Chapter 7, The Small Shacks
“It is time to move again” Mom Said. “But don't worry, we aren't moving far, just to the next street to a bigger shack.”
When we moved from Be'er Sheva we took a very small shack. It was a one room wooden shack covered with black tar sheets on the outside walls and tin roof to keep the rain off. We had a small out house where my dad had to pour lime into the deep hole under the wooden seat every night and another out house where we showered. It had a small water tank placed on a tall pedestal with a special kerosene burner called “Primus”. Mom used to turn it on every afternoon, before dad would come from work so he could have a nice hot shower.
I will never forget how Mom would prepare for “Passover”. She would take all the kitchen tools outside so she can clean and “kosher” them for the holiday. Dipping them in boiling hot water she had placed yet, on another “Primus”. Even the kitchen table was left outside until she finished cleaning the room. We had to eat dinner sitting on the floor and the food was placed on newspapers spread in the kitchen corner.
I remember the spring Dad and I went to the small back yard and plowed the ground with big shovels. sowed watermelon seeds and picked big round watermelons in the summer. At the edge of the yard, we had wild growing spinach. It had small, yet thick and salty leaves from the salty breeze blowing from the sea every evening. We collected big bags full and both Mom and Dad spent a whole day making “pkeilah”. They shrunk the leaves into a thick black concentrated spinach sauce. In fact, spinach grew wild all over the shore's cliffs. We picked spinach every time we went down to the beach. During the summer around 5:00PM mom made some tuna sandwiches for us and we walked to the beach. We play in the water in between the rocks where it was safe until Dad came back from work and joined us until it got dark.
It was time to move, right after we picked the last watermelon. The new place was a little bigger shack. It had a living dining room, a bedroom, and the best of all, it had an indoor bathroom. It didn't have an outhouse not for the toilet or the shower. Everything was in one place. No more walking in the rain or in the middle of the night to the outhouse.
Next to Sarah's house live beautiful Allegra. She had the last shack on our street. You could see the blue sea clearly right of her bedroom window. In her living room she set up a big chair and a big mirror in front of it with all kinds of bottles next to it and many scissors. She was our neighborhood's hairdresser / barber / natural healer. I remember, how she came to our house once and tried to fix my stomachache by washing it with “enema”. Allegra became a good friend of my Mom and visited us a lot as well as we visited her. She had 2 kids, a little older than me. Interestingly they had the same names as my cousins Vivi and Inez and just the same, Vivi was big and strong, and Inez was very pretty.
In very short time, I made friends on that street as well as the street next to us. I learned where the “makolet” - the small groceries' store was, and I was given the task to go buy the milk and bread every day. I remember waiting in line there next to the big sack of rough sea salt, I grabbed a hand full of salt and shove it in my mouth. No matter how much my stomach hurt afterward I kept on eating it every day until we moved the following summer to Neveh Shalom closer to downtown where Dad worked.
Itzik or as we called him, Gingi for his freckles and red hair, lived on the next street. He had his fifth birthday on the first Shabat afternoon after we moved to that bigger shack.
“Get dressed” Mom told me, “you are going to be late.” I wore my new white shirt, blue shorts, and my new sandals. This was the first birthday party I was ever invited to. I Didn't know what to expect.
“Come help me wrap this little gift” Mom called me as soon as I was dressed. “It is a nice bar of chocolate.” It was made by the new Israeli chocolate factory – Elit, “So don't eat it on the way.”
“I won't” I answered, “I don't like this kind, I line the dark chocolate better.”
At the party we got to play new games, and I saw how Gingi blew the candles with his eyes closed. I met new friends who were going to join me at the preschool the following year. Even Michael was there with his mom assisting him. It was a start of nice friendship that lasted for many years to come.
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Pkeilah Soup
A special holidays meal. Concentrated spinach sauce, a base for soups, and stews. It is best when made from wild spinach, but it could be made from other types of spinach, kale, or any thick green leaves. When made correctly it could last for years and one tablespoon of it could be used to make the soup or the stew. We eat this on holidays and some Shabbats on top of couscous or rice.
Ingredients:
Base:
Spinach
Margarine (one bar for every 2lb of spinach)
Soup:
1 Chopped Onion
2 Garlic Cloves
3 TBSP Olive Oil
1 Cup Green Peas (or a can of white beans)
1 tsp Salt
Preparation:
Wash the spinach and fill it in a big pot. Put on low heat until it shrivels and dries (best if it is crisped). The spinach shrinks to a very small amount once all the water evaporates. Now, add the margarine and mix well. It will become a thick dark green paste. Put the paste in a jar, top it with a little olive oil, cover and seal it. It is best to keep the jar refrigerated, but I have seen people saving it in a pantry for a long time.
Sauté the onion and garlic in 3 TBSP of olive oil. Mix with one TBSP of the spinach paste. Add 2 cups of water and the green peas. Bring to boil and simmer.
Most people prepare a meat version of this dish. They use small cuts of stewing meat. Brown it with the onion and cook it together until the meat is tender. Usually about 90 minutes simmering.
We serve pkeilah in a bawl next to the plate of rice or couscous and pour it with a spoon on top one spoon at a time.
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