Gourmet or not Gourmet

"WHY did you throw out 2 half-filled boxes of perfectly good quiche???" I demanded to know of the receptionist when she admitted she was the tosser of the gourmet fare.

The President of the company brought in her leftovers from the Jewish holiday of Shavuot that began on Sunday night and was over by Monday night. They were quality leftovers and I was only too happy to not waste food. The Israeli-born and bred girls in the office were horrified at eating the leftovers.

"It's two days old!" they told me.

I eat leftovers for 5 days if left in the fridge. They all looked at me like that "cheap American". So what. I still wanted to know why the receptionist threw this fancy quiche in the garbage.

"I saw green stuff on it."

"Honey, that was broccoli"

"No it was on the side"

"Then it was the spinach onion quiche. That's my LUNCH!"

And with that me and another girl (who had lived in Baltimore for many years and who knows good food too) fished the (closed) quiche boxes out of the garbage and had another fantastic lunch today.

"Ask me about food before you throw anything out" I warned her. See what happens when you are raised on felafel and schwarma? Fancy cheeses and spinach look like mold to the untrained eye and palate.

My reputation in fine cuisine is known far and wide. We spent the holiday of Shavuot at our friend's kibbutz in the Galilee. The smells of the flowers in the evening was absolutely intoxicating, and I would take very deep breaths to take all the delicious aromas in. However, the food was absolute shit and even my ex-criminal daughter remarked that the food is better at her reformatory than it is on kibbutz. But I didn't care because you get what you pay for.... On the eve of the holiday, I was a bit disappointed that they were not going to have a festive dinner on the kibbutz. I was planning to go with Hubby to this beautiful, newly discovered by me village called Beit Lechem Haglilit, which was built by German Templars at the turn of the century, and is now a wealthy community with post garden restaurants serving fine French and Italian food. Our friend told me, though, that after holiday services they were having a contest - all the kibbutz members and their kids were bringing in their dairy desserts and main dishes and judges would have to choose who would win 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize.

"And you get to taste it all if you're a judge" he informed me, and then got me to stay rather than dine elsewhere by appointing me one of three judges.

I took bits of everything and filled up two plates. I felt like I could do this professionally, maybe a great job would be restaurant reviews! Together the three of us chose the first two dishes and haggled a bit over what would be the third dish, which prompted us for 2nd taste testing. I tried to get my friend's daughter's cake into the running, but the other two men were more into the fruit. heheh. That does sound funny, doesn't it?

When I came back home and weighed myself I lost 4 kilos. Go figure, because I never will.