A Couple Culinary Curiosities

One fun aspect of travel is trying new things. Sometimes, that is trying new foods. This week, I tried two, one a meal, and one an ingredient. That's not quite the word I want, but you'll decide on the right one.

We visited a restaurant in Vlorë Old Town called Gaia. Here you can get a variety of food inspired by various countries in the region. But I was particularly interested in an Albanian food: Tavë dheu. That "dh" in Albanian sounds like the voiced "th" in English, like the "th" in "this" or "that". (But not the "th" as is "thick" or "thin" which is unvoiced. Albanian has that sound, but that one they spell "th".)

Tavë dheu

Tavë dheu is a casserole cooked in a clay dish. Traditionally it has beef liver in it, though the one I had was just beef, like the muscle, not the liver. It also has a white cheese in it that translates as cottage cheese, but it is not exactly the same as what we would call cottage cheese in the USA. When served, it looks like it has a crust on top. And there is crusty layer, but it is so thin, you can't really call it a crust. Maybe a film (though that sounds unappetizing.)

What is in tavë dheu

Once you break through that top layer, you not only reach the chunks of meat, but you see the cheese and the various vegetables mixed in with it. I enjoyed it and I hope someday to maybe try to make it myself.

A look inside the tavë dheu

The other food I tried was not a meal, but a spread. See I am changing my word. You know what Nutella is, right? It's something you could spread on toast or a crepe. It's cocoa and hazelnut and a lot of sugar. It's originally a product of Italy. And yes, they have it here, it is quite popular. But that wasn't the new spread I tried as we have Nutella in the United States too.

The two "spreads" together

We tried another spread called Leona Cream. This is a product of North Macedonia. It looks to have two flavors together. Thinking this was similar to Nutella, we wanted to try it. But it isn't quite the consistency of Nutella and it seems to have no hazelnut. It is pretty much like cake frosting.

Not our favorite, but hey, sometimes you gotta try.