pls note that the next chapter will be posted only on Thursday - LOL

Chapter 7
You could also find bitter beverages (San Pellegrino is very well known with its San Bitter). There was the Libyan one and the one fm Tunisia. The one fm Tunisia I did not really like. The Libyan assortment was actually huge: you found Mirinda (orange lemonade), Pepsi, Bitter, Seven up, Apple, Grape and other mixtures there. Normally I hate lemonade. But when you are pregnant, you start liking things you never really were fond of. It was the Seven up, Bitter and the Mirinda which I was forced to drink, anyway my body was ruled by my daughter, I only had a little place left there... Years before I hated even all Cola drinks – now I was crazy abt Pepsi and later abt Pepsi Twist (Coca Cola was not available in the beginning or very rarely and then it was only a left over stock).
Well, normal cheese and toilet paper I really missed so much then. The toilet paper WAS ABSOLUTELY AWFUL. It did not “stand” anything. You cleaned with it, it became crumbly and stuck on the most stupid places…
The choice of cheese, (please be aware that all were specially treated, i.e. including a shelf live of at least 6 months...) fm France and the Netherlands was moderate. Only sorts like Emmental, Gouda, Edam were receivable. Later you would find also Maasdam, smoked cheese and others. Mozzarella was far fm good. Mostly Denmark or other countries which were not fm southern Europe did produce that one. Migros or Coop would have made the deal of their lives. But nobody wanted to expand to Libya. Even Salah’s uncle had tried that before but had been brushed off. We were lucky anyway and found Société Roquefort and Parmiggiano. We also found Tempo paper handkerchiefs. And we were even so lucky to find Bounty kitchen paper. Yet those prices were the same as the Swiss ones.
Should you wish to send letters to Switzerland you were positively surprised: only 2 Dinars incl. registered mail and air mail.
Vegetables in Libya were an absolute dream! Freshly fm the market. Fruit like melons, 10 pieces during the melon season cost 1 Swiss Frank (= 1 Dinar). Watermelons were even bigger than in Italy. Honey melons ripened later than the watermelons and the regular melons but they were absolutely delicious! Then we had date season. My dad would have gone nuts abt all these sorts! Anyway, when we were kids he always used to say: You got a brain like a dried date. Which meant you did not think / reflect well…
When we did not notice something he used to say: you have got kale leaves in front of your eyes.
When he was upset of me: he called me soup hen. A normal hen would not do the trick, it had to be a soup hen…
So it has always been something out of the kitchen…
I am not upset of that. You can cook with those ingredients…
Restaurants in Tripoli:
You were able to dine out fine! There were three very good fish restaurants. One was even too much for our budget: one person was 150 Swiss Franks (i.e. 150 Libyan Dinars). The other ones were not so expensive. We went to those.
Later we found some kind of a Chinese restaurant. Philippine people cooked there. It was really delicious. Then you found Turkish and Lebanese kitchen in Tripoli. The Lebanese kitchen is the best in Arabic countries. All Arabs will tell you that. Ketchup was also a chapter. Some restaurants were preparing Ketchup themselves. You won’t believe the fine quality. Yet lots of countries sold alimentary goods there: mostly Malta, Italy, France, Denmark, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Greece, Spain and also Switzerland. Later you would find American and British products there.
Anyway, back to Ketchup: I never really liked it. But I was truly crazy abt that one… I ordered a lot of French fries and it was so delicious to eat that. Unfortunately not all restaurants knew how to prepare French fries the way they should have done it. The oil temperature was mostly too cold and then the fries were totally soaked on oil and fed my heartburn…
They also did not know a lot abt grilling meat. Some put all meat on the same grill without cleaning it. So you had sometimes lamb or beef which tasted like chicken. In the beginning Pizza was the worst. Neither dough nor the stuff which was on it was eatable. We gave up. My husband baked it at home and told his family how to prepare a good dough. HE had learnt that in Switzerland once, when we did not even know each other.
Later you were able to find good pizzerias.