Today's Lunch

I stepped back a bit from this project as I began to feel that I was comparing and complaining. Rather than focus on being worse off here than in Medellin, I would like to try to communicate some sense of what it's like, living in these dark days of Maracaibo and Venezuela. It's really hard for anyone not here, or who has not gone through the collapse of a country, society, economy..... to comprehend. We complain...things are indeed far from what they once were...but life goes on.

Things are not perfect in Medellin, and they are probably not as completely grim here as many outsiders might imagine.

In Medellin the supermarkets are full of choices. I had a hard time finding apple cider vinegar and kosher salt to make pickles. However, I did find pickling cucumbers, which they refer to as European cucumbers. Never have seen those here, even back in the good old days.

Here in Maracaibo we are not yet starving. Our choices and menus, however, are dictated by daily availability and shopping victories, and what we will eat has become a major preoccupation and topic of conversation.  Take today's lunch...and by lunch in Maracaibo I refer to the main cooked meal of the day. In days fondly remembered, lunch consisted of rice, plantains, beans, a veggie or salad, and some sort of meat, chicken or pork. I was lucky last night and scored a piece of decent looking meat at a decent price...not a cut you would recognize, and the description on the label was no help, but in good Venezuelan fashion I made shredded beef (carne mechada), and it came out just fine. Sliced onions and garlic into the bottom of a heavy pan, placed the mystery meat on top, seasoned it with spices, salt and pepper, added liquid to the pan, put the top on, and after a couple of hours over very low heat it was ready to fall apart into fine shreds which I mixed back into the remaining juices in the pan. Delicious, and it's been a while since we've had beef that wasn't ground, so a good start.

Normal, what used to be nationally produced, rice is not available these days. But I do have imported Arborio rice from Italy. Of course, I do. Imported products at dollarized prices are not that hard to find. So, we had risotto. I used green onions instead of white, because they were near the edge of usability and we do not waste anything anymore. Had an open bottle of white wine, mushrooms....and turkey broth. Yes, turkey. For some reason, for some time, while chicken has diappeared, the stores are full of turkey legs and wings. Don't ask me who is getting the rest of the bird, because it is only packs of legs and wings that are available. The legs are the size of small chickens (and any chicken you might find around her these days is small). You can see people run up to the meat counter thinking it is chicken, only to find large turkey legs.  Three or four of us often lunch from one roasted leg. Then I save the bones to make broth. It works. Venezuelans who never much liked turkey before are learning to eat it. At first I would see women looking perplexed at the packages of turkey legs and wings, or turning up there noses. Now they scoop up as many as they can.

Anyway...carne mechada, mushroom risotto, and...well, we each had our choice of sides. Some cole slaw from the fridge, a bit of homemade tabbouleh left from Sunday night, and an almost too ripe avocado, made into avocado-tomato salad. Waste not, want not. Nothing gets thrown out.

Not a combination we would have ever planned in days gone by, but far from starvation rations. I know, we are still among the fortunate few in Venezuela.  We buy the imported rice, and wine, mushrooms and avocados are not yet beyond our food budget. As a friend commented last night, we now pay those who work at the house more in food (breakfast, lunch) than in Bs. They benefit, but have even less choice over what they will eat than we do. We are eating rare combination, while they are truly acquiring new tastes.  It's a constant mindset of... what can I find today, what will we have for lunch, dinner....not to worry, there's always that freezer full of turkey legs.