Cereal?

The other day I had the experience of being served ‘cereal’ in Azerbaijan.

When I think of cereal I think of Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and Cocoa-Puffs. When I think of cereal I think of cold 1% milk. That is the picture in my head when I think of cereal, in the US at least.

A typical bowl of cereal in the US

But as it stands, I am not in the US and sometimes I am really reminded of that fact. ‘Cereal’ in Azerbaijan is quite different from cereal in the US. The basic fundamentals of cereal remain the same, there is grain and there is milk, but that is where the similarities end.

The first big difference between US and Azeri cereal is the temperature All my life I have eaten cold cereal (even though there’s hot cereal in the US I’ve never eaten it). However, in Azerbaijan cereal is always served piping hot. The reason it is served hot, is because you must boil the milk.

My host mom purchases village milk, what this means in terms of consumption is that the milk is not pasteurized in any capacity. If milk isn’t pasteurized it can make one ill, that is why the milk is boiled, to rid it of offending bacteria.

Real confession time: I totally thought the end had come when I saw the milk she had bought. I’m far too polite to turn anything down, but I flat out knew if I drank that milk I was going to very ill. You know that feeling you get when you’re saved by the bell? Yeah, that was me, total relief when I saw she was boiling the milk, but I was still a little bit suspicious. End confession.

As she was boiling the milk, she put in some grain in as well. The grain was very thin, and came in little strips, in fact it almost looked like very short angel hair….That’s because it was pasta (on another occasion I had cereal she actually put in white rice instead of pasta)! Yes, she put pasta (white rice) into the boiling milk! Hmmmm…Well I told myself that US cereal is a grain, and pasta is a grain, it should work, substitutes and all that jazz.

My cereal

So I’m watching her when she takes out a rather large measuring cup, and dumps about a mountain of sugar into the milk and pasta mix. She then begins to serve the ‘cereal’ (see why I use quotes!), I’m suspicious, but, I’m down to try anything once.

Well, for me personally, the ‘cereal’ began as a food battle and turned into a food win. I like the cereal here. Is it healthy? Well probably not, but then again is cereal in the US healthy?

The cereal here is different, that’s for sure, but I’m glad to have added an item onto my small list of things I actually like to eat in Azerbaijan. Honestly, y’all out there in the US should try it…at least once!