Sunday, September 26, 2010

A Kallyroi dinner

It was all arranged. Kallyroi was to pick up two freshly slaughtered chickens from the construction site near the electrical yard. We waited for her in the car as she disappeared from sight down a narrow pathway. She returned with 6 1/2 kilos of chicken, hoping that it had been gutted and defeathered.

The underground kitchen at Jazzmin came alive as she chopped and skinned and deboned. The soup pot went on at 5pm. Apples and bananas were chopped for the coconut curry dish. Aromas drifted outside, mingling with misty clouds.

Meanwhile Eva had joined Kallyroi in the kitchen to prepare a nectarine cake for dessert. Thinly sliced nectarines were carefully placed in rows on top of a cake batter. The topping was a simple mixture of egg and milk.

Fifteen people gathered around a line of cafe tables again for a wonderful meal. Helpers from our group took turns, carried bowls of soup up from the kitchen, cleared the tables, brought the curried chicken course, cleared the tables, presented dessert. For two hours we toasted our hosts and our cooks as we shared stories, debated issues and created memories.

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