Today in the office, Endrit, my office mate and good friend walks in and hands me an oddly shaped apple (or so I thought). He asks me if we have these in America and I look at him and respond, well I'm not quite sure what that is. Ftua, he responds. Never hearing this word before for any food we go to the computer and pull up the all not so faithful Google translate. He enters in ftua and translated into English is quince. This leaves me even more puzzled. So do you have these in America, he asks again. I have never heard of this food before, even the English word for it. So then our Googling frenzy begins. We search pictures, recipes and the origin of these strange fruits. Turns out the quince is closely related to the pear and apple, which might explain why it looks like a lumpy combination of them both. Endrit then gives it to me as a present and explains that he doesn't like to eat them but they make his house smell good. The quince tree is native to various countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, Albania included and Turkey being the largest grower. Uses vary from making quince jam, wine to quince stews. So that probably leaves you wondering what I did with my quince? I thanked Endrit for my gift and took my quince home with me. I got my potato peeler and sliced it up, sprinkled some cinnamon on it and made it into some what of a potpourri. I did try a piece and was extremely disappointed with the bitter taste and the fruit that seemed to suck all the spit out of my mouth at once. Thus, made my apartment smell good.
