Hi friends,
I have had a few people ask what the food is like here, and how is the eating going, so I thought I'd dedicate a blog to that very subject. what can we eat here that is yummy for our tummy!
Well firstly let me say we have been pleasantly surprised at the food we are able to get at the shops and the meals we can make. In fact if you are willing to pay any money, then pretty much anything is available at some time, but unfortunately much of it is out of our budget range! The things we miss are bacon -available sometimes but approx $32 a kilo, so we eat our eggs without bacon! Poor Tom really misses sausages which are about the same as bacon, and I've only seen them as fat frankfurt looking things.
Cheese here that is yummy and matured is scarce, as is cream cheese, sour cream or light milk. In fact any dairy on the whole is tricky to come by in any reasonably priced form except whole milk which is bought in 500ml plastic bags.......yes, I said plastic bags!You cut a whole in the corner and pour it into a jug. The cheese available is quite tasteless and difficult to melt, with a hard rind on the outside. You can also buy cream in liquid form in a bag! Again its tricky to thicken - takes about 10mins beating and then is like our unthickened back home!! I've learnt to make my own yogurt, which involves milk powder and culture, and then I add mushed up fruit here to flavour it. The kids seem to like it!
That brings me to fruit - the best bit about the food here according to our fruit bat Oli. We have fresh strawberries, mango's, bananas. oranges (a bit average in my opinion) pineapples and watermelon. They are cheap and yummy. The down side is we need to bleach it all before eating because the water and ground here contains sewrage elements, but we don't mind. We've learnt to like papaya, prickle fruit (no idea what it is!!) and salad food like cucumber, tomatos, lettuce, capsicum,avocado are easy to find. Its a pain bleaching lettuce leaves individually but beats being sick. Potatos, onions, zuchinni,garlic, eggplant (haven't got it yet - don't know what to do with it!!!) are all here.
Meat wise things are a bit scarce - we have plenty of minced beef, beef meat (but has to be slow cooked or breaks your jaw its so chewy) and whole chickens (these are pricey - about $8 an uncooked quite small chook) and did you know Aussies are the only people who call them chooks!! THe Americans here etc have no idea when I use that word!So if you put that meat with the veg available you can cook quite a number of things. Pasta, pizza is common (especially since the Italians lived here and left a legacy of food behind) and of course we eat injera and wat (the local food which we really like) We can order from outide here (like takeaway) and they bring it to our apartment and it costs about $8 for our family to eat that night!! ITs a great deal!
The things I've baked now sugar is back in town, have been lemon slice, cornflake cookies, little cakes and banana caramel tart (I found condensed milk and splurged at $5 a small can! It was worth it, althugh I had no cream to have with it!) I bought two cans, and may try to make icecream with the other if I get brave!
So there you have a run down of food. Needless to say with all that available we are not wasting away,nor in danger of losing much weight unfortunately!! The sook (small shop) down the road has lovely bread rolls fresh daily (hard and not so good on day 2) and we have jam, peanut butter (a bit runny and average but better than nothing) and we bought our own vegmite so all is good.
If at any time anyone wants to send a love package the things unavailable we would love is
dried fruit or nuts (costs a fortune here), cadbury choc (1 small block of average choc is $10) smiths chips (only have pringles here) and of course any Allens lollies. They have toffees, and wrapped fruit bonbons here but that's it! I did see Mars and Snickers, and Kinder surprise here but didn't buy. Better to stay away from such things!!!
So if after reading the list of available things and you have inspiration for meals, then drop me a line or email. I could always do with inspiration - especially for the whole chicken (that comes complete with innards!!). Just chucking it in the oven is about all I do, although my house help can also make a chicken pie which is great.
Happy eating, and watching shows like Master Chef!!!Enjoy your cheese, cold meats and horse dovours, or simply have a sausage sizzle and steak. Oh bliss!
I have had a few people ask what the food is like here, and how is the eating going, so I thought I'd dedicate a blog to that very subject. what can we eat here that is yummy for our tummy!
Well firstly let me say we have been pleasantly surprised at the food we are able to get at the shops and the meals we can make. In fact if you are willing to pay any money, then pretty much anything is available at some time, but unfortunately much of it is out of our budget range! The things we miss are bacon -available sometimes but approx $32 a kilo, so we eat our eggs without bacon! Poor Tom really misses sausages which are about the same as bacon, and I've only seen them as fat frankfurt looking things.
Cheese here that is yummy and matured is scarce, as is cream cheese, sour cream or light milk. In fact any dairy on the whole is tricky to come by in any reasonably priced form except whole milk which is bought in 500ml plastic bags.......yes, I said plastic bags!You cut a whole in the corner and pour it into a jug. The cheese available is quite tasteless and difficult to melt, with a hard rind on the outside. You can also buy cream in liquid form in a bag! Again its tricky to thicken - takes about 10mins beating and then is like our unthickened back home!! I've learnt to make my own yogurt, which involves milk powder and culture, and then I add mushed up fruit here to flavour it. The kids seem to like it!
That brings me to fruit - the best bit about the food here according to our fruit bat Oli. We have fresh strawberries, mango's, bananas. oranges (a bit average in my opinion) pineapples and watermelon. They are cheap and yummy. The down side is we need to bleach it all before eating because the water and ground here contains sewrage elements, but we don't mind. We've learnt to like papaya, prickle fruit (no idea what it is!!) and salad food like cucumber, tomatos, lettuce, capsicum,avocado are easy to find. Its a pain bleaching lettuce leaves individually but beats being sick. Potatos, onions, zuchinni,garlic, eggplant (haven't got it yet - don't know what to do with it!!!) are all here.
Meat wise things are a bit scarce - we have plenty of minced beef, beef meat (but has to be slow cooked or breaks your jaw its so chewy) and whole chickens (these are pricey - about $8 an uncooked quite small chook) and did you know Aussies are the only people who call them chooks!! THe Americans here etc have no idea when I use that word!So if you put that meat with the veg available you can cook quite a number of things. Pasta, pizza is common (especially since the Italians lived here and left a legacy of food behind) and of course we eat injera and wat (the local food which we really like) We can order from outide here (like takeaway) and they bring it to our apartment and it costs about $8 for our family to eat that night!! ITs a great deal!
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| Eating 'local' with our next door neighbours here at Bingham! |
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| Mango's and lemon slice. Yummy! The kids like helping to cook! |
If at any time anyone wants to send a love package the things unavailable we would love is
dried fruit or nuts (costs a fortune here), cadbury choc (1 small block of average choc is $10) smiths chips (only have pringles here) and of course any Allens lollies. They have toffees, and wrapped fruit bonbons here but that's it! I did see Mars and Snickers, and Kinder surprise here but didn't buy. Better to stay away from such things!!!
 |
| Max has an "icy" mug drink everyday. It was the best thing we packed!! |
Happy eating, and watching shows like Master Chef!!!Enjoy your cheese, cold meats and horse dovours, or simply have a sausage sizzle and steak. Oh bliss!
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