Cooking in Libya

I will not even try to make this post about Libyan cuisine since I have very little knowledge of it. I will however, make this post about COOKING in Libya, as in - everyday cooking while living in Libya as an expat. 

First to say, I come from the country very different than Libya. I am not saying it is always better in food department. But it is cleaner. Much much cleaner. For example meat is kept nicely packed in the cooled department of the supermarket. Also, said meat has a description stamped on the package - description which states where it comes from, what part of animal it is and what can you use it for. The vegetable comes nicely divided into types in also cooled department. On the other hand, said vegetable is plastic looking with less and less taste every year. 

So, the culture shock on buying food here was big. Actually so big that it started even before we got to Libya. In the last country we lived (another Muslim oriented country, after it popped out of Soviet Union) I have recollection of being so wary of getting meat that I can come up with only one time that I went and got real meat from the real butcher. And i still remember exact shop where I went that time... And surely, I thought, we ate more meat than that....So I had to go to my knowledge source - G, because after all he was there, to tell me what did we eat there (since I vaguely recall only frozen meat and restaurants)... And the answer was - lots of chicken (frozen) and even more meals in the restaurants... And he would know I guess since the answer was followed with accusing look. But at least they had best quality and most diverse restaurants of all the countries I ever lived. You name it, they had it. We still talk about the food there. Crappy country, all in all but if someone would offer me to spend a week there I would go just for the restaurants..... But I digress.

When we came to Libya, I was more open to local ways of shopping. The vegetables you get on stalls next to the road and meat you can get either at the butcher shop (next to the road again...) or at the butcher corner inside some supermarkets. Either way, you have to get used to shops smeared with blood (not really exaggerating) and learn how to choose meat directly from an animal... All quite dirty, but once you spend more time here, and find a butcher that you like, stay with him and you are fine. In my experience, butchers that are popular among expats are not so good. Usually, they sell expensive mediocre meat but the shop will be shiny and new. As for the prices at normal butcher, a kilo of chicken breasts is 6 dinars or so, kilo of beef steak (but not sirloin quality) is 15-20 dinars, lamb leg would be between 15-20 dinars for a kilo. I must admit that these prices are prone to +/- since I tend to buy lot of meat in one go so I am never sure how much is what. But I am sure it is much much cheaper than in Europe. There is also camel meat, whole chickens (quite skinny, gasp...did they actually grow them naturally and not stuff them with corn fused with growing hormones), ocassional rabbit, turkey breasts, quails. I once asked for a duck at my butcher and they all had a good laugh. 

Fish. Is. Very. Good. Here. 

This is Mediterranean after all.

There used to be fish market just outside Medina, but then one day bulldozers came and tore it down. Just like that. Some of the stalls moved 100 meters down the road towards Dat Alimat towers and the others 5 km up the sea road just after Hofra. Then, there is Hofra. A small fish market where you can buy fish and then get it grilled in restaurant of your choice. All fish markets smell horrible and that is because they really don't clean them every day (or ever). so all the fish blood and more is basically smeared around the stalls. However if you get past that (I always rinse my flip-flopped feet with water when we get back to the car) the fish is mostly excellent quality. And as in anywhere else, you have to know how to recognize fresh fish. And my favorite part is that they will clean all your fish for small fee. And they clean it very good. 

Vegetables are a bit on the dry side (this is dessert after all) and tend to be full of spots and faults. Not the kind you get in most supermarkets these days where every tomato is perfect red and without blemishes... Luckily for me, I like them more this way. I can get most vegetables I use at home and some more that I didn't use until now. Fruit is similar. I would say they don't use much chemicals on anything. Best indication is that if you don't eat it soon after you get it, it rots. As it should.

As for other food, bread is extremely cheap here since it is subsidized by government, but if you are used to diverse bread loafs that you can buy in Europe, forget about it. Most bread products are small white wheat buns which are good as long as you eat them same day. Croissants are very nice if you find them just out of oven... And there is something similar to nan bread, which is again good when hot. 

As for all the normal supermarket produce, it is available. Like in any other country, it will be somewhat adapted to local food culture. So, there will be easy to find humus in the can while red beans might be more rare. Maybe there will be 2 types of peanut butter and not the one that you get at home. It is very likely that you will not be able to find some specific food that you could easily find at home. If that is such a big deal you can always haul them from every trip home or get them shipped here. 

Dairy products are a bit disappointing here for me. I adore natural yoghurts and cow cheese (white fresh one) and I didn't find yet one that is to my taste. But then again, this is not the first country I lived in and I never managed to find it anywhere than at home. Bit demanding in this department, but then again it makes my trips home all the more special. They do have danone dairy stuff and more. As for cheese, there is frico (dutch) and some more dutch normal cheeses like gouda, masdaam etc. There is crappy mozzarella type cheese and some brie which is extreme expensive here. You can also get fresh milk in 5 liter canisters from local dairy shops but I haven't found one where they speak English yet so it is not clear is it camel, sheep or cow milk. And sometimes it is actually yoghurt. A bit confusing, so I gave up.

