Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Stray Thoughts

Well, although my Turkish restaurant lunch was delicious, it wasn't what I thought is was going to be.  The Romanian menu word was berbecut so I made the (false) assumption that it would be grilled meat over rice.  It seems that berbecut means ram, as in male sheep.  So I started with a rich lentil soup followed by boiled ram over well spiced rice.  A dish of yogurt on the side added to the flavor.  It was good.

While in the restaurant, I noticed that we were the only ones sitting in the non-smoking room.  That's my stray thought:  everywhere we've gone, the level of smoking among both men and women and teens is really high.  I've seen kids who were obviously too young to smoke, puffing away.  In Moldova, a carton of Marlboro Red (locally produced under Marlboro supervision) cost 140 Moldovan Lei - about $12.50 in US dollars.

And water.  People drink a lot of water.  Apa plata is "flat" water or no gas.  Apa minerala is gassy or sparkling water.  Both are equally popular.

And eating outside.  I have been completely happy eating outside every day.  but now the really nice weather seems to have moved into cooler, wetter weather, so two days ago, I started eating inside.  You really notice people smoking when you're inside.

That's enough stray thinking for one day.


3 comments:

  1. Wow, people actually drink lots of water there. Maybe they can teach us Americans a lesson or two. It's rainy and chilly here too. In the 50's today with peeks of sunshine. Glad you are enjoying yourself.

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  2. Love reading your blog and look forward to every entry and whatever you will eat next. No chicken wings?

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  3. I've been off soda and increased my water intake for about a month now. I feel much better. Of course, I still have to have my coffee :-) I've been trying to imagine how the coffees in the places you've visited taste and smell. I remember my first experience with cappuccino - I was stationed in Sardinia. It was more robust and intense. That's probably true of everywhere you've gone in Europe.

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