Dita e Veres, Sweet Day of Summer

In the fall of 1809, Lord Byron spent some time in Albania with the notorious tyrant Ali Pasha, and enjoyed many delicatessens thanks to the host’s overwhelming hospitality to a British Lord. The next spring, he spent March and April in Turkey, when Constantinople flourished with pride. The warm weather of Southern Europe makes the countries there enter summer time much earlier than we do here, when April winds are still roaring, bleak cold night and occasional beautiful sunny sky. On March 14th each year, Many Muslim countries celebrate the first day of the year on March 1st according to Julian calendar, but in some area, best known in Albania, people celebrate Dita e Veres (Summer’s Day) on March 14th. There are myths saying that it never rains on that day, which marks the following 6 months of sunlight.

Personally I would probably visit Albania one day just for the festivities that day, and knock on wood lest I jinx the never-raining-on-Summers-Day myth For the Dita e Vere celebration, imagine a feast of exotic sounds and vibrant colours that you could lose yourself, drown yourself into. Think about the most extravagant fair you’ve ever been to and expand that to the entire country.

Nobody works, or go to school on Dita e Veres. Dionysus would love it there that day. Thousands of people pour into the streets of Tirana, which would be teamed with an explosion of colourful garlands from daybreak to, probably eternity. You know those street fairs you go to where you buy rubbish and nuisances yet never regretting? Indeed you’re taking in all the joy and memories. If you happened to be in Albania on Dita e Veres one of those days, I expect pictures with you carrying yellow mimosa flowers, wearing them in your hair.

And the food, of course there’s the food! My Middle Eastern friends had always took pride in their heavenly offerings of pastries, those golden coloured, exquisitely crafted little miracles that you feel too astounded to take a first bite when presented.

Pagan holiday celebrations are like that, because for them it’s paying homage to life and the gods of nature. One of the best discoveries of life and nature is, of course, non other than coffee. You’ll be able to get the aromatic Turkish coffee from booths on Dita e Veres, dark and thick and nothing like the commercialized invention you get from Starbucks, poured in your cups from copper pots. There will be akullore, a type of traditional Albanian ice cream. However, if you can only try one thing, that’d have to be ballokume.

Ballokume is probably Albania’s favourite elbasanase (dessert), with plain and simple ingredients consisting, you know, the basic elements involved with making cookies, flour, sugar, butter, milk and egg, all the good stuff that generates happy dopamine. One special perk is that ballokume is made of corn meal instead of wheat flour, good news for those who are gluten intolerant. It’s traditionally prepared on Dita e Veres, an Albanian equivalent to the Chinese moon cake on mid-autumn festival, or the American roast turkey on Thanksgiving.

Ingredients:

• 1lb. corn flour: the leading player that distinguishes ballokume from common cookies
• Wheat flour: maybe add a little but not a critical role 
• 1lb. sugar: sugar is life; it’s the source of energy and happiness and the nemesis of weight-loss maniacs 
• 6.5 oz. butter: another nemesis for the same reason, but I prefer to call butter a symbol of transformation and exaltation, the final step that started with the flow, (milk), to the essence (cream) of life, to a golden monument of excellence.
• 32 fl. oz. milk: under most circumstances, the first thing a human being tastes after being born is mother’s milk. That says something about our intimate relationship with that opaque coloured liquid and why we still see it an essential part of our omnivorous diet after weaning.
• 12 eggs: the victim of modern health researchers. While understandable that excessive consumption might lead to discomfort, I doubt eggs are the only contributor to our higher cholesterol average.
• Lots of love and spirit of festivities. It all counts on your attitude whether your final products are a delicious batch of treasures, or a try of poisonous blobs.

Preparations:

• Prepare the dough in a large bowl, preferable copper. Warming up is recommended for better results.
• Preheat the over to 170 Celcius, or 334 Fahrenheit 
• Mix butter and sugar in the copper bowl. Cream the mixture until it’s frothy and smooth. 
• Keep stirring and add eggs one at a time to the mixture. 
• Add cornmeal slowly; try to find the rhythm in the work.
• After you’re done with the dough, let it sit for about 20 minutes before actually making cookies. 
• One trick to consider lest aversive result is to test the dough before mass production: take one ball of the dough and set it in the oven. Add more flour if the dough starts to perform excessive stretching. 
• Now that you’re confident with the cookie dough, start placing small balls onto a baking sheet. Brush butter, splash some flour on top, etc., the usual procedures. 
• Finally, let the oven do its job and you’ll see the ballokume turn gold, and that’s when you take it out. 
• Make sure you taste it first before serving the rest of the hungry bunch. 

 

This year's Dita e Veres has already past, but the good news is, it seems that New York City has finally reached its loveliest time of the year. It's high time we celebrated Summer's Day right here right now in the spirit of Pagan Festivities. There's always time for cookies and sweets, keep reminding yourselves that, my fellow Sandy survivors.