PIGging Out

When I stopped in Kuwait on my way to Afghanistan, I was happy to find a dessert smorgasbord in the cafeteria on base. It was like walking into a bakery back home.

Then I arrived in Herat where the Spaniards run the kitchen, serving up paella and pork. (My girls could go on a treasure hunt and find about 7 sea creatures hidden therein.)
This pic is what the paella normally looks like. I think even the Spaniards stayed away from the paella when they served it looking like the pic above.

Ah, now this is pig's leg, smoked and cured for a couple of months. When its ready to serve, they slice the meat off with the knife you see and then cover it up with tin foil until you want another slice in a few days or whatever.
I tried it and it was like eating undercooked bacon.
Not too tasty.

This is pig's face. Don't believe me? See pic below it, which is the flip side of this mass on my plate.
Told you so ... and there's even some nostril/snout hair to go with-yum
This grand dish is a mixture of pig face pieces and pig hoof pieces.

Now, it's not ALL pigs n pork in the kitchen here at Camp Arena. We also get potatoes and squid.
Or ... the Spanish Cantina on base (where you have to pay for your food) serves hamburgers. This tasted more like a hot dog, but they did put a slice of ham on it so I guess it was a genuine hamburger.
There's fried anchovies for those who still aren't satisfied with the fare.
On Sundays we get bacon and eggs, yes-those are scrambled eggs at the bottom of the picture.
This picture is of one our nurses playing with his food. These are local game hens or whatever they call them. They are really bony. Sure looks better than the pork though.
Last, but not least, this is some version of ham. They put pineapple on top to make it look more appealing I think. I realize it looks like ham. Looks are overrated. It doesn't taste a thing like it.
There are plenty of cafeteria style items that I don´t have pictures of such as the rabbit, fried calamari, and pork intestine. Needless to say, this is not the place for picky eaters.

Now this cuisine is unique just for us as we are on the Spanish side of the NATO base. I have heard that the Italian cafeteria is a little bit better but we are not allowed to go to it.

On the positive side, the lack of good food here has really helped me lose some excess pounds that I didn´t need. The smell of the food, when you first walk into the cafeteria, is a natural appetite suppressant as it often smells pretty bad...

Thank you to everyone who has sent me packages of food and supplies so I am not forced to eat on bad food days which seem to be all too frequent here.