The Eating's a Lot Better This Time

I didn't do that great of a job with cooking when we lived here before.  There were lots of contributing reasons, but the main reason was that I had a four-year-old and a six-year-old.  That meant that, in addition to carrying all our food home, I also had to get said four- and six-year-old to the store and back.  Every single time.  So I didn't range very far in my shopping.  I went to the little bazaar down the street which was pretty sparce in the winter (just cabbage, potatoes, radishes, and carrots), and to the Narodniy a few blocks away because it was simple, although limited.

But it's so different this time around being able to get out and buy more things.  I still don't choose to run all over town trying to find certain American (or at least uncommon in Kyrgyzstan) ingredients, but I have a much wider variety of ingredients available to work with.  It also helps that we're nearly two years out from the last revolution instead of a few months; it also seems that stores came back much more quickly in 2010 than 2005 anyway.

The picky eater child isn't necessarily any happier than last time (although he's no more annoyed than he would be in the US), but the rest of us are a lot happier with dinner now.