Luiza's Mamaliga Cu Brinza -- Polenta With Sheep Cheese

Luiza -- Severing Ties with Romania Forever

This is part of an ongoing series of the life of Detroit resident Luiza Grigorescu and other legal aliens in the USA.

Luiza tells me Romanians eat polenta every day, especially for lunch, which is the main meal of the day. They cook their stable food afresh daily from cornmeal, salt, and water. She says that people who eat lots of polenta will have healthy children. Here is her recipe: 

We need for 4 servings:

• about 1 cup of cornmeal
  
• about 3 cups of water
  
• about 200g sheep feta cheese
  
• some Kashkaval pure sheep cheese (a Bulgarian cheese found in a East European food store)
  
• 4 eggs
  
• some herb or garlic butter
  

And this is what we do with the ingredients:

1. Fill a medium-sized pot half with cold water. Then add a few big spoonfuls of cornmeal, stirring it into the water until it dissolves. Add a little bit of salt if you want (but be careful, the sheep cheese will add plenty of salt to the whole dish). Heat the mixture. Constant stirring is very important so that the mixture does not stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.

2. Put the heat on high. Add more cornmeal if the mixture is too watery. As it heats the cornmeal particles take in the water and swell. You can make the mixture as thick as you want.

3. Stir a lot until it becomes a thick mass and the mass starts bubbling but be careful it might jump out of the pot. Stir very fast. 

4. After the mass is very thick but sticks together very well as one, almost so that you could cut it with a threat, Luiza says. Them dump the mass onto a plate and distribute on as four plates.

By the way, Luiza recommends putting milk into the empty polenta pot with the remainder of the dough to boil the milk with the corn mass and drink it.

5. Add a lump of feta sheep cheese into the polenta on each plate and cover the cheese with the polenta as much as possible so that the warmth of the mass can melt the cheese wrapped in it. Add a little bit of garlic or herb butter  on top of the polenta. Luiza says it will go down the polenta mountain like lava.

6. Grate some of the firm kashkaval sheep cheese over each polenta mountain.

7. Poach an egg for every person. This means to drop a raw egg into a pot of boiling water. Let the egg cook until the egg white and yolk are firm. Then carefully take out the naked boiled egg with a big spoon and arrange it aside the polenta pile. Grate some kashkaval on each egg.

Enjoy your "mamaliga cu brinza"!

PS: “Listen to me,” says Luiza, “I tell you a secret. Take a little bit of cornmeal in the shower and rub your face with it two times a week. It will make your skin like velvet.” 

How did you come to the USA? With which red tape do you have to deal as a legal alien? Are you on the path to U.S. citizenship? What is special about your home country? Please share your stories, questions, and comments!

Immigration in the News 2007

The Project for Excellence in Journalism reported it its State of the News Media 2008 annual study that in all media, immigration was the number four story (out of the top ten list) filling 3% of the newshole 2007. It was topped by the 2008 presidential election campaing and Iraq related coverage.

The same report also stated that 1% of online topics were about immigration in 2007. The study examined the lead coverage during weekdays of the five most popular news websites: AOL News, CNN.com, Google News, MSNBC.com, and Yahoo. News.

Estimated 3 Million Young U.S. Adults Emigrate Every Year

A recent article by the U.S. News & World Report details a trend that is seldomly talked about. As the USA is an immigrant nation, it also is an emigrant nation with estimated 3 million U.S. adults between 25 and 34 years old draining from the USA every year -- and the trend is growing.

Egg Curry From Bangladesh

Tapash -- All the Way From Bangladesh

This is part of an ongoing series on the life of Ohio University graduate student Tapash Deb, and other legal aliens in the USA.

Besides trying out restaurants in Athens is one of Tapash's hobbies, he also enjoys home cooked food. He does not remember when he learnt the recipe for egg curry from his mom, but how it goes, he knows for sure. Enjoy a cooking lesson of Bangladeshi cuisine with Tapash.


We need for 2 servings:

• 1 very big potato
• 2 medium-sized tomatoes
• 1 medium-sized onion
• 3 eggs

• 2 cups of brown rice

• some salt
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon rasam masala (in asia store)
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala (in asia store)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 fresh or dried red peppers

• some water
  
• some peanut (or any other) oil
  

And this is what we do with the ingredients:

1. Hard-boil all eggs, i.e. boil for approximately 10 minutes.

2. Fry the hard-boiled eggs in some oil in a pan until they are slightly brownish-golden on the outside.

3. Carefully wash and rinse the rice several times before you start cooking it. Tapash says this is a routine in his country.

4. Boil the rice in plenty of water and some salt as long as it says on the package.

By the way, rice is a staple food in Bangladesh.

5. Peel the potato and cut it into big cubes. Unlike in other countries in which the potato is a staple, it is treated as a veggie aside in Bangladesh. So for this recipe it will be cooked along side other vegetables in the curry.

6. Fry the potato cubes n plenty of peanut or any other oil until they are a little brownish-golden on the outside. When they are done, take the potato cubes out of the pot and set them aside.

7. Chop the onion into strips and fry them in the potato pot with the left over oil.

8. Cube the tomatoes and add them to the golden-brown fried onions in the pot.

9. Add the three whole eggs and potato cubes to the same pot and stir for a while until everything is well mixed. Let the mixture fry on a small flame.