Also, in even the smallest supermarket there is quite big range of gluten free products. 

Good sides of food in Libya.

There is huge selection of exotic (for me) spices that are really fresh, cheap and interesting. Lamb in Europe is quite expensive and difficult to get, while here it is the most common meat. At vegetable stands they sell parsley, basil, coriander, celery leaves (and other spices that I don't know English name of) almost for free and the quantities you get in one bunch are huge. To compare, last time I was in Netherlands we paid over a Euro for 1/10 quantity of basil that we get here. Fish is very good and very cheap. Kilo of baby tuna is going for 6 dinars and it is so good that G eats it fresh. They have unbelievable amount of different type of nuts and dried fruits here, also cheap cheap. Then, there are dates. I am not into them, but I bring them home to my friends and family and they love them. Apparently they are more jucy and flavored than the ones they buy in supermarkets. Here they sell them by kilo for 4-10 dinars depending on the quality. You can get lots of different stuff made from the dates, like syrup, little woven baskets with squashed dates mixed with some sort of nuts (I guess) inside, date paste and of course fresh ones. Olives are also big part of Libyan cuisine and there are dozens different types to get. Now it is the season for fresh mango and papaya and they are available at every stall. Green chilli pepers.  

Bad sides. Uhm, ok here we go. 

Fresh tomatoes that we can get here are of the Roma tomato type which is the one that gets canned as pelati. So, not so flavorful to eat in a salad, but excellent for cooking soups and making sun dried tomatoes. Weird bread. No smoked meat products like sausages, hams etc. No alcohol in shops. 

So, what I learned here. Every time I go home I bring with me some stuff that I really enjoy and appreciate. From the last trip I brought big slab of proscuitto, sheep milk matured cheese, smoked sausages and some spices I can not get here. I don't bring that much since I also have clothes in my baggage so there is room only for little bit, but I like to have something from home.. 

Another thing I learned is to appreciate different types of food I can get here and to use it to the maximum. There are stuff here that I just wouldn't try at home and they usually turn out to be great. I got Indian and Arabic cookbook and it is easy to use it since all the staples are easily available. This way i am trying new food to the extent that I would not go if we lived at home. And to make things better, I am not working now so I finally have time to experiment, cook proper food and spend time on it. And that will change as soon as we move out of here and I start working again....

Do I miss food that makes home home? Yes, of course I do. But not so much to keep on nagging about it. Probably because I can get to know other cuisine that i would not experience if we did not live here. And I know that when we move out I will miss food here and will be bringing lots of stuff with me back home.

Bringing your Car into Libya

I have meant to post about this for a while now. Maybe, just maybe there is some poor soul out there which wants to bring a car to Libya and is stuck just like I was. So here is  some info from my side.

One thing you should know before I start. If you really really like your car (maybe even have nickname for it) and if it is fancy dont bother bringing it here. Most cars here are marked by long scratches, missing bumpers and mirrors caused by overall crappy driving. You might be good driver yourself but there is only so much you can do here. There is only one word for traffic here - crazy.
Maybe you would consider buying a car in Libya. The tax is almost non-existent and almost every 2 weeks another boatload of new cars arrives here. If you want used car, expat community is quite large and there are always people coming and going, wanting to sell or buy.

But if you are determined to bring your car here, this might help. 

So, first thing you should do is export it from your own country. Procedure for that, obviously depends on country to country. But the idea is that you can not "import" vehicle in one country if it is not exported from the other one. Once you export it and get bunch of paperwork for it, you will be given set of export license plates which are usually valid for a month or so. Do not forget to take an insurance for this period, because generally, you will not be covered once you export it.

And then you have a month to make it to Libya.




At the time of our trip, there were no ferries going to Libya from Europe. We took the second best thing - Tunisia. There are ferries from France and Italy. These are some pages you can use to check the timetables and book the tickets.

http://www.directferries.co.uk/tunis_ferry.htm
http://www.southernferries.co.uk/ctn_ferries.htm

We took a SNCM ferry from Genoa to Tunis. I remember that we did not think we will make it on time, since we started our trip to Genoa a bit too late. Due to trying to fit objects in the car that were obviously not going to fit. And then enthusiastically repacking entire car few times thinking that if we just.. just..move this box here and that lamp shade there it will all fit in. You see, we were bringing car load of stuff with us. Stuff that we (by we I mean me)  needed pronto and therefore they were not in the shipment that left month before and that would arrive who knows when. So when we finally did leave it looked like we are not going to be on time for ferry.

But no need to worry. When we finally arrived in the port, ferry was still there, and few thousands of people did not even start to board it. And my fear that we will be the only black sheep with car filled up to the roof shattered immediately. We actually looked organized compared to other cars since we did not have anything on the roof. I saw a car packed full only with toilet paper, one with several 2nd hand mattresses on the roof and several more with toilet paper. It seems that for some reason toilet paper is quite expensive in Tunisia..Maybe they have some special tax on it.

