This craving only comes about once year, and it happens whether I attend a seder or not. So last night, after I stayed at home with my dog, and did not attend a seder, I insisted that Jet take me out to Jerry's Deli for matzo ball soup at 10:30. Just as he arrived home from cooking a seder meal for one of his clients.
There are two kinds of mazto balls. Some camps decide that just one big ball is better, others think that several small ones are the way to go. It's a little like gall stones! I personally prefer the smaller ones, purely because that's what my friends' parents made and it has a certain familiarity to it. But really, it is completely dependent on who made them and how they were made.
Then you have the soup part. Do you add noodles to the chicken soup? Do you make it cloudy or clear? Do you leave the chicken pieces and the vegetables in? Everyone is different and everyone has their own secret to making the perfect soup. These secret recipes are passed down through families for generations. And every family believes that theirs is better.
Amazingly I can say that no-one in my family has ever made this traditional dish. I grew up eating it at everyone else's houses and actually, no-one in my family really liked matzo quite as much as I did anyway. I love it. I'd eat it all year if I could. Jet thinks it tastes as dry as the desert that the Jews were lost in.
So this is the week I get my matzo fix! And as I am eating it, I will recall happy memories of Passover dinners with the Smiths. Maybe this year I will find the aficomen and win my prize. Actually... I think I have already won.
No comments:
Post a Comment