Thursday, August 12, 2010

Chicken and Eggs

I know some of you are going to find this one amusing. Claire and I went to the grocery store yesterday. They were having a sale. If you bought 150NIS worth of groceries you got a good deal on meat. We got 3 whole chickens, half of a fourth one, and about 2lbs of ground beef for 60NIS. Meat is expensive here normally just the 2lbs of ground beef would have cost 60NIS. The chicken was so fresh it still had some feathers on it. :)

Now for the amusing part neither one of us had ever cooked a whole chicken before. Claire had to call her mother for instructions. Notice they give you the chicken with the neck still attached. I had never seen a chicken with the neck still attached like this. Claire and I weren't sure if you could eat the neck or not so she cut it off. It turns out you can eat the neck so we will know for next time.








Here we have the chicken cooking in our oven. Its a real oven just very small we had to convert the temperature to Celsius. The pot is thin enough that the chicken would cook through it. We don't have any baking pans currently.










The finished product Claire used a chicken seasoning mix. The chicken was wonderful. It was nice to have meat again.












I think I mentioned in my food post how fresh the eggs are here. I decided to show you. Also notice the pastries. They look like cinnamon rolls when you first look at them but its better than that. They are chocolate rolls! And yes that is a spork!










I forgot to include this in the food post. As you might be able to tell from the logo these are Doritos. These are just plain corn chips, we don't have this kind in the United States. This is slightly larger than the lunch size sold in America I think it's 70 grams of chips. This is the largest bag of chips they sell in Israel. I'm not sure if chips aren't as popular here or if its difficult to make kosher chips.













I managed to get this picture out my window yesterday while the chicken was cooking. The mourning doves here look almost exactly the same as they do back home. I've been trying to get pictures of the wild life but the birds aren't being cooperative. I'm also going to try to get some pictures up of the cats that live in the student village.







I also wanted to mention that starting after sundown on August 10 it is the month of Ramadan. Ramadan is a Muslim fasting holiday. The Muslim calendar is lunar so the dates of their holidays change every year. During Ramadan Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset this includes no drinking, no eating and no marital relations for the entire month. Muslims pray more often during this month asking for forgiveness of sins. The fasting teaches patience.

4 comments:

  1. What good fortune to catch a great sale on meat. I'm learning meat is expensive and not a cultural favorite like in the states. The chicken looks delicious and I know you two are pleased with the outcome. Meat does give you a fuller feeling than vegetables. I know in your Mt. Scopus Student Village kitchens are not equipped with ovens and you have to find other ways to get around that. I assume you had to buy that little oven yourselves or borrowed it.

    I like seeing what the birds and animals look like. I would ask about bugs and insects but am not sure I want to know.

    Love,
    Mom

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  2. Hello, Anna!
    I enjoyed reading some of your blog entries. I am a friend of Claire's (also a neighbor, former
    Sunday School teacher and former Brownie GS leader). It looks as if you two are eating well. Stay safe and God bless.
    Ginger

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  3. AC, that mourning dove looks like he sitting on some sort of dome structure. Since you said it was out your window I was confused. Went back to the post where you showed your dorm. One of those pictures was of "Casa Argentina"'s front door. To the left was some sort of light pole with a dome on top which, though it looked black rather than white, was similar. But to get the view of the dove if it was sitting on that, you'd have to be on the second floor. So the question that's got me flummoxed is, which floor of CA is AC on?

    Is that coffee you're having with breakfast? What did you drink with the chicken? white wine? sweet tea? hibiscus tea?

    Have a beautiful, carnivorous day.

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  4. It's interesting that the chicken still had some feathers and the neck was still attached. Getting food that's that fresh has to be better from a nutritional standpoint since the nutrition starts to break down immediately and that was so fresh. I have to say that I'd never thought about eating the neck before. (And, since I never have, I'm okay with leaving it that way!)
    I'm assuming you have enough freezer space for some of the meat and chickens, right?

    By the way, does the mourning dove know that he/she was featured in the post with another bird that you just happened to take a picture of.... and then cook and eat? I'll be interested to know if you ever see that mourning dove again.

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