By the way, frying is a staple method of preparing food in Bangladehs. Ovens and baked goods are seldom except for some special breads like nan.

10. Now it's time to add some spieces: each 1 teaspoon of turmeric, salt, and cinnamon, each
1/2 teaspoon of garam and rasam masala. According to how much hotness your tongues can bear you can add dried or even fresh red peppers. We recommend 1 red pepper for a rather mild version of egg curry.

Masala simply means mixture of spices. Asian food stores usually have ready-made mixtures in boxes to use for certain dishes. We have found that the MDH brand is an okay one to buy. It comes in great variety and most often has a recipe on the back of the box.

11. Add 1/2 cup of water and let the curry boil for about ten minutes.

12. Cut the eggs in the pot in half.

Tapash tastes for last time if all spices work out....mmmh, yummy! You might want to add more of the salt or the garam masala as needed. Now it's ready to serve:

Enjoy your egg curry with rice!

How did you come to the USA? With which red tape do you have to deal as a legal alien? Are you on the path to U.S. citizenship? What is special about your home country? Please share your stories, questions, and comments!

Would You Emigrate? -- Blog Poll Results

This is part of an ongoing series on the life of Ohio University graduate student (and soon alumnus) Carlos E., and other legal aliens in the USA.

The poll on this blog about people's thoughts about emigrating themselves shows that 14 out of 18 voters at least consider this as an idea. 

In detail, four said it is in fact a dream for them to switch countries. 

Seven are not sure about going away forever but would go with the flow if life offers an opportunity to change nations.

Three believe that emigrating might be a nice alternative when they are fed up with their home country.

Only four said that they would never leave their country for good.

How did you come to the USA? With which red tape did you have to deal as a legal alien? Are you on the path to U.S. citizenship? Please share your stories, questions, and comments!

How Many New U.S. Citizens Are Made Each Year?

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Yearbook of Immigration the USA made 702,589 new U.S. citizens in 2006. (The last numbers available.)

By country:

• Bangladesh: 6,683 (the highest number in the previous ten years, i.e. since 1997)
  
  
• Romania: 5,484 (the highest number in the previous ten years, i.e. since 1997)
  
  
• Peru: 10,063 (by far the highest number in the previous ten years, i.e. since 1997)
  

Age, Occupation, and Marital Status of New Americans
In the same year most individuals becoming U.S. citizen were between 25 and 44 years old.

Among the naturalized in 2006 the biggest group in terms of occupation were in the category of management, professional, and related occupations: 64,233. Another 22,654 worked in service, and 50,921 were students.

Roughly triple as many married individuals (almost 460,000) than singles (over 154,000) came.

Filed and Denied Petitions for U.S. Citizenship in 2006
For 2006 the same source says that 730,642 people filed petitions to become U.S. citizen and that 120,722 filed petitions got denied by the U.S. government. [The data does not make it clear when these were filed and why they were denied.]

How Many Legal Immigrants Live in the USA?

In 2007 according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Immigration Statistics 1,052,415 individuals gained legal permanent residency in the USA.

The Last Ten Years Among Highest Number of New Legal Permanent Residents
The tables provided by Homeland Security indicate, that the last ten years are among the three decades with the highest number of people who gained legal permanent residency since 1820 with a total of 9,359,479 people between (and including) 1998 and 2007. The same document shows that only the previous decade and the decade before World War I saw higher numbers with over ten million individuals gaining legal permanent residency in the USA.

By country:

• Bangladesh: 12,074 (the second highest number of Bangladeshis to become legal permanent residents in the last decade)
  
  
• Peru: 17,699 (the second highest number of Peruvians to become legal permanent residents in the last decade)
  
  
• Romania: 5,802 (the fifth highest number of Romanians to become legal permanent residents in the last decade)

Nonimmigrant Admissions
In 2006 a total of 693,805 students with an F1 visa entered the USA. This number has slightly increased over the past three years (2003: 617,556). In addition, the year 2006 saw a total of 33,667,328 nonimmigrants [with different types of visa] admitted to the USA, a number, which has roughly stayed the same during the previous nine years.

[I chose to look at the F1 visa type more closely because it is very common for graduate students. It usually allows students to work for the university and after a year outside of campus in addition to studying. There are many other visa types. Another common student visa is J1, which allows the student to study or do research work but only with special permission and in connection with the student's study field allows her/him to work on campus.]

By country:

• Bangladesh: 14,224 (a number that peaked at over 20,000 in 2000 and 2001 but has roughly stayed the same over the previous ten years, 1998: 14,173)
  
  
• Peru: 199,286 (which is roughly estimated slightly lower than the average of the previous ten years, 1998: 192,848
  
  
• Romania: 70,462 (the highest number in the previous ten years, steadily grown from 33,307 in 1998)

What Is the Difference Between Permanent Legal Residents and Nonimmigrants?
The 2006 Yearbook of Immigration defines naturalization and nonimmigrant admission on page seven: “Naturalizations refer to persons aged 18 and over who become citizens of the United States. Most legal permanent residents are eligible to apply for naturalization within five years after obtaining LPR [Legal Permanent Resident] status. […] Nonimmigrant admissions refer to arrivals of persons who are authorized to stay in the United States for a limited period of time. Most nonimmigrants enter the United States as tourists or business travelers, but some come to work, study, or engage in cultural exchange programs."