i'm no longer a seder virgin

i can't believe it took me this long to experience the food fest that is seder. ok, i know that it is based on religion. but me, not of the jewish faith, wanted to experience this holy observance for the company, and for the food. so, i, along with other friends, finagled an invite to my friend's family's seder. good thing too because mary is a good cook.





mary's husband, seth, started off the reading and everyone took turns reading. mary and her sister sang some hymns in hebrew. yes, i got to read. something about the wicked sons. it was mary's idea. hmmmm..... what was she trying to say?



and before anyone asks, no, i did not find the afikomen - a piece of the matzah hidden away somewhere and the lucky kid who finds it gets some prize.



drinking the manischewitz was a treat. it tasted just like the grape juice i've drank hundreds of times in my youth while taking communion. mmmmm.... yummy.



i was also pleased to have tasted the celery dipped in salt water.



seder wasn't all eating though. we also got to hit each other (and boy, some of those hits were vicious) with the green onions. mary explained that the hitting thing with the green onions was a persian jewish tradition. let me just say on the record that i hit my companions softly with the leaves part. some people, on the other hand, were hitting with the bulb part. my friends were vicious!



one thing that my jewish friends warned me about was the gefilte fish. better yet, the gefilte fish with the maror (sp?) (grated horseradish). they warned that it was not good, that one had to acquire the taste for it. i must have, in a previous life, acquired the taste for it because i loved it. in fact, i had two. it tasted just like softer fish balls with the spam gelee. oh yeah. and the maror? well, it was like wasabi. nothing strange there.





mary also made matzah ball soup, which was perfectly filling.



also served was the tzimmes below, which i did not try because it had some cow pieces.



friends also said the brisket below was delicious. i did not have a taste as it was the cow.



but, i can attest that the stuffed cabbage with ground turkey was filling, rich, sweet and perfectly delicious. i had two!



so, at the end of seder, i was definitely grateful that i was invited. although i have already been familiar with the story of passover from my youth and college course, it was something else to be actually celebrating it.

more importantly, it was good to learn more about the culture and food of my friends. i just hope they invite me for hannukkah. there are more food then, right?