Today was a school holiday, so the staff met for a short meeting and then went our separate ways. Mom's and my way included lunch at the principal's house (SCORE!), mostly because I rudely invited myself over to their house the day before...but my time here is short and I want to visit people as much as I can...and I REALLY missed their cooking. SO, we went to their house, not caring who invited who, and after we toured the changes since our last supper (not that kind of supper...notice the lack of capitalization) together (the house is still under construction...livable, but not completed) we sat down to (I don't actually have a parenthetical reference...I just thought I should chop up the sentence as much as possible) lunch. We dined on two of my top 5 Middle Eastern dishes, Malfoof (cabbage rolls...which doesn't sound exciting, but trust me, it is) and tabbouleh ('nough said). I can see it in your electronic eyes, you're wild to know the other three items, so I'll drop some knowledge on you. The following are, in no particular order (which is why the numbers are all mixed up) Gwynedd's Top 5 Middle Eastern Meals/Dishes/Delights/Yumtastickness!! (they're so good, they deserve two exclamation points)
4. Makluba (very involved dish, but essentially comes down to chicken, rice, many spices, cauliflower, many other vegetables, and yogurt...oh no, I'm drooling something fierce)
1. Hummus (but it only makes the top 5 if it's from Abu Shukri...everything else is good, but not worthy of this list, the highest of culinary honors)
3. Malfoof (leaves of giant green cabbages, rolled around rice, meat, spices, then cooked and served with fresh lemon juice)
2. Kanafeh (I believe I've described it before...basically the best dessert ever...except for creme brulee...maybe better...no, I really love creme brulee)
5. (funny how this still came out at the end...funny interesting, not funny haha) Tabbouleh (everyone has a different style for this salad...for example, when I make it, it comes out looking like soup)
And there you have it, the list of greatness and wonder. Use this knowledge well my friends...it might one day save the world...or your gastronomic adventures. But now back to our regularly scheduled program of "The Gwynedd Show"!
With two of the top five dishes present on the table, you'd think that I'd be first in my chair, banging my fork on the table, chanting something catchy and classy...like "FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!", but such was not the case. J, the principal's delightful 2 year-old daughter, had me beat by at least 15 seconds, which may not sound like much, but it wasn't that far from the living room to the table...and my legs are considerably longer than hers. I attribute the speed to her passion for food. J loves food more than almost anything. If asked to choose between her parents or food, I'm pretty sure she'd pick her parents, but it would be close. She loves food so much that she sprinted to the table, even though she had just had lunch at her grandmother's house. And while I can safely say I ate more than J (I had seconds...okay, that's not true, I had fifths), it wasn't much more, which leads to an important question, where does it all go? Maybe she has the world's fastest metabolism or a tapeworm or a personal baby trainer...or some combination of the three. Whatever it is, it's working. After lunch, Mom and I headed to the mall to complete many pressing errands, but because it is dinner time, and I'm slightly peckish (maybe I'm developing J's metabolism!), I'm going to sign off and save the story for another day. Farewell, dear reader, until we meet again.
Readin': The Lost Art of Mixing
10 years ago
