Rosh Hashanah and a Cooking Lesson
This week was significantly lower-key than last week in Jerusalem. It was Rosh Hashanah from Wednesday night through Friday night, so classes were cancelled and everything was closed. It was nice to have some time to just chill and laze around, since I feel like I've been going at 100 miles an hour since I got here. Everyone was out in the park with their families, celebrating the new year in style. I took myself to the beach for a little bit and watched a lot of Netflix. A+ way to spend a weekend.
Last night, all the students in the Arabic classes had the amazing opportunity to go to an Arab woman's house in Jaffa and cook a dinner with her. Fair warning, this next part will make you insanely jealous -- don't say I didn't warn you. The food we made was absolutely fantastic. I don't know if I've tasted food better than this, and I mean that wholeheartedly. We made a variety of dishes -- some of which you can see in the picture below -- each one full of different flavors and foods.
We started out with sticking a lot of vegetables in one pot to cook -- eggplants, sweet potatoes, onions -- and put lentils (I think) into another pot full of water and let both of those simmer while we worked on everything else. We made oblong meatballs and tossed them into a bot full of simmering tahini to cook (best way to cook meat by far), and cut up cilantro and onion to garnish some dishes. Then we took some pumpkin and mixed it with tahini and some spices. Going back to the probably-lentils, we mixed flour and water, rolled the dough up, and cut it into noodles to dump into the now-mushy and deliciously spiced lentil soup.
If that description of cooking didn't make much sense, it's because we jumped from dish to dish every few minutes. I couldn't even tell which dish was which until we plated everything and laid it out on the table, but what we ended up with was: a pumpkin-tahini mixture (SO TASTY you don't even know); meatballs soaked in tahini; lentils and noodles with onion, cilantro, and eggplant; spiced onion; yellow rice with carrots and onion; and potatoes smothered in tahini. I have never felt as satisfied as after eating all of that food. DC, look out -- I'm planning on bringing some recipes home!
Sorry this one was a bit short -- guess that's what happens when I finally get a few days off! Next week is the last week before fall break -- I'll be heading to Egypt with three friends a week from tomorrow -- so keep an eye out for a post next Wednesday!
Katrina
Last night, all the students in the Arabic classes had the amazing opportunity to go to an Arab woman's house in Jaffa and cook a dinner with her. Fair warning, this next part will make you insanely jealous -- don't say I didn't warn you. The food we made was absolutely fantastic. I don't know if I've tasted food better than this, and I mean that wholeheartedly. We made a variety of dishes -- some of which you can see in the picture below -- each one full of different flavors and foods.
We started out with sticking a lot of vegetables in one pot to cook -- eggplants, sweet potatoes, onions -- and put lentils (I think) into another pot full of water and let both of those simmer while we worked on everything else. We made oblong meatballs and tossed them into a bot full of simmering tahini to cook (best way to cook meat by far), and cut up cilantro and onion to garnish some dishes. Then we took some pumpkin and mixed it with tahini and some spices. Going back to the probably-lentils, we mixed flour and water, rolled the dough up, and cut it into noodles to dump into the now-mushy and deliciously spiced lentil soup.
If that description of cooking didn't make much sense, it's because we jumped from dish to dish every few minutes. I couldn't even tell which dish was which until we plated everything and laid it out on the table, but what we ended up with was: a pumpkin-tahini mixture (SO TASTY you don't even know); meatballs soaked in tahini; lentils and noodles with onion, cilantro, and eggplant; spiced onion; yellow rice with carrots and onion; and potatoes smothered in tahini. I have never felt as satisfied as after eating all of that food. DC, look out -- I'm planning on bringing some recipes home!
Sorry this one was a bit short -- guess that's what happens when I finally get a few days off! Next week is the last week before fall break -- I'll be heading to Egypt with three friends a week from tomorrow -- so keep an eye out for a post next Wednesday!
Katrina
Just let me know which day you'd like to cook for us - can't wait!
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