Chapter 17, Yemenite Wedding

The big day for Tova Okev has come. She was getting married. I remember, just a week before, they had the “Henna” party for her, something like an engagement party, so the parents can agree that the couple may marry and so they can wish their children good luck on their wedding day. Sometimes I think, a Yemenite Henna party is a bigger party than a wedding party.

For Orthodox Jews, (and this Yemenite neighborhood was mostly orthodox) a co-ed party is not permitted. The men must be separated from the women. As for us children, it wasn't important. We were allowed to be anywhere we wanted. First, I spent some time with the men. They had some musicians playing Yemenite and Arabic music, all the men joined them and were singing together while drinking their favorite Araq – an alcoholic drink made of barley.

At the women's side of the party, on a big chair sat Tova the bride. I couldn't recognize her. Her face was covered with thick makeup. She was wearing a long red silk dress decorated with golden flowers. The dress covered her from neck to toe. On her feet she had golden pointy slippers curled up with tassels decorating the point in front. What she wore on her head was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. It was a tall tower, maybe two, maybe three feet tall, all covered with flowers, row by row, every row a different type. There was a row of red roses followed by a row of yellow daisies, followed by white carnations, and so on, and on, some five to ten rows of flowers up to the pointy tip of the hat. On the sides of Tova's face I saw colorful straps holding the hat down. They were wrapped under her chin so tightly that she couldn't talk. It was even difficult for her to smile. The jewelry was also so heavy with all the necklaces and golden and silver beads. I really don’t know how she was able to hold her back straight.  

"Hi Tova," I said, "congratulations!"

Poor Tova couldn't even nod. The hat was so heavy it weighed down her head. All she was able to do was move her cheeks a little to show a crooked smile and blink with her eyes.

Grandma Okev, the very old lady, was young again. She was singing and yelling from happiness, "lulululululu," in a very high pitch and at the same time banging on an empty oil tin can. She surely wasn't herself. Usually, she was slow and nasty. Every time when we, the children, came to see how she made the pitas in the round stone wood-burning oven, or how she makes the “mlawah”, the fried flaky dough, she would wave at us with her walking stick and yell something in Yemenite to get us out of there. But not today, today she was happy and silly, maybe drunk. She even offered me some of her pita and humus.

"Hot, hot, very hot!" I yelled, running out of the women's section for water. The humus had some red-hot sauce made from small red peppers and lots of garlic.

"It's good for you! Ha ha ha!" the silly old lady yelled after me, but I couldn't stay to listen to her. I ran to the men's section and grabbed the first glass of water I saw and poured it straight down my throat, only to spit it right back.

  "Yak!" It wasn't water, it was “Araq”, the homemade Yemenite alcoholic drink. 

All the men laughed at the sight of my agony. I grabbed a pita and shoved all of it in my mouth and ran out of the room.

          

 

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Mlawah

  Flat layered bread usually used for dipping in tomato sauce or hot sauce.  It became a very popular food in Israel and one of the dishes that represent Yemenite food. 

Ingredients:
4 Cups Flour
1 Margarine Bar
1 TBSP Salt
3 TBSP Sugar
3 TBSP Olive Oil
2 TBSP Vinegar
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 TBSP Baking Soda 
1 Cup of Water (you may need to add water depending on the weather)

Preparation:
 Mix all ingredients and knead the dough. Let it sit for ½ hour covered with a wet towel. Make 10 balls of dough and let sit for ½ hour more covered. Flatten the dough (one at a time) and spread margarine on it. Roll the dough and create new balls. Put in the freezer for 30 minutes and take the balls out. Waite a moment for the dough to soften, flatten the dough again and spread more margarine, create balls and freeze again for 30 minutes. Take the balls out, flatten them again and freeze flat with parchment paper in between each layer. When ready to serve, pull out of the freezer and fry in a dry, covered frying pan on low heat. Flip over when golden edge appears and keep frying until all is golden and flaky.

Serve with humus, tehina or crushed tomatoes.

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