Food in Montenegro

So yeah, they love their meat here. Just as I'd been cutting back in the states, I now get it pretty much every meal, outside of dinner on Wednesdays & Fridays coz host family is Orthodox and kinda/sorta fasts on those days. Bread, too - I eat a SHIT. TON. of bread. Although lately I've been able to stave off SOME of it.

Other than that, I'm definitely eating much healthier than in the states. Firstly, coz there's no fast food here. There are two Burger Kings in the whole country - one in Bar, one in Podgorica - and that's it. I mean, you can still get chips and candy and soda, but my host family doesn't eat any of that so if and when I want it, it comes out of my "walkaround" money.

I was drinking Fanta orange a fair amount when I first got here - partly coz it's better than in the states. Europe requires them to actually put a little orange juice in it, AND they don't allow the cancer-causing dyes or high fructose corn syrup. But after awhile, I just got tired of soda.  Your body adjusts pretty quickly once you start eating healthier and shitty food just tastes, well, shitty.

Speaking of Fanta, and ALL their plastic bottle-capped drinks, they actually make them so that the cap screws off but stays connected by a strip of plastic so the cap doesn't roll off or get lost. Clever thing that of curse they can't do in America because, um, er, because it makes sense?

In general, food is about 33% less than in the states. And I figured that out by buying a mix of stuff during that ten day period my host family was off at the thermals, and then compared prices to Wal-Mart online. So let's say AT LEAST 33% less - and I'm in a coastal town that is more expensive.

I've also eaten more cabbage in the past 6 weeks than I have, literally, in the past 25 years - and I know that because that's when I was in Kazakhstan! lol  Still not my favorite, but I can get it down, mixed with meat (of course) and other stuff. On the plus side, I've also eaten WAY more mandarins since the trees are all over the place here - including a few in my host family's front yard.  Also happy to see they love cherries here so I've had a lot of cherry tea, cherry jam tortes, cherry juice, cherry chocolate, cherries in my yogurt, etc.  

Unfortunately, they're not big on spices. Some of the local dishes are good enough, but, again, just not spicy at all.  You'll get garlic, the occasional peppers (but noramlly sweet peppers) and maybe some salt.  They don't have salt & pepper on the table in shakers, but will sometimes have a small bowl of salt on the table fot you to get a pinch or two to sprinkle on your food. Curiously, they have a LOT of different spicy chips. Doritos are here, in multiple flavors, and there are a lot of local chips that are spicy cheese flavored, or taco flavored, or paprika, or chili, etc. I feel like that's a hint to folks to spice up their food more since the spicy chips are popular. So I do eat a fair amount of chips, still - and, again--and like the local crackers--they taste better than in the states coz there's not so much junk and presevratives in them. Actually came across a bag of "hot dog flavored!" chips the other day and tried them just to try them. It was disturbing how much they did, indeed, taste like hot dogs, and I get more than I want of those anyway so haven't bought them again.  Their chocolate is good.

A lot of folks only eat twice a day: breakfast and then a large lunch in the mid-to-late afternoon. Some folks will have a light meal or snack in the evening. Fun/weird thing: margarine comes in tubes like toothpaste. And eggs come 10 to a carton, not 12. And they also love hot dogs.  Have eaten more of those in the past 6 weeks than in the past, oh god, at least 10 years or more. 

Will end with a pic of the exterior of my host family's place, as requested by some folks. You can see my purple bouganveilla upstairs! My door is on the left: