pirun i ožica

Something quick to make and very tasty, in accordance with the amount of free time I have the last few days :)

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My Dad is a diabetic. When he fond out the diagnosis, my mother tried to lower his blood sugar levels by diet which he strictly followed. Now he takes medicines, but he still tries to avoid eating food he shouldn’t, and he doesn’t consume any sugar. At the beginning it was hard for him to get used to skipping desserts, but now you can find all kinds of stuff for diabetics, in bigger supermarkets. There are sugar free chocolates, cookies, wafels etc.

When making desserts for diabetics, sugar (sucrose) can be replaced by some substitutes (fructose, sorbitol, Maltitol). I can usually find only fructose in the stores here. But making a replacement is not so simple. Firstly, you have to put in a smaller amount of fructose (instead of 100gr of normal sugar you have to put in approx 60 gr fructose), and also because of the different chemical composition, cakes turn out noticeably different! This especially tends to be true for creamy cakes, but dry cookies usually turn out much better and you can’t really taste the difference from the ones made with sugar.

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My first encounter with  sweet-salty combination was in Hong Kong. I was 16 years old. Until then, I was out of the country only once, and I was accustomed mostly to my mother’s way of cooking.

I very well remember the day I left. Proudly wearing a shirt that had Montenegro written on it, I could hardly wait for my adventure to begin. My family went with me to the airport, still not believing that I have so much courage to go alone into something completely out of my comfort zone. Later, when I rethought some of my life decisions, I wondered what was I thinking. The only conclusion that I could draw is that the insanity of my decisions came from being young. Each adventure occurred without much thinking. Now I wouldn’t even think of going impulsively to Thailand with just a backpack, not knowing where I am going to sleep that night, and probably would not so easily go hiking through Yunnan province when I can’t speak any Chinese.

However, the two years in Hong Kong were interesting from culinary aspect as well. I went there thinking I was so open-minded that I would try anything! But then … Let’s say that my experience is divided: the first year I kept to international cuisine and refused to try something that even “sounded” strange, while the second year I ate nothing but Chinese food and a variety of unusual dishes (I even tried the so-called stinking fruit, i.e. durian ). I lived on campus in a very international school, for which I received a scholarship (UWC), and whose canteen had this division between the Western and Eastern cuisine. Now I regret that I didn’t dare to eat Eastern dishes until the second year. And now I miss Chinese food. There are a couple of Chinese restaurants here, but those are not even vaguely reminiscent of the real Chinese food. W. For years I haven’t eaten Chinese steamed fish, mooncakes, hand-pulled noodles, Bing Tang Hulu in Beijing, or fresh dumplings from bamboo steamers…

Coming back to this sweet-salty combination. It has nothing to do with Chinese cuisine, but this salad with pineapple reminded of those days. I remember one time my mom called and I said: “These are crazy, they combine everything together. I love prawns, and I love pineapple, but not mixed together!”  I had no idea what good food is :) (more…)

While I lived in Italy I ate pasta virtually every other day. Prepared in million different ways. I still would, but it bothers me that now in Montenegro I can’t find some basic ingredients like fresh basil or pinoli available every day. I could keep a small basil plant in my apartment, but I am sure it would be doomed to die very soon. The only plant I have is a small bonsai tree in the corner of the living room, and that survives only because it can last without water for 5 days (maybe even longer but I haven’t forgotten about it for more than 5 consecutive days :)) Anyway, as far as I know, there is only one stand that sells fresh basil on the farmers’ market in Podgorica. And he sells it in a large plastic container, the size of a family ice cream package. That is definitely too much for me (unless making pesto), so I don’t buy it very often. But it’s important that it’s there when I need it. :))

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