Goat

When we were at Kala Petrela, we ate something called tavë dheu, which was goat meat cooked in a casserole. It was excellent, so when I saw it on the menu this afternoon at the Oda Restaurant, which serves traditional Albanian cuisine, I ordered it. With the first bite, a conversation that I'd had during the Hash suddenly clicked: that word for goat is "dhiu", not "dheu", and that "dheu" refers to mud (e.g., a ceramic baking dish), and that the meat in a tavë dheu can be anything. Although the dish in Petrela was goat, today I was eating kidneys and liver of some unnamed animal in a sauce of soft cheese. And so I have been introduced to truly authentic Albanian cuisine.