Chinese Version
03-25-2021， Thursday， cloudy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon
Martha is a retired professor of history who is also my daughter’s professor’s wife. Because of her caring nature, I had the opportunity to taste a few Middle Eastern foods. In my memory, those foods are always associated with warm stories about Martha.
On a Friday in 2019, Martha and Tzvi invited the graduate students and their family members (my daughter, Grace, Shirah, Lou, my son, and me) to their home for a traditional Jewish Friday dinner. Martha prepared lots of food for us. I ate mejadra, a traditional Middle Eastern food (which is a combination of rice, lentils, fried onions, and raisins) for the first time. I liked its texture and flavor.
In January 2021, while planning for my birthday dinner, my daughter asked Martha for the mejadra recipe, as the online mejadra recipes which my daughter found don’t contain as many ingredients as Martha’s mejadra. In following Martha’s recipe, my daughter spent two days to make the mejadra for me. I liked the mejadra for my birthday dinner. but I felt it took too much time to make.
In late February 2021, I met Martha, thanked her for the mejadra recipe she gave to my daughter, and told her that we liked the mejadra for my birthday dinner.
Martha said she rarely makes mejadra, as it is too time-consuming. She chose to make mejadra for the dinner because all of her guests are used to eat rice but not dairy products. She wanted to let her guests try some new foods but not that new, so she came up with the idea to cook mejadra.
I was touched after hearing Martha’s explanation on why she chose to make mejadra for us. I felt her caring nature towards the younger generations: meticulous and sincere. This also reminded me of another visit I paid them in autumn 2020.
In autumn 2020, on a sunny afternoon, Martha, Tzvi, and I all met up while wearing our masks，kept 6 feet social distance between us, and sat outside chatting. Martha prepared tea, corn chips, and chickpea dip as a snack. She placed the snacks, paper cups, paper plates, napkins on a chair 6 feet away from us. We took off our masks to eat and drink, then put back our masks to chat. That was again my first time eating chickpea dip. Martha explained to me: “Chickpea is a common Middle Eastern food. As you are not used to dairy products, I prepared chickpea dip for you to go with the corn chips.”
Later I found online: “Domesticated chickpeas have been found at Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (8500–7500 BC) sites in Turkey and the Levant.” Chickpea really is an ancient food.
In August 2020, for her small outdoor birthday party, Martha was dressed in a sky-blue blouse paired with blue earrings and snow-white pants. It was a very modern outfit.
The happily-retired Martha loves life and fashion. I often tell my daughter that Martha is one of my role models in terms of enjoying life.
Episodes
October 12, 2019, Martha, a professor for many years, was carefully listening to my son talk about his brand new teaching experiences.
In August 2020, during her small outdoor birthday celebration, Martha was dressed in a sky-blue blouse paired with blue earrings and snow-white pants. It was a very modern outfit.
