Rosh Hashana lunch, and the story of the starfruit

[cellio]

On Saturday Fran, Alan, and lefkowitzga joined us for lunch. I wanted to make a nice meal -- it was Rosh Hashana, after all, and now that I've married into a non-local family I never get to make seders any more.

I wasn't going to post the detailed menu, but I realized that when other people on my friends list post things like this I read them, so what the heck. We had:

• wedding soup (kept in a 180-degree oven until ready; this turned out to work just fine)
• sweet gefilte fish (in deference to the holiday, I only put out the sweeter, milder red horseradish, not the real stuff)
• raw broccoli and baby carrots with hummus (was going to make a tossed salad, but I liked this idea better)
• barbeque chicken, yams, and carrots (baked before Yom Tov, then warmed up in the crock pot on a timer)
• potato kugel (hung out in the oven next to the soup)
• apples drizzled with blackberry honey (I used three different types of apples, giving everyone a bowl of assorted slices)
• challah and wine (of course)
• fruit salad (fresh cantaloupe, bananas, and pineapple)
• meringue cookies
• cake with nuts and chocolate icing (brought by our guests)

It has been my custom to include starfruit with Rosh Hashana -- and only Rosh Hashana -- meals, but I couldn't find any this year. Oops.

For those who are wondering: it happened during the first year that I observed Rosh Hashana. I had not yet concluded that the second day of Yom Tov is unnecessary in this modern age (and I do still waffle on Rosh Hashana specifically, because they keep two days in Israel too). There is a blessing (shehechiyanu) that we say on Yom Tov which is specifically about milestones and/or something new -- so you also say this blessing when putting on new clothes, for instance. Anyway, you're supposed to say the blessing both nights, but you can't be blessing the newness of the holiday the second night because you did that last night, so the rabbis of the talmud came up with an inventive solution: eat a "new fruit" the second night, and thus say the blessing over that. So anyway, there I was coming up on my first Rosh Hashana and I really didn't know what fruits were sufficiently new that I hadn't eaten them too recently, because who pays attention to stuff like that if you don't have a reason to? So out of perverseness I bought something I had never in my life eaten, because surely that would be new. Then I decided to keep it as my shehechiyanu fruit after that. (Yes, you're allowed to eat the fruit you use at other times of the year -- just not right before Rosh Hashana. But I never formed the general starfruit habit.)

So I don't need a shehechiyanu fruit any more, but I still always serve starfruit anyway, just because. Except this year I couldn't find any, for some odd reason. I bought a different fruit I'd never heard of before (cactus pear), but once I cut it open I couldn't figure out which parts were supposed to be edible, so I didn't put it out. (It seems to consist mostly of seeds, like pomegranate, but on later examination neither the seeds nor the pulp seemed to be designed for human consumption. It's a peculiar fruit.)

Anyway, lunch was very pleasant and the conversation was good. Fran has one arm in a sling due to some recent surgery, meaning that cooking is a challenge for her, so I was glad that we were able to give her a good meal. Unfortunately, the injury and the sling are uncomfortable, and the pain medication she took at the end of the meal interacted suboptimally with the bit of wine she'd had earlier, so they ended up leaving soon thereafter. That's unfortunate, but we'll just have to visit some other time when she's feeling better.

Comments

[rani23.livejournal.com]

I'd love to know more about the wedding soup and whether your verison is anything like mine. :)

[cellio]

I actually bought it. That started out as "I don't have time to make the little meatballs" and cascaded. :-) I'd love to hear about your recipe. The best wedding soup I've ever had was my grandmother's (of blessed memory), but she wouldn't share her recipe. I'm pretty sure she put pork in the meatballs and cheese in the broth, though, so I'd have to adapt in any case...