Sunday, April 27, 2008

Redeem This, Local Merchant!

Hey welcome back and I hope you’ve had a good weekend.  Mine was delightful.  I could wax eloquent about the wonders of vacuuming under my dresser or catching up on an old episode of Lost, but really, why should I rub it in?  The weather was perfect, we had a good time at the beach and in the park, and I’m all geared up to see old friends this week before jetting off to my ol’ college town for a good-natured bacchanal at the bowling alley.  Meantimely, I thought I’d remind you that passover is now past and over for one more year.  In case you were paying attention to, I don’t know, your cuticles or something, here’s a recap:

First night, first seder: we went down to Shariar and Helena’s lovely Palo Alto condo for a solid ceremonial fix.  Highlights included one total newbie (always a big plus), a very active and engaged reading of the hagadah with some damn fine questions and comments at along, a symbolic “pesach” consisting of a small ewe-shaped magnet (heaven forfend it be mistook for the real thing), both traditional (yum) and nouveaux (yeaum) charoset, the best damn chicken soup with matzo balls I’ve ever made, both standard gefilte fish and awesome tuna poke (sashimi chunks in sauce), double tzimmes, a spectacular sephardic spinach omlette thing, and this brisket, man, you would not believe how good it was - and we wrapped up with a flourless milk chocolate cake and a flourless dark chocolate cake, with Kel’s famous lemon bars for a little zest.  (re-reading this, I realize I left out the 12-hour-roasted eggs, that I, a non-hard-egg-eater, found totally irresistable.) The kids failed to find the aphikomen (I put a time limit on it) so we all split the surprisingly delicious grand prize of chocolate covered matzo, and they all got fun light-up animal keyrings that seemed to placate them.  We were there till after 10, and felt the glow for many days thereafter.

(note: nouveaux charoset contains fuji apples, pecans, wanluts, pistachios, dried cherries, sultanas, honey, cinnamon, salt, black pepper, and garnacha red wine.  traditional style was apples, cinnamon, and some left-around zinfandel.  They both rocked.)

Kick it forward a few days - I get an email from Mitch, who’s hosting seder #2 - he’s looking for matzo.  As you may not have known, there was a serious shortage of the bread of affliction all around the bay area and we couldn’t scrape up a scrap of the damn stuff.  At the last minute, basically, his mom airlifts (via fedex) a five-pack to him, and we meet for lunch so he can lend me a box wherewith I have been making my favorite matzobrie breakfasts (mixing in cinnamon and jelly with the egg and soaking it in honey, what a deadly way to start a morning...) So I’m feeling pretty good about the passover scene in general. 

Then we get to Mitch and Catharine’s seder this saturday just past (day 8, the official final night).  We hit the “ghetto farmhouse” where they make their fabulous crib and start socializing with a cubic buttload of awesome folk - we wind up being a crowd of about 23, I think.  The house seems a bit under-prepared for the ceremonies, though, and I’m surprised… till Mitch orders us all outside where, by their carriage house (yes dude they have a carriage house, this place totally rocks) (they even have a “safe room” but it isn’t particularly secure, it just actually has a huge old safe in it!) by their carriage house, as I was saying before so rudely parenthetically interrupting myself, where they’ve set up a gorgeous al fresco table for us in the warmth of the evening.  We read Mitch’s hagadah with vigor and enthusiasm, because it’s funny and interesting, and we enjoy a meal which Mitch cooked all by himself for all of us, consisting of:

* Duck soup with duck confit matzo balls (the meat minced and mixed into the dough for the balls)
* Morrocan matzo brei with peas, topped with house-made harissa
* “Franks and beans” - house-made seafood sausage with cannilini beans, marinated pickled veg and watercress
* Intermezzo: house-made campari granita
* Braised short ribs (to die for) with sweet potato and horseradish mash and greens
* Chocolate cheesecake (house made, of course) with whipped gorgonzola dulce creme fraische sauce

Wines included: Gattinara Traviglini Giancarlo 2002 (a powerhouse), Arbois Pinot Noir 2004, Marea cinque-terre 2005 (a white that totally stood up to the intense reds surrounding it), Artesia 04 Cab Sauv (Napa), and a really noteworthy Paolo Bea Montefalco Rosso Riserva 2000 (and let’s not forget the plentiful house-made seltzer!).  Little Olivia found the aphikomen and got a grab bag of prizes, and the other kids got good consolation gifts; we tore ourselves away at 11 pm but could have stayed there laughing and drinking and talking - mostly about the exodus, of course, we’re very focused on the essentials - all night long. 

So now you’ve been updated till your gills are ready to burst, I suppose.  I’ll try to follow up with some sort of short story-ish thing.  I thank you for your time, and congratulate you all on a well-deserved redemption.  Moses out.