Friday, February 26, 2010

Purim, Passover and Palm Tree Identity Complex

Purim is tomorrow!
One of my main fun memories from Purim - was when I was about 10 YO. I masqueraded to Miss Piggy from the moppet show - it felt very blond and international, I sweat under the plastic mask of miss piggy but enjoyed the celebrity status, every moment of that day.
These days I prefer eating the Hamantashen and skipping all the noisy costume thing...
Hamantashen, the cookies of Purim, OZNEI HAMAN in Hebrew,(meaning "the ears of Haman" - the bad guy in the story of Purim (a pretty graphic name for such a tasty cookie!)
Ear or nose, my favorite Hamantashen are the ones with mashed palm date stuffing. I Couldn't find these at the bakeries in Eugene, but I did find dates paste, so I prepare them myself.
The triangle shape of the Hamantashen (with their golden color) and the Middle Eastern design of dates paste top, reminds me the pyramids of Egypt.

OZNEI HAMAN - very graphic name for such a tasty cookie

The pyramids which are surrounded by hot desert and probably few palm trees here and there and are stuffed with amazing ancient treasures (actually it might be that all the stuffing of the pyramids is much closer to us, in many of the nearby western museums than it is in Israel...)
Here or there - Oh the pyramid of Egypt! this is a place that I always wanted to visit, even before the day I was Miss Piggy, but I have never been brave enough. After all, for someone who knows how to make Hamantashen the pyramids are not located at the most friendly location....
I felt quite safe to visit the Pyramid in Luxor, Las Vegas, though. If you can ignore the gambling activity there (...) and focus on the designs and the decorations it is quite an amazing place.
But back to the ancient ones - think about the almost fact, that "we", the Hebrews built them. Black on white you can read about it in the Haggadah of Passover (no need wait to long - Passover is a month from now!)

The pyramids of Giza (Egypt), and the palm trees
(....my name - Tamar - means palm date/palm tree in Hebrew,
so it might be an identity issue for me....to do circles around
palm trees and dates)

Photo by treep (Flicker)

All of a sudden I feel so sad that I can't visit the pyramids, associated with Passover and everything - I feel like a gray Matzoh ball that is locked in jars at the food store. Softie and helpless.... OK, I was just kidding, things are more complicated, politics etc. But let's talk Matzoh balls facts for a moment and honestly: Please do me a personal Jewish favor and don't buy these jars - prepare it yourself at home, from scratch. It will taste so much better, and it is so easy make. So many recipes on the web for that, and if you insist, I'll publish mine, too.


But my favorite food of passover is one of the magical items on the passover plate. It got both a funny name and palm dates in it. I am talking about the CHAROSET now - the best ever mixture of apples, nuts, palm dates, cinnamon and dessert wine. This is something I'm looking for, the sweet sin of passover.
Until then, I highly recommend, again, the film "For Your Consideration", funny, smart - for sure the best movie about Purim.


Happy Purim!

6 comments:

Handmade in Israel said...

Great post Tamar! I managed to get to see those pyramids several years ago. As spectacular as they were, I of course wouldn't go there now!
The Oznei Haman look yummy. I baked 110 chocolate chip muffins yesterday for our Mishloach Manot :)
I also wrote a post about Purim if you want to look.

Tamar Hammer said...

Thank you so much Lisa, I'm off to you blog!

Linda B said...

Great post. Thanks for sharing.

Tamar Hammer said...

Thanks Linda!

Terri said...

I agree,great post!

Tamar Hammer said...

Thank you so much Terri!