crisp, just the way I like them.

Dinner, which I cook at home, has proved to be a moment for innovation. I only have a stove and no oven, so everything I eat for dinner has got to be boiled, fried or eaten cold. Since I’m trying to lose a few pounds, the fried option has been one I’ve avoided. Coupled with such limited means for cooking, is a limited means for shopping. You just don’t get big supermarkets here. This is most probably because a) it’s difficult to import lots of goods, b) people still prepare fresh food everyday (i.e. don’t cook frozen TV dinners), c) the cost of opening a large supermarket is prohibitive, both in terms of initial capital output and ongoing running costs, d) there are so many mini-markets it would be difficult to convince people to travel to a central location, when most people can just walk across the street to get what they want.

With this in mind, I usually do some form of cooked carbohydrate (potatoes, rice, pasta) and then get some canned meat or fish to go with it. My repertoire has so far included spaghetti bolognese (although it was actually just a jar of tomato source), a version of corned beef hash, and tuna/herring with rice/potatoes. I’m going to get around to making a nice vegetable soup soon, and take advantage of the cheap vegetables here (since they tend to be locally grown). I also have another meal option, which is the ‘can’t be bothered tonight’ one. I’ve only turned to this option twice so far, and it involves going to the local falafel and shawwerma place for a shawwerma sandwich, which at 6 shekels a pop (that’s US $1.5) hits the spot nicely.

Of course, absolutely the best option for eating in Palestine (as with many places around the world) is to get invited to someone's house for dinner. I'm still working on this one...