Delicious Treats.

A lot of people ask me about the food I’ve been eating. And as I’ve probably said in past entries, I can’t complaint…I mean aside from too much oil, carbs and salt that is. But since I like Indian food and I have a resident mother cooking for me every lunch and dinner, it’s a pretty good situation. There are few things I don’t eat. Since Mrs M doesn’t eat or cook meat or eggs I never hesitate to try anything new. I have no fear of strange vegetables. But this outlook doesn’t necessarily hold true for Mrs. Moule’s dairy dishes—usually served in the form of sweets. During the first week she served me delicious rice pudding that really got me excited for the dessert to come. A few weeks later she handed over a bowl of what I thought was the same rice pudding and I exclaimed my excitement to my roommates. I didn’t understand their lack of enthusiasm for such a yummy treat…but I quickly came to find out. Although it looked and smelled like rice pudding, it was in fact a milky ‘pudding’ made with gee and what seem to be rice noodles. We have been given this gee and noodle pudding several times and each time I try it thinking I may like it, but never do. I just can’t warm up to the mixture of noodles, sweet warm milk, and the layer of oil that covers the top.

Today my roommates and I went to pick up our lunch and were met at the door by Mrs. M holding a dish of white squares we had never seen before. Every time Mrs. M gives us our food she lists off what it is. If it is common, like rice, dal, or cauliflower, we can understand, but anytime something new is introduced we have no idea what she is saying. Of course we all nod like we understand, but usually have no idea. Sometimes she makes us try it in front of her so she can see if we like it. We all agree this is not our favorite tactic b/c of course we have to pretend we like everything even if we don’t. My roommates have an especially hard time taste testing food Mrs. M gives them to see if it’s too spicy. This afternoon played out in a similar manner. Mrs. M came out of the house with a dish of white cubes. She was telling us the name, why it was special, and insisted on us all trying it on her front stoop. Of course we didn’t understand what it was, but I nodded in comprehension when I thought I understood she was telling me it was made from the milk of a baby cow—like veal, but in milk form. When she went inside to get her husband, who speaks a lot more English, I realized I clearly hadn’t understood b/c that would be impossible. When her husband came outside I came to find out I wasn’t completely off the mark. He explained this ‘special,’ expensive milk was the first milk of the cow after it gives birth and it has special properties. It took me a little while, but I realized walking back to the house that it was in fact sweetened colostrum curd. It didn’t taste bad, but I couldn’t bring myself to think about anything else than the fact that it was colostrum and all of the highly scientific things I have learned in my nutrition classes about human colostrum. As it turns out there is a bit of a colostrum frenzy around the campus today. My roommates returned from visiting their boss’s home this evening and informed me they were offered colostrum koa (a sweet dairy cookie-like treat). Apparently this milk fetches higher prices than regular milk and is often sold for that reason. Our organization discourages this practice because the colostrum is beneficial to the newborn calves. But when several cows calve at once there is an abundance of this ‘special treat’ and it is sold to the residents along side the regular milk—at a higher cost of course. Im just sad we missed the run on colostrum at the daily milk wagon! It must have been like a blue light special…unless you’re paying attention and willing to throw elbows, you will miss out on this one day sale. We were brought a second, very sugary, colostrum treat for dinner too. Maybe we will be able to sell our now stockpiled colostrum treats on the black market once the milk wagon runs dry. We’re going to make a killing!