Going Native

 

The woman across the street is in her 80’s and keeps a gated garden just below the cemetery.  It has vegetables, fruit trees, and chickens.  Since our arrival she has been bringing us eggs, apricots, and small variety of sour cherries that are ripe now and seem to be everywhere.  The cherries (about the size of chickpeas) are pitted, boiled with a little water, lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon, and then served over fresh yogurt for dessert.  It is, in native parlance, no'steemo (delicious).

There is a young couple in the neighborhood that has children who play in our alley way.  The children’s father is a jack of many trades.  He wears red bib overalls and fishes.  The day before yesterday his wife brought us a plastic bag full of fresh fish her husband had just caught and cleaned as sort of a “welcome back to the neighborhood” gift.  They were typical of the fish the villagers eat at home, grilled whole over a charcoal fire, and dressed with a sauce made of onion, parsley, oregano, and olive oil.

 

At an open air market yesterday, we picked up some eggplant, a variety of green beans that only grow on the terraced hillsides among the grape vines, and some lemons.  Lemon trees are common here and can produce fruit the size of oranges, so lemons are inexpensive.  Everyone makes liberal use of them.

Last night Kathy cooked the green beans and I grilled the fish and sliced eggplant over a hot charcoal fire in the alley.  The eggplant was seasoned with olive oil and a little sea salt then cooked crispy on the outside.  I brushed the fish with olive oil, dusted them with sea salt and pepper, then cooked them whole ‘til the skin was crisp.  Everything, including the cold water, was served with fresh lemon slices.  We had yogurt and sour cherries for dessert. Kathy washed it all down with a locally produced white wine that comes in clear half liter bottles that are sealed with the old fashioned, non screw, bottle caps.  It’s very inexpensive and a big favorite with the locals.  Kathy, who prefers her fish boneless, raved about how surprisingly good the grilled fish were.



photos by Newell

 



We played Gin in the alley until after 10:00 pm.  Kathy lost, and by custom (loser washes)  she got stuck with doing the dishes.  As luck would have it the water was off again, so to compound the penalty, she had to heat bucket water on the stove to wash the dishes.