Sharing a Different Culture

My Mom was completely supportive of John and my decision not to attend the actual funeral of my grandfather but that also meant missing the zela which is "the doing."

That is when people gather to eat after a special event.

"Don't you want to expose your children to the culture?"

At the time my response was-- "Not really."

But as time went on and I thought about what she said I realized that it would be neat to at least explain to the kids and have them experience something close to a zela.

Afterall it would probably be the only time my kids were exposed to this culture now.

So I decided to prepare a traditional Molokan meal and explain how it is eaten.

Last night was the night.

A few hours before lunch I submerged a big chuck roast in water and began letting it slow cook all day.  I'm sure they wouldn't care that it wasn't kosher.

Later, I removed the unseasoned roast, and strained the broth which I would later add salt and fine noodles to.  This soup is known as lapsha.

I admit that for the sake of keeping dinner short and sweet, I prepped most of the food ahead of time.  Oh, and I added boiled eggs to the meal so that everyone would be full at the end of it.

Let's begin shall we.  I'll share with you everything I told the kids.

Normally people would come into the church and sit down at one of the long tables on a bench.  Of course salt and bread were on the tables.

After a prayer, servers would bring out chai.  Rather than drinking it in a glass like the adults do, I remember pouring mine into a bowl and drinking from it instead.

Next, the servers would bring out a plate with a head of lettuce, a cucumber, a tomato, and a lemon for each table. A whole loaf of bread would also be brought out on a big cutting board along with a knife.  Someone from the table, usually a woman, would begin to cut up the vegetables and soon everyone from that table would be eating from a communal plate.  If you chose to, the lemon was used as dressing.

Like clockwork, as soon as the last table was served the veggies, it was time for the next course to begin being served to the first table.

That would be soup.  I remember always having borscht or lapsha.  The servers would bring out a stack of bowls along with a much bigger bowl of soup which would be ladled by the woman who cut up the veggies.  Of course the soup is eaten with those big Russian wooden spoons that everyone takes home as a souvenir from their trip to Russia.

After the soup comes the meat that is also seasoned with lemon and salt-- if you wish.  The servers bring a big roast, fat and all, to the table, where the woman will pull the tender meat apart for everyone at her table to pick through and eat.  It may not sound very appetizing but I do remember it tasting very yummy.

After you had eaten all you wanted of the meat, last came the desert.

Fruit.

You guessed it.  A big plate with unpeeled whole bananas, and a couple of oranges and apples was brought out.  The same woman who had cut everything else up at the table cut up the fruit into big chunks.

And we ate until we were full.

That was how I remembered eating a meal at the Russian Molokon church throughout my childhood.

Since we did not have an hour to eat, some of the kids cringed at the thought of sharing a plate of food, and I did not have enough wooden spoons-- we ate family style.

But it was still different than how we usually eat dinner.  Instead of using a fork, I used my piece of bread to grab up a piece of meat and a slice of tomato.  It was fun.

And it brought back many memories.

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On another note

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