Abraham Meal

We usually try to have a special meal for the course closing each VITAL module. For this past October module, we had been translating selections from Genesis—key stories about Abraham, Jacob and Joseph—so some of the staff were inspired to try to give the participants a small taste of some of the foods and meal culture from the Middle East. Thus commenced what we called, “the Abraham Meal.”

We cleared the tables out from the dining hall and hung sheets, mosquito nets and tarps around to give it more of a “tent” feel.

Karla and Joanna hanging the entrance to our "Abraham tent"

For the food we decided on flat bread, hummus (chickpea/garbanzo bean dip), taboulleh (bulgur, tomato, cucumber, parsley & mint salad), tsatsiki (yogurt, cucumber & mint dip), falafel (fried chickpea meatball), lentil soup, lamb-kabobs (lamb meat is much cheaper here than in the US), and, of course, kaukau (sweet potatoes)—without which no PNG meal would be complete. The menu was maybe a little ambitious considering we would be feeding about 60 people and our cooks had never made any of these dishes before (except for the kaukau). We ended up making about 90 flat breads at the Centre the weekend prior to the course closing and freezing them until the meal on Friday evening, and our own cooks made another 30 on Thursday. We were able to get dried chickpeas/garbanzo beans for the hummus and falafel at the store without any problems and substituted brown rice for the bulgur in the taboulleh. There was no mint or parsley to be found, so we did end up missing a few of the flavors, but overall, I was pretty impressed at how things turned out.

Me, dishing up a plate of flat bread, taboulleh, etc.

In the past when I’ve made hummus we used a food processor or blender to turn the chickpeas into a paste, but we didn’t have one. So we ended up mashing them in a bowl using a bottle of soy sauce J It felt much more like what Sarah (Abraham’s wife) would have used to make her own hummus…though I imagine she wouldn’t have had a bottle of soy sauce either!

Christina, one ouf our cooks, and I are trying to determine if the lentils are done...neither of us had cooked them before! (The plate that I'm holding has a mound of garlic on it--I think we used two full bulbs of garlic for all of our dishes.)

Two of the staff played the roles of Abraham and Sarah, hosting a meal for their friends (the participants and special guests) and the rest of the staff all dressed up in our best bed sheets to act as servants of Abraham.

'Abraham' and 'Sarah' are being fanned with a palm branch by one of their 'servants'.

We called the participants to come to the meal with our PNG substitute shofar (ram’s horn)—a large conch shell. As they came in the door, they had their feet washed, and then were invited to take a seat on one of the mats on the floor. We served the meal in courses, and as the participants ate, “Abraham” and “Sarah” told stories about their lives. Abraham’s “chief servant” also told the story of going on a long journey and, with direction from Abraham’s God, finding a wife for Abraham’s son.

Abe, Sarah & servants preparing for the big meal...if you squint you may be able to see the giant conch shell in Karla's hand.

Knowing that foot washing was something that was done in Biblical times (it’s even mentioned in Genesis 18 as something Abraham does for his special visitors), we decided that it would add to the experience of our meal by washing the participants feet off in a basin of water as they entered our “tent”.

One of the participants having her feet washed.

We were a bit surprised to hear afterward that many of the participants were uncomfortable having their feet washed and having their food served by the staff. But in spite of that, and the food flavors that they were not used to, after they got settled in to the meal, the participants seemed to appreciate the experience.

The inside of 'Abraham's tent'...his guests are being served flat bread.