Noroc!

Time to travel to Japan from Moldova! On Tuesday night I prepared Japanese curry for Vera, Amelia, and Angee. I took such a long time at the grocery store deciding on which rice to buy because I had never seen any of the brands before! I also grabbed some green peppers and chicken.

When I got back I realized I had no idea how to cook rice in a pot…rice cookers are the best! Well that’s what the Internet is for –precisely these situations! So I just went for it and my rice turned out fairly decent for my first time using a pot! The curry itself was probably the best I had made so far because I didn’t make the mistake of adding too much water. I think the only thing that was a bit off was the carrots –they were a little undercooked in my opinion. Still, I loved having my good old rice and curry again! And I hope Vera, Amelia, and Angee liked it too!

Angee in turn was planning an Ecuadorian dish for Friday night so on Thursday we went shopping for her ingredients. As expected, they did not have plantains. Angee was persistent so she tried to ask the employee but of course they pointed her to the bananas. We made do with French fry substitutes. Angee prepared for us Ceviche, a shrip-salsa-soup hybrid with limes, pepper, tomatoes, and orange, and parsley and other ingredients. What she didn’t know was that the shrimp were already pre-cooked. She put them into boiling water for about 10 minutes and when we peeled the shells and heads off they were tiny! All the better for me though, because I’m so unused to eating shrimp so the more unrecognizable, the better!

Her dinner presentation was much better than mine, as you can see! I loved having the rice with the dish and the French fries were a great substitute. To compliment the dinner we had Chisinau beer and some homemade wine. Delicious!

I returned to their house on Saturday night for a traditional Moldovan dinner prepared by Nina, Angee’s host mother. She is an amazing cook, just like Vera! She made for us all mămăigă (cornbread-polenta dish), grilled pork, smîntîna (sour cream), svecla (pickled and shredded beets), brînza (cheese), and some sausage and salad greens. Previously I had not liked mămăigă very much but Nina’s mamaliga is out of this world! It was so moist and soft to eat, and the perfect combination between the pork, smîntîna, and brînza!

Angee lives with Nina and her husband, twin sisters Christina and Ioana, and another person from the US here on a language program, Stefan. Their house is always quite lively and entertaining. I’m not sure I could keep up with all the energy though! I enjoy the quiet atmosphere that I can get in Vera’s house. Both worlds are different and it is quite interesting to view the spectrum of hosting!