Cocoa and Tomatoes

Hmm you're thinking. How do these two things go together?

First, yes I am talking about shopping for food again. I have devolved to a hunter-gather state in my quest for food. It is time consuming and really at the top of my list of things to do and get used to as I settle into living in Riga. Part of the issue is I am completely reliant on help to find supplies. Either it has to be in English, recognizable, a brand I know or there is someone with me who knows where to buy it or what it is. Or the clerk at the store speaks English. Or I am sniffing packages. I am sure there are Latvians wondering what the crazy Canadian is doing sniffing everything. I now get emails from helpful friends that contain sentences like, "Rimi has icing sugar!" with a picture of it with the Latvian word on it so I recognize it when I see it. Yes, while I am appreciating the gorgeous architecture, great coffee culture and plethora of museums, I can't enjoy it as much as I would like while I try and find all purpose flour and whole wheat flour (rye flour is everywhere.)

So cocoa and tomatoes.

First, I did not ship myself very much in the way of baking supplies. Chris was less than helpful as he just said, "What do you need?" And I would say, "Well what type of baking soda do they have?" And it went downhill from there. Very difficult to explain to a non-baker. So at Gemoss, with the help of Jenn Richards, I found this. Cocoa. This will be going into my Latvian/English baking list.

Now I am a person who loves Fry's cocoa. It makes excellent cocoa, brownies, fudge pudding, tortes and cakes. I buy a lot of Fry's cocoa. But I did not ship any. Because I thought, in my ethnocentric Canadian way, that if it is good enough for the Queen, it would be everywhere. Sadly, this is not so. 

However, I opened up this cocoa and had a sniff and it smelled right. And I made my first cup of cocoa since I have been in Latvia. The large crystals their regular sugar has doesn't matter when you are making cocoa since they melt during heating. The cocoa was rich, smooth, chocolaty with a nice nutty after taste that I can really see enhancing anything with nuts in it. It was delicious. Cocoa in Latvia is good to go!


Sadly, tomatoes in Latvia are not. In the summer, when we were here finding our place to live (more about that another time) tomatoes were succulent, perfectly ripe and flavourful. Not in November. And yes, I am spoiled. I know this. In Canada, during the cold winter months, we have hothouse English cucumbers and tomatoes, grown in either Canada or Mexico. On the vine tomatoes can be left on the counter to ripen, which is what I do in Canada. Thinking the same trick would work here, I have now bought tomatoes on the vine twice, to let them ripen on the counter.

An epic fail. This is after two days. And they were as hard as rocks. Canned tomatoes during the winter from now on. Lesson learned.