Checking In

Last week at Congregation Sherith Israel, Gabi was doing a demo of her famous Thai spring rolls with peanut sauce for a small group of people who wished to either buy her cookbook or just were reminiscing with her about the past that she has shared with our synagogue. By the end of this demo I found myself casually standing by the plate eating one after another, dipping the rolls into the sweet yet tangy sauce. It took one red bell pepper, a few cucumbers, a few fresh twigs of mint, cheap and extremely versatile rice papers, peanut butter, a few fresh spices, coconut milk and a mortar and pestle to put this all together. All you need is a cutting board and about three square feet of room to operate, as well as a desire to complete the spring rolls instead of just eating them as you go. Watching this mastery was something that seemed so quick and easy, yet distant in that very few college students have probably thought of taking this route. At the end of the gathering I felt that this project was all within reach and could be accomplished step by step, slowly but surely. At the end of the day I congratulated Gabi once more, looked back at the empty plate of rolls which was almost entirely consumed by my hungry stomach and stopped by my local Asian supermarket to pick up a few things.