"you're like spongebob because you make crabbie patties"

20 December 2009
The Hamburger Adventure:

I am exhausted. So much for Sunday being my day of rest. Haha I spent the last six hours making hamburgers for my family, a meal that I won’t even eat. Background info: My family, along with my two host aunts’ families bought a cow…. And then killed it. As I was sitting around with my family as they prepared the meat to freeze/whatever they do with it, they thought it was really cool when I explained that in America, my family does the same thing, the buying a cow and splitting up all the meat thing… not the salting it and put it in huge buckets around the house thing. We got to talking about American food and about “gamburgers” which are the Kyrgyz equivalent of hamburgers that you can buy in the cities. I explained that the burgers in Karakol aren’t really the same as American burgers, because they don’t use ground beef and make a pattie. So, somehow I ended up volunteering to make hamburgers for my family. So that is the background info. I started off this afternoon by making Watergate salad from the stuff that momma sent in the package. I feel like I nearly broke my wrist whipping up the dream whip, which is much harder to do by hand btw, but it was a HUGE hit. My whole family loved it. So for the burgers, first we made bread for the rolls. Then, we started making burgers. Our electric meat grinder is broken, so we used my aunt’s hand crank meat grinder to make ground beef. Well, we TRIED to use it, but the blade was messed up and we were able to ground about two patties worth before we called it quits. I spent the next two hours or so with my sisters cutting up a hunk of meat into small enough pieces to resemble ground meat. And you all know how much I love touching meat. (I’m not sure if the sarcasm translates here haha) We made the patties, then started cutting up potatoes for French fries, because who can have a good ol’ fashioned burger without fries? Right? I should mention here that we only have one burner. So, for the sake of time, we decided to cook the burgers in the oven, and the fries on the burner. Oh, and I made cole slaw because I figured I needed to eat something, too. haha There were like 10 people eating, with my family, and the contractors who are living with us. My littlest sister told me as we sat down to eat that we started cooking at one, and ate at seven. What a day. And all that for hamburgers that I don’t eat. Haha. It is funny because as I was making Watergate salad this morning, Apa commented on how fast American food can be made. I told her it was faster because we bought everything and just prepared it as opposed to making it from scratch. After making bread, grinding meat, cutting potatoes, and making cole slaw all from hand… I want to retract that statement. Haha

Almost every time I make food in this country it turns into an adventure. I’m never really sure if they like it, but I have received a request from my host uncle to make another carrot cake for new years, so I guess that they like it.

Miss you,
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess