And it actually wasn’t that bad.
Our host here in Albania is pastor Erion and his wonderful family. He has a wife and two young children. Last night they treated the 7 of us to dinner! I think it was the first truest Albanian meal we have had so far and it was AMAZING. We keep asking what typical Albanian food means and they always answer with MEAT. Any kind of meat, mostly lamb, is included in any Albanian dish.
I guess I’m not very Albanian as I’ve had a lot of veggie pizza and pasta and cheese…
At dinner, our host ordered for the table and ordered everything family style. First came out a delicious salad and then cornbread covered in some kind of yogurt and olive oil. May sound strange but it was yummy!
Next out was lamb heart and liver. Pretty good stuff. I had tried all of that in Asia so I was used to the taste. Sarah (who is a nurse) and I were having fun identifying the different atrium and ventricles of the heart.
They then brought out fries! Delicious, good ‘ol greasy fries. Along with that came the actual lamb meat and some bread.
SO MUCH FOOD.
Erion said he only ordered half the food that most Albanians could down. We could not even keep up a little bit. Thankfully his family was going to take the leftovers and have their friends over to finish them.
And then they brought the lamb head out….my host was laughing because previous world race teams had been so grossed out by it and wouldn’t try it. But I couldn’t miss such an opportunity! I dug my fork into the lamb brain and took a bite. I personally thought it tasted like mashed potatoes but Hillary said that I was very incorrect about that. Wasn’t bad though.
Erion holding half of the lamb head (cornbread/yogurt are in front of him also)
On the plates with lamb meat we noticed the round pieces that we weren’t sure what body part they were. We had guessed kidneys but our host laughed again as he popped one into his mouth. Kidneys? Nope. Try testicle instead.
I took a small piece and took a bite. (In case you can’t tell, I love trying new things. In Asia I tried dog, tarantula, a whole crispy frog, spicy snails etc) Again, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I don’t think it will be my new favorite snack, but it didn’t make me want to throw up!
It was so kind of our host to treat us. We have been so blessed by him and his family this past week. Even his father (who we call Papa) lives in our apartment building and is helping take care of us. A few days ago he had to knock on our door and return all of our laundry that had blown off the line…
Grateful we get to spend two more weeks with this beautiful family in this beautiful country!
Also funny sidenote…there was a TV at the restaurant and the movie playing was Taken. Albania is where the daughter in the movie gets taken to. Ironic?
