Chapter 9, Uncle Robert's Visit

1959
“Mommy, Mommy! Come look who’s coming to visit.” I rushed home yelling. “Come Ima it’s Uncle Robert, he came with a big army truck.”

Everyone in our family knew; Mom was a great cook. In every opportunity they have they would stop by for lunch or dinner. On the other hand, I could never figure out why. I didn’t like her food. It just didn’t taste good to me. Most of the time, it was too spicy. Anyway, Uncle Robert had an afternoon pass, and he came with his army truck for a short visit. Both Avi and I loved it when relatives serving the army came to visit. They always had something for us. Chocolate bars or chocolate covered waffles from the military cantina. Uncle Robert was a truck driver in the army. This time he came with a huge truck and he parked it in front of our shack on the sand dunes.

It was Friday afternoon and Mom made her usual “Couscous” with chicken vegetable soup. Uncle Robert loved it.

“So, what’s new?” He asked.
“Oh, nothing much.” Said Mom. “I’m starting to work soon. Eli offered to teach me the trade of diamond cutting. He is very good at that, you know. I’ll be working half a day so we can save some money.”
“That’s nice,” said Uncle Robert. “But, what about the children?”
“Oh, I found a solution for that.” Mom replied. “Nanou is going to the nursery school and Yaffa the teacher there has a daughter Avi’s age. She asked if I could bring Avi too so they can play together. All I have to do is to pick Avi when I pick Nanou after my work. It turns out great. Yaffa gets to keep her job teaching and I get to go to work for half a day without worrying about a babysitter.”

All that time while Uncle Robert was having lunch Avi was playing with some of his friends around the army truck.
“Look in here!” said Itzik the red head kid. “It’s a dead porcupine; your uncle killed it with his truck”
“No He didn’t!” I said when I walked out, hearing the conversation. “It was there before, and you shouldn’t be playing with it, anyway.”

The kids didn’t listen to me and kept playing with the dead porcupine. It was laying there for two days now waiting to be picked up by the town’s service. The kids were poking it with long sticks, trying to make it move, revive it, or god knows what. They kept playing with it until Uncle Robert came out with Mom to say goodbye to us.

This goodbye was the longest goodbye I can remember. You see, Uncle Robert Started his truck and about to drive away but he couldn’t. His truck got stuck in the deep sand dune. No matter how much he tried he just dug himself deeper in. before too long, all the men in the neighborhood were there, trying to push the truck out of the sand. After 3 hours finally they succeeded pushing it on top of wood planks and out of the sand. Uncle Robert said goodbye again and this time drove away waving from the distance.

The next morning Avi was rushed to the hospital with high fever. He caught “typhus”. Probably was stung by a mosquito or a tick that carried the virus, from the dead porcupine. He had to spend 2 months in the hospital. With such high fever, we didn’t think he would make it. To our delight when Avi came back home, he was stronger than ever, his tales I will tell you later.

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Soup for “Couscous”

Couscous is what we ate every Friday night, some Saturdays for lunch, and dad loved to eat on Tuesdays for lunch if there was any leftover. I will not attempt to explain to you how to make it. it is a long process, and you’ll need special tools; like steamer pots and a special strainer with the right size holes for sifting semolina once it has soaked all the steam, mixing it with oil and salt. Maybe some other time. meanwhile you can buy ready-made couscous that just needs hot water.
  The soup served with the couscous must have very soft content so they can be mixed with the couscous once you serve it.

Ingredients:


1 Medium Onion
1 Turnip
1 Potato
1 Zucchini
2 Medium Carrots
1 Kohlrabi
some add a tomato too
2 Legs and 2 Thighs of well salted Chicken
2 Crushed clove of Garlic
1 tsp of Salt
1 tsp of Paprika
1/4 tsp of Black Pepper
1 TBSP of Olive Oil

Preparation:

 Peal the Vegetables and cut them into the size of 1 or 2 inches.
Pour the tablespoon of oil in a deep pot and add the cutup vegetables. Place it on a low heat and sprinkle the teaspoon of salt on top. cover and let it simmer until the vegetables soften start to shrink in size, for about 1/4 of the original size)
You might want to stir it every so often to prevent them from sticking to the bottom (it happens when the heat is too high, or the pot is too thin).
Add the spices and stir once more before placing the chicken on top. Pour in water to cover about twice of the high of the content. bring to boil and lower the heat to simmer for 2 hours, covering the pot in an angle so some of the steam can escape. (When using the couscous pots the steam actually helps making the couscous on top of the soup.) You want to cook the chicken until it practically falls of the bones and the vegetables are soft and mushy. Let it cool for at least 3 hours and reheat before serving. You may sprinkle some chopped fresh parsley on top before serving. The traditional way to serve it is in a small bawl next to the plate of couscous and use a spoon to transfer some from the bowl to the plate mixing a little at a time as you eat.

The soup could be saved in the refrigerator for about 4-5 days, or frozen for a few months.

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