Eating for Gaza

Our friend and neighbour La Torbellina de Tenerife is up-and-at-'em again. She is the most active person I know when it comes to bringing relief to the dispossessed: be that refugees, travellers, single parents or the troubled.  On 21 May we got an invitation to come along to the village hall on the Solstice and eat middle-eastern food to raise funds of Gaza go Bragh - €15/plate.

I ignored it. I was in the middle of Preparation Yomp and was by no means certain I would be back from France by 21Jun25. The next easiest response is to pay the money with no intention of eating disturbing foreign food - most of us in Ireland realise that neither side in the current conflict will entertain bacon-and cabbage and spuds. A more adventurous response is to buy a ticket and give it a go. Over the last 30 years there has been a culinary revolution in Ireland: frozen pizza and pierogi are available in Aldi . . . for all. There is a Chinese take-away in Borris!

When I did get home on 18Jun25, I found that The Beloved had volunteered [no pressure!] for a) kitchen prep on Saturday morning b) being Provost of Serving in the evening. The emotional and logistical energy for such event is a significant drain on any available calories and it can be handy just to have someone, anyone, to assist with the decision making. That's how we came to be constructing 250 koftas for 3 hours on Saturday forenoon; along side two veg-choppers-chaps [Ukraine, Espain], a spud peeler, and a chef du salads.

We were allowed home for a late lunch and a brief siesta, but requested-and-required to rock up to The Hall for 18:00hrs for a gates-open at 19:30. There are seats for 200 in the hall, that's the limit set by the insurance and #punters were close to that.

Notes to self . .  and those who imagine a similar event.

• Don't employ absolute beginners to make kofta. Team Barbecue were delayed in their timetable because, 7-8 hours after being massaged onto the skewers the lamb-mince was ready to drop off. It helps a little if each layer of skewers is separated from the next by a sheet grease-proof paper. Bamboo skewers are better than steel.
• Shunt families with small children to the front of the line! 19:30 is bedtime for kids. This is what they do in Plum Village. As well as a Provost of Serving; appoint a Dragoon of Customer Management.
• Have everyone find a table [with their mates but also with strangers] and sit. Make sure some sort of snack and a drink is within reach. Have the Dragoon of C.M. bring each table up to the serving table in turn. That's the way it was done at the Christmas Do at The Institute. People sitting down and chatting are less likely to get hangry when the barbecue is delayed by kofta-inkompetents. 

It was all go for the next several hours. I did try the kofta, and the garlic & paprika roast potatoes and the falafel: anything I could manage to get down standing up without a plate. Quite apart from raising money for water-bowsers in Gaza, such events raise the spirit of community engagement. Seeing your neighbours eat tabouleh and not fainting is also positive grist for the mill of multicultural Ireland. 

Seeing a vat of houmous bi tahina made me certain that my beloved, half-Lebanese, MiL and her sister were looking down through their harp-strings disagreeing about the details: 
more salt ukhti . . . 
NO, less lemon ukhti . . . 
you can't take lemon out ukhti [insert Hausa proverb here]. 
But at least they agreed with La Torbellina that gargantuan over-catering was the way forward.