Long day on the road today. The distance is short but the time spent sitting in gridlock traffic takes twice as long to get to your destination. Horrendous traffic. Move over, LA. It was not like this on my previous trip. More Albanians can afford cars in recent years so now most roads in big cities are congested at all hours of the day. Traffic comes to a painful crawl before enter the city from the motorway. The air quality is so bad. I wear 2 masks and the one on the outside turns black.
Finally got to our lovely guest house here in coastal town Durres(i), not far from the capital. Saw this local restaurant around the corner from my guest house and decided we would eat there. Well, we went there straight away after getting the key to the room. A small family-run restaurant, 2 women in the kitchen and a young man takes care of the customers. He's professional and speaks excellent English.
Typical Albanian dishes, with lots of vegs, carbs and very little meat. First dish is slow-cooked beef with cabbage. This one piece of meat is perfect size for us, that's usually how much meat we eat at home.
"Oven potatoes". Not golden roast potatoes we had in mind. They were quite wet. Must have been cooked in the oven then let sit in a savoury broth.
Bake yoghurt. Another typical winter dish. Came with a small piece of meat. Yoghurt was good and creamy.
I thought I ordered mixed grilled vegetables. It's mixed vegetables but in a broth (the vegs were cooked separately).
And mixed pickles
Checked out a couple of supermarkets nearby after eating. Italian supermarket chain Conad is sucessful here in Albania. Conad is everywhere and stocks mostly Italian products. We don't have this kind of amazing supermarkets at home in (food) hell.
Fancy salami comes in a gift box that looks like an old book.
Opposite the supermarket is a dairy shop that sells products from a certain dairy producer. I got fresh ricotta and yoghurt.
Lovely airy bread from a bakery a few steps from my lodging.
Albanian wine. Pretty good.
Ate this in my room later. Bread: 60 cents. Wine: $10. Yoghurt and ricotta: $1.40 (for both)
Smithy, re kiwis. He wants to try something different.
