HAPPY NEW JEWISH YEAR

“Dude, what the F. are you doing to that minced meat?”

“I’ve seasoned it so now I’m mixing it to make burgers.”

“Mixing? You’re more beating it up, not mixin’. That’s what my granny used to do to make bread. Tell me the truth. You’re making meat bread ain’t ya?”

Yesterday, four Israelis asked me if they could use the Finca kitchen to prepare a meal. They told me that today was a special day for Jewish people around the world.

New Years Eve.

On normal circumstances I would say no, but the Finca is empty, so there’s no danger in letting them use the kitchen. Thus, this morning, Carlos took them on the lancha boat to Livingston so they could get all the ingredients for their supper. Three hours later they returned with lots of bags.

“Did you get everything?”

“Yeah. Sort of. Couldn’t find chicken breasts anywhere. Why is that so Paulo? Do you know?”

“Impossible to find chicken breasts in Livingston, guys. Carlos told me that the chicken pieces that you can find in lots of parts of Guate are the leftovers of the United States. The US consumes the lean chicken breasts then ships the rest, like legs and other bony bits. People here love fried chicken, and you find greasy stalls selling it all over, but it’s always with lots of bones, very little meat and some skin, never lean meat. You can find chicken breasts in other parts of Guate though. But it’s always more expensive.”

“Ok. We’ve bought minced meat. We’ll make burger or something. Can we put this stuff in the kitchen?”

We strolled into the kitchen and the Israelis girl exclaimed. “WOW. This is a cool kitchen!”

The kitchen is actually a very nice one. Very spacious. With lots of work stations, several stoves, a huge oven, a proper washing up area, hundreds of pots and pans, cupboards to save keep everything and then some, and lots of room to manoeuvre. As it is compulsory around here, a thatched-roof shelters it from the elements.

My favourite part? There are no glass windows at all. It’s just open to the trees, the swamp around us. When you’re in there you never feel that trapped-in-an-office feeling.

I would be heating up the dinner for the remaining guests so I didn’t want any accident situation, like bumping into each other, or people running around the kitchen, so I set up a workstation for the Israelis. I instructed them to grab all the utensils & pots needed and place them on their designated area, and then asked them to remain within the boundaries.

“This is your section guys and this is mine. STAY IN YOUR SECTION!”, I joked but at the same time, I was being serious. In actuality, I was being very anal but I had everyone’s safety in mind.

At 6pm, they started their task. Two chopped up vegetables. Another filled up the pots with water and put them on top of the fire. The fourth one was kneading the minced meat, whilst I portioned things up and heated the dinner.

They are rather disciplined, I thought.

They had to leave their section every so often to get water or other things so I, jokingly, busted their balls.

“Stay in your section!”

“Get back in your section!”

“What are you doing here? Go back to your designated section, NOW!”

…

“Paulo”, - one of the Israelis finally said, “you are like a...”, and quickly covered her mouth.

“I know!”, I smiled.

“I didn’t say ...”

“No need! It is already implicit.”, and we all laughed.

Two hours later, they sat down and enjoyed their dinner.

“At last! That was hard work!”, one Israeli exclaimed then ate a spoon full of pasta.

“Happy new year!”, one said in Hebrew.

“Happy new year!”, all repeated.

At the end of the night, they asked where they should leave the leftovers and showed me a bowl of pasta, some salad and a plate full of tiny burgers.

“What about the burgers?”

“Well, they weren’t that nice, Paulo. It was actually very cheap meat. Maybe... Do you think that the minced meat available in Guatemala is also US leftovers?”

“Don’t know guys. Anything’s possible. You usually get what you paid for.”

Ciao 4 now

~ Paulo ~