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Another holiday … and more good food
In the land of religious holidays — it seems like someone is celebrating something every other week here — there is one thing that binds together the faithful: food.
Don’t let the extra prayers fool you: most holidays in this part of the world celebrate the kitchen. And when folks aren’t eating — fasting plays a role in all three of Jerusalem’s monotheistic religions — they’re thinking about food.
There is often a specific food that goes with a specific occasion. It’s a time when women show off their best recipes and are the focus of the feast.
“This is what I’ve been waiting for,” my neighbor, Ra’ed, explained to me, as he eyed the leg of lamb and heaping platter of rice that his mother had prepared.
On Eid al-Adha, or the Festival of Sacrifice, which occurred yesterday, Muslims celebrate Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, as an act of obedience to God.
God intervened and provided Abraham with a lamb to sacrifice instead, so Muslims eat lamb on this day. For the poorest Muslims, it’s the only meat they eat all year.
Ra’ed’s widowed mother, who lives next door and takes her cooking seriously, put a dry rub — a blend of spices, including pepper and cardamom — on the lamb the night before. Before baking, she seared both sides to seal in the flavor. The rice included bits of minced lamb, almonds and saffron.
I was invited to the family feast. Three generations gathered around the table (the youngest were excused to watch cartoons) at about 3 p.m. Ra’ed pulled off hunks of the tender meat for me to eat, and his mom kept piling the rice on my plate.
“Zaki kiteer,” was the chorus to the family matriarch. Delicious.
At last, I begged off a fourth helping, and, by way of further complimenting the chef, I said I wouldn’t need to eat until the next day. Which was the truth.
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