This was new…. We were invited to a one year old’s birthday party by our neighbors. So we show up and sit in chairs for a bit. Not much action going on. Just chatting.
Then all at once everyone gets up and stampedes up these little stairs to the next floor. We take off our shoes and go sit in rows on the floor.
First they pass out cups and fill them up with water. Then they pass out 2 lily pad looking leafs to each person. (We just did what everyone else did because what do you make of a big leaf sitting in front of you?) So we poured some of the water onto the top leaf and then shook off the water onto the second leaf. This is for “cleaning our plate”.
Then the Race began… The little server guy came by and put a mountain of rice on my leaf and then a ladle full of an Indian dish. So you mix this all up with only a small portion of your rice and eat it really fast with your fingers before the next “course” or huge ladle comes by. One of our neighbors (Honey) was sitting by me to help me out; so about 3 “courses” into the thing I’m stuggling to keep up. Even in America I am a slow eater, it’s true. Well she makes fun of me and keeps telling me “Jeldi! Jeldi!” hurry! Hurry! The perfect way to describe the eating method would be called the shovel.
So Honey came prepared and handed me a spoon she brought in her purse to help me out. Well whatever I can do to bring a smile to their faces… So like 8 huge ladles of different dishes and a truckload of rice later the last one is dished out. I thought I was going to explode!! Then as if on cue the whole room of people get up and stampede to one side of the room and wash their hands…Then like cattle they corral around the other side of the room to put their shoes back on and head back down the stairs to leave as fast as they can.
Side note: So we were given the impression that it was rude not to finish everything on our leaf…when we were done our neighbor’s son tells me that this is not so because all you need to do is fold your leaf in half so they know that you are done.
They didn’t tell us this on purpose….
PS I never saw the kid whose birthday it was… in fact I’m not sure which family even threw this shindig… but i guess that wasn't the point
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