Chapter 77, Nikitush

     The woman who loved me the most, unconditionally, no matter what; Meme Milli came to visit. As always, she brought gifts.

 “I can never understand how you do that.” Mom exclaimed, “You travel by bus, yet you always are able to bring gifts with you. What is in this box?”

 “S’udat Yitro” she said and opened the box. “I know you don’t have this stuff.” She pulled the wrinkled newspaper from the box and showed us very small dishes. A little bigger than dolls toy dishes. They were made of fine porcelain decorated with fine flowery design.

 

    “S’udat Yitro – the meal for the week of Jethro’s Torah Portion” said Meme Milli as she was helping Mom washing the new toy like dishes, “is a Tunisian special holiday for boys. Many years ago, there was a big pandemic in Tunisia that killed many little boys. All the rabbis got together and made a vow that they would make a holiday at the time the pandemic ends. So, one day, right after Tu BiShvat like a miracle, it ended. The Rabbis kept their promise and started a new tradition. To commemorate the feast Jethro through for Moses and Aaron they decided to make a yearly dinner with those small dishes to remember the miracle that saved the boys. We make small dishes, even small chickens or pigeons stuffed with nuts and other goodies like dry fruit and candy. Everything little boys would love. Now let’s go watch Sami and Susu.”

    My Grandma spoke Hebrew very poorly, she couldn’t read or write in any language. Even numbers were difficult for her. I remember being a small child trying to teach her, but she just didn’t believe in herself. The language she spoke best was Arabic. Now that she finally bought a TV, she was watching mostly Arabic shows. Israel had only one TV Chanel and it didn’t play all day. In the morning hours we had the Educational shows for schools and kids that are still staying home, on Friday afternoon we had a few Arabic shows like “Sami and Susu”; A kids’ show with Sami and his poppet Susu. At 6:00PM every Friday the Arabic movie would be shown. Meme was addicted to that one. The antennas if you had one were not strong enough to get many channels from the neighboring countries. In Be’er Sheva where Meme lived, she could get one Egyptian station where she could see some performances and other movies. But at our house she had a more stations available, like Lebanon where Mom loved watching Star Trek in black and white. Or Jordan and even in good weather Egypt. Meme Milli sat in front of the TV with a big metal bowl on her lap and a lump of dough made from just flower and water. She would pinch a very small piece with two fingers and make very small balls and drop them back in the bawl. “Nikitush” was the name of the collection of the pasta like balls. She would let them dry on the Couscous cullender and then would save them in a sealed jar. Nikitush was used every other Saturday as noodles in the Shabat soup.  Mom didn’t have the patience to make them, so Meme was our source of our Nikitush supply. Mom got along with Meme Milli better than with her own mother. And I enjoyed sitting with her after work listening to her stories even if I heard them before.

 

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  Potato Balls

 

This is a good and easy side dish for Passover. 

 

Ingredients:

2      Potatoes

½ Medium Onion 

¼ Cup Chopped Parsley

½ Cup Matzah Meal

1 Egg

½ tsp Salt

¼ tsp Black Pepper

½ tsp Paprika

2 TBSP Olive Oil

Oil for deep frying

 

Cook the Potatoes and mash them with chopped onion, parsley. Mix in the egg, matzah meal salt and spices. Make balls and deep fry.

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