A Tale of Two Milks

"What's in a name? That which we call milk, by any other name would . . . still not be milk."

~ William Shakespeare (if he shopped at Al Osra)

A few weeks ago, when we were still in the fog of jet lag, we needed milk. Al Osra supermarket is just around the corner. Literally. The fridge was empty, it was 10 pm and we all wanted cereal. So, with new found freedom, we ventured out on our first grocery run. I have been amazed by the shopping here. You can find anything. Though usually it comes with a hefty price tag. A block of 16 oz. cheese is $8. Milk is $6 a gallon. We were not quite ready to dive back into the UHT milk pool, so we ponied up for some real cow's milk.



The containers pictured above were our cheapest options. We wanted the 'low fat' milk; (full fat milk here is serious fat. The best to have with an Oreo!) but there was only one container. And, quick Arabic language lesson here, in (egyptian) arabic, milk is laban. We read both labels. I could tell they were different, but I didn't know why. They both had 'milk' on them. Though why would they be spelling 'laban' in english, too? We were tired and hungry; so we got both and figured we'd mix the two together to make a sort of 1% milk.

Well, mixing the two never happened and two days later, we had blown through the first container of 'full fat'. At breakfast we cracked open the 'Laban' and poured it on Mairyn's bowl of cereal. One half bite later, Mairyn proclaimed, "This milk tastes like yogurt." I tasted it. Yep, it was plain yogurt.

*sidenote* They sell plain yogurt that is liquid-y for drinking, digestion, etc.

Spencer went back and examined both jugs. In the bright, clearheaded-ness of morning, it was obvious (to him). He said, "Oh yeah. They call yogurt 'laban' in the Gulf." Once he said that, the labels became obvious to me. In Egypt, yogurt always had a green label. Duh. Ok, good to know. Laban is now yogurt, not milk. Got it. We still used the yogurt. I just added some jam to a cup, stir well, voila, strawberry yogurt drink. The kids have actually requested that we buy this now, too. At least something good came out of our mistake!