8:04
This is about my idea of personal hell. Well, I'm not enjoying it much myself. I've got much of a head for heights, but I just think it's important to get up to where the shepherds are because a lot of the cooking here in Albania is based on shepherds dishes. There's lots of sort of lamb cooked on spits and lots of bean stews with sort of smoked uh mutton in it, I think, or pork, but mutton quite often. So, I just want to get up and see what they're cooking, but my god, it's a long way up. I hope we're not going up that road up there. Apparently, this was a military base for making rockets. Why would they make rockets up here? How would they get the materials up here? Can imagine some trendy restaurant opening up here and
being like El Bulli on steroids. Yeah, just a life 9-hour trek up a mountain. There's a shepherd. And some sheep. Oh, no. Apparently, this is not the right shepherd. Our shepherd is still a long way off. Cars can't get there because there are too many rocks. So, Gazim, the mayor, insists Jack and I travel the rest of the way on mules. Very much the way that Byron explored this wild countryside. Good. Now, I don't know much about Albanian mayors, but I do know that Gazim has quite an entourage of pretty women who follow him around carrying bottles of wine and raki.
This could well be a tradition left over by the Ottomans. "Land of Albania," Byron proclaimed in the book Child Harold's Pilgrimage. "Let me bend mine eyes on thee, thou rugged nurse of savage men. The cross descends, thy minarets arise, and the pale crescent sparkles in the glen. Those were his thoughts on a once Christian country becoming Muslim. He found, probably because he was after all Lord Byron, the Muslim rulers here, especially the notorious Ali Pasha, treated him and his entourage with great hospitality and generosity. If you're partial to roast lamb, golden, sweet, slightly smoky roast lamb, you'll love this.
It's the classic way of cooking goat or sheep, and there are no spices, just salt and pepper, and the best of the beast. Looks like a doner. Doner kebab. On the spit, you know, the elephant leg that you get in those nice late night eateries. It's probably better for you. With the same bits. [snorts] This is not everyone's cup of tea. It's called kokoretsi, and it's what the shepherds cook after they've killed the lamb or a baby goat.
The prized offal, the liver, the lungs, heart, and kidney are put on a spit and wrapped in loads of intestines. This protects the offal from burning, and they say it gives it an added flavor. As important as the meat is the fresh curd cheese. The curds are put in a cloth to drain, just by hanging it on the branch of a tree until it sets. This one was from early this morning. They've milked the goats at 5:00 this morning and made the cheese straight away afterwards. I was just thinking, well, of course they would. We're so far away from anywhere. It's not going to get a milk truck coming around every morning.
It's very nice. Cheese, isn't it? So fresh. Very Lovely and firm. And slightly You can taste it slightly goaty. I suppose rather fancifully I was expecting to taste sort of elements of thyme and oregano and rosemary and fennel and mint because we just walked through pastures of them. But it just tastes really special. I'd put myself as an eater first and then a cook. That sounds a bit daft, I know. But there are chefs that don't really enjoy tucking into food that much. Their minds are a little too involved in the way food looks. All I know is that I get terribly excited when I can smell and see scenes like this. It's irresistible to anyone who loves food. But absolutely fantastic. So nicely salted, isn't it? Have you tried it? It's a really great.
I feel the sort of neon sign is telling me Oh. I could eat this every day. I wouldn't like the walk, but I could definitely eat this. Actually, Jack, you didn't walk. If you're brought up in the mountains of Albania, I think this would be your quintessential roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. What? Great, thanks. What bits have you got there? Uh, we've got some um heart, obviously intestines and some liver. You fancy putting it on the menu at St.
Peter's Drugs? Might struggle to sell that, but it's delicious.
