ben ben benko blog

Goodbye my love

So this past Tuesday was "Fat Tuesday" which means we are now almost a week into lent. Although I haven't really made a strong commitment to religion in my adult life I still like the idea of giving up something for lent. Last year it was chocolate and ice cream. That was tough, but this year may be an even bigger challenge.

Since I've been in Croatia, I've basically been justifying anything I want to eat, by telling myself that I can't get this kind of food in America so I should eat all I can while I'm here and I'm exercising a lot more anyway so I shouldn't worry about it. However, in the back of my head a little voice keeps saying, "It's only 10am you really shouldn't have that 4th cookie." And that voice has gotten loud enough that I've decided to silence it by starting a campaign for healthier eating that hopefully will last past lent.

So far it hasn't been going well. The numbers on the scale seem to be going down rather than up so it's really hard to say no to the chocolate bars that are crying out from the cabinet to be eaten. They just sound so sad. But there is one thing that I haven't eaten all week that I'm determined to give up completely for the duration of lent because it is the definition of unhealthy. This king of calories is burek. And not any burek, but the evil burek s sirom (burek with cheese). This is by far my favorite Croatian treat. It's basically a rope of super greasy pastry stuffed with nice fresh salty cheese and baked until the cheese dries into nice tender curds and the pastry oozes a few buckets of oil. I honestly can't imagine a more wonderful or satisfying junk food. But for now, I will just have to stare longingly at my burek from afar. Easter never seemed so far away.

posted by Liz @ 8:36 PM