Slovenské jedlá

probably the first of many posts on this theme

Since I've been here, I've been eating very well. Breakfast is, of course, a salami sandwich -- on which I also put soft cheese. Or, at the convent, butter and homemade jam on Slovak bread, which is a highly pleasurable way to start the day. To drink, coffee or tea and some mineral water. Generally, I eat something similar in the evening.

The big meal of the day is around lunchtime. This means soup and then meat and a side, with finally maybe a piece of fruit. It's perfect, because all day I feel like I've eaten, and you don't go to sleep on a full stomach.

I bought some frozen spinach to make my favorite frittata, and came upon some European ingenuity. Of course, these are the same people who built the Leaning Tower and the Atomium, so we should not be too surprised. The spinach came in a bag, and there were these weird pictures on the front of the bag, which I only noticed when I opened it. It turns out, the spinach is frozen in pellets!! -- That is, instead of an unwieldly frozen brick, so the spinach cooks much faster.
Adding to the benefit, you can buy red pepper and salt together in a grinder!


And finally, a comment on Kofola. This is something I was very excited to try, because my Slovak teacher Martin told us about it this summer. It ranks up there with Almdudler in the category of country/regionally specific soft drinks that are also much better for you than Coca-Cola if you are going to be drinking a soft drink in the first place. It's got a really complex taste, like rootbeer and apple juice together but not quite.

But the one thing that is most obvious while walking down the street is that this country is in a serious relationship with ice cream -- zmrzlina. It costs only 8ks (38¢ by today's rate) for a one scoop cone, and it totally hits the spot. People start eating ice cream well before noon, and it continues all day. I think it would be considered the hilt of bad manners to eat a sandwich while walking down the street, but it is totally socially acceptable to eat ice cream while walking down the street, which is a really nice thing to do.