Anyway, once we got in the port we had to bring our passports and car paperwork to customs building. At least I think it was customs. Those few thousands people were trying to do exactly the same and lets just say that queuing in line is something that is not commonly understood with people from North Africa. I am pretty sure we had to fill in some papers and get them stamped. After few hours doing that, we finally emerged out just to find all the cars still in the same place. By the time we boarded the ferry we were 3 hours late with timetable and no one seemed even little bit bothered by it. 

Due to booking the ferry too late, we had to book ourselves into luxurious double berth. SNCM website gave us only that option and it was good that it did. It was huge! Double bed, big bathroom, seating area with TV, complementary fruit basket. Very nice indeed. And it was cheaper than 2 berth cabin we booked next time...

So after leaving our stuff we went to the deck bar. There we could have Heineken and look down at the custom officers doing nothing. At that point there were cars still boarding the ferry. 

Ferry left the port with over 6 hours delay. And from what I heard, it is not unusual.

22 hours later we disembarked in Tunis. After getting through the customs there (you need to buy Tunisian insurance for passing through Tunisia) we started towards Libya. Road is a highway for big part and as you approach Libya it is a local road so things go slower.

Now, if you are still not put off brining car with you go on, read more.

The most important thing to have on Libyan border is a connection.

In Libya, little can be done without "knowing" the right person. So the first thing on the list should be to find someone who will meet you at the border and get you and your car into Libya. That someone will be paid and he will have friend/cousin/father/uncle working at the border. That friend/cousin/father/uncle will push through the paperwork (it is his job after all) and will also have to be paid.

So when we came to the border at 7AM we had a "Libyan friend" waiting for us on Tunisian side. We were pushed through diplomatic line and were on Libyan side within 5 minutes. Then our papers were dispatched back to the tunisian border control.  After finishing that the same papers were taken to the Libyan border control. And then things got slower. I guess too many people have a "friend" at the border so it is difficult to get priority...  To cut the story short, it took 7 hours to get through. That, by Libyan standards is short. We met truck drivers who were literally stuck there for 2 weeks, sleeping under their trucks and living from tea and sandwiches...

At some point I stopped listening to what was done, but I remember that if you import the car in Libya you have to pay import tax. How that tax is calculated is not clear. We paid 600 Libyan dinars or something like that. Secondly, the car got test plates (very shitty looking plates with green numbers) which would suffice until we got to Tripoli where we had to register the car. Another thing that our "friend" did for us. 

At one point, we were informed that the car is not going to be cleared same day and we had to reload ALL the stuff from our car to the taxi. The fact that the stuff were not checked with customs and that the car was not cleared yet did not stop our "friend" to drive it half a km down the road where the taxis were. In the end, the car was cleared and we could go.

Now, I will tell you a little story, but in no way I am implying that we did that.

Lets say that the car was not exported from its original country. That it was indeed still registered there. That the license plates on the car were still original license plates. That the name on the car papers was "hers". And then in one office on the Libyan border  the name on the car papers became "his" and the car got Libyan import papers. And set of Libyan plates. And at no time, no one in that office questioned where is the real owner of the car....or why the car has no export papers....

And lets also say that when the time came to take the car from Libya back to its original country, the couple ignored all the advice. That they packed the bags, loaded the car and went back to that same border. This time without a "friend". And when asked where they were going that they said Djerba. And that they kept on  driving all the way to Tunis where they boarded the boat, sailed a bit and disembarked in Marseilles. And lets also say that they did all that with Libyan license plates. And that they did not pay Tunisian insurance and unless you count Libyan insurance that they drove car all over Europe with no insurance. And that they passed through several borders and not one custom officer asked anything. Lets just say that...

Some story, huh?

Ah, and the cost info. The ferry price depends on the size of the car and of course kind of cabin. For the price of driving to the ferry port you can check viamichelin.com which is quite accurate and includes petrol and toll cost. Than add tax paid at the libian border and money paid for plates and car paperwork and you could be looking to few thousand euros or so. Again, it depends on several things and no one knows how much is tax on libian border going to be. 

My advice as someone who actually went through all of this is - do not bring your car to Libya. get one once you are in the country.

Next Location

Decision made!

Last 2 countries I lived in were Muslim. First one was not Arab so it was not as bad as here, but it was not good either. By my standards. I come from different culture and I am used to more personal freedom and less oppressive life than here. To put it mildly.

Now, I might be wrong to connect most bad things in my life in these countries to living in a Muslim country.  And, I am aware that there are worse places to live than these 2 countries, but I also have no intention going there. And hence, based on my perhaps short experience and personal requirements, I made a decision.

Next location is not going to be an Arab country or a country where Islam is major religion. The map bellow shows nicely which countries are these.

picture from wikipedia

So if there is anyone who would offer me or G a job in countries marked with gray... Well, bring it on! ;) Top of the list would be Brasil, Australia, NZ, whole of Europe and SE Asia.... Would be nice...