That's right. I said it: meat.
I rarely get to eat meat. I mean, I rarely buy meat. It is expensive (when compared with all the other things I could buy with meat money) and to be honest, a little gross. You haven't really lived until you've been to an Azerbaijani meat bazar. Those are pretty strong words, but I'm standing by them - an Azerbaijani meat bazar is something to see.Anyway, the point is that I rarely get to eat meat and I love meat. I'm a red meat fanatic. I tried once to be a vegetarian (I made it for a couple years), but gave up my socio-political stance for a medium-rare steak.
And of course, living in Alaska, I get a fair amount of free-ranging tundra meat, so...it could be worse.
I had a point...oh yeah, so, I rarely get to eat meat in Azerbaijan. Usually, I only eat red meat when I've been invited to someone's house, or when I invite myself over. In Azerbaijan, I often make the deal: if I bring the meat, will you teach me to make [insert Azerbaijani meal here]?
This time, I convinced Könül to teach me to make dushbere [link]. A delicious, garlicy, dumpling soup, I love this stuff. It was soooo goood.It takes a bit of work (reserve at least 3 hours), but it is worth it. When I visit AK, I will totally make this at anybody's house...I mean, if you provide the ground sheep meat :)
