A bit about eating

2 Juilliet 2006

Communal eating, which is not every meal, is incredibly satisfying and strange in an ancient sort of familial way. It fufills some sort of need in us. It's also extremely uncomfortable and awkward. Eating with the right hand requires that to tear meat, which is piled in chunks near the center of the dish, requires that you ask another person for help. "Hold this" you say, and each of you pulls hard at the (mostly) fat and gristley goat meat, trying not to slip. We tear at it like animals. See what I mean? How crazy is that? I sit on my left sometimes, so as not to be tempted to use it. After washing before meals, with peanut soap and the water filled teapot called the makarresh, on holds one right hand in the air, away from any potential soiling entities. After eating, one licks one's hand clean (it's polite) before washing again. Don't mistake this for the common American practice of finger sucking. It's way more obscene. It makes me uncomfortable.