Just like myself, my friend Christina is not a very enthusiastic cook. We are firm believers in cooking Dutch style: bread with cheese or jam for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and a simple hot meal for dinner.
Not bread, pancakes!
Christina loved her Iranian in-laws dearly and was happy when they came to visit her in Holland for a month, but cooking for them drove her crazy. At that time, the older generation in Iran used to eat two hot meals a day, which meant that elderly housewives spent most of their time in the kitchen. This was one aspect of grandpa and grandma’s visit that Christina was not too happy about. Moreover, she was quickly running out of ideas as to what to cook for them. One bright morning, she decided to make pancakes for lunch. She was sure grandpa and grandma would like them. Grandma was curious to see how they were made and sat in the kitchen to observe the whole procedure. As the baking got along, grandma started to look more and more concerned and finally could not stop herself from blurting out: “The next time you want to bake bread, I’ll do it because you just don’t know how.”
After 20 years, Christina still gets upset when we laugh about this episode.
A waiter in a desert city in Iran brings the American and Iran flags to our table
In Tehran a waiter brought the UN flag to our table when I had lunch there. “We used to have American flags,” he explained. “But our restaurant was raided and they took all the American flags.” Well in more conservative Yazd, restaurants still have their American flags. This waiter was thrilled to bring a flag for me and a flag for Kamran. Later he brought the Dutch flag to our table as well.
I know that my grandfather came to America on a ship called the Bremen when he was eleven years old. I only recently learned that his last name when he arrived was Mednik. In the absence of a detailed and well-documented family tree, I have often wondered about my own genetic legacy.
One thing I know is that I am not related to Queen Victoria
It seems that I am not alone, listen to this provocative piece from Radio Lab:
