holiday food

The coolest thing about this holiday is the food that arrives at your door. The night before Idi-Ramazon people cook a big pot of osh and take a plate to their neighbors, friends, and relatives. A couple of nights before the holiday, we got an unexpected early offering. It arrived after a dinner where Ella just wasn't interested in the pizza and french fries we made (usual favorites). When she saw the plate of osh in the hands of our neighbor standing at the door, she started screaming "OSH, OSH!!!" and jumping up and down as if we never feed her.

On the night before the holiday, we had 4 different plates of osh at our table. Osh is Ella's favorite food, so she was in heaven...

After all these plates of osh are passed around, another tradition comes into play. When someone gives you a plate of food, you must not return the plate empty. So this means that you get more food when your plates return. On the afternoon of the holiday, after Jen had given plates of food to our neighbors, we received our plate back with this... a braided fruit-filled bread, which I have never seen here before, but it was delicious and a real honor to receive. She obviously spent a lot of time preparing it. We took some pictures of it with Ella, who happened to be in a funny mood at the time...







Perhaps we should explain the last two faces... One of Ella's little friends is the 12-month-old son of a teammate who occasionally does this funny thing where he clenches his jaw and his fists and shakes. Anyway, Ella has picked up on this, and has learned that she gets a good laugh anytime she says the boy's name, followed by an impression.