The Garden Party

On Friday night we went to a dinner party at Randy's advisor's house. It was to celebrate the end of the term and the end of his Aramaic class. There are only 4 other students in the class, and two of them are older (with PhD's).
So Dr. Cook invited us over to his house for Braaied Lamb. Braai is the South African version of BBQ, and from the way they tell it, they INVENTED BBQ.
However, this is only because they have never seen a fully-loaded American BBQ grill.
;)
Their grill is a flaming metal cart. Period. Like a medical cart that your dentist would wheel around and put his tools on. Only this one is full of flaming wood.Professor Cook did have some grilling accessories, however. There was this metal grate to put the lamb in.And a wheelbarrow (complete with handy shovel) full of flaming wood to add to the pile in the cart.
But man, it was good! I love meat.This guy that Randy is talking to was only in the class for part of the year. Then he left to work as a journalist in Dubai. Not an easy profession in a strict Islamic country. After 5 months he returned for fear that his articles would eventually get him arrested.
I sat next to a Jewish man (from South Africa) named Larry, probably in his 50's. He is a big-wig at a large corporation here and he travels all over the world (he is retiring to do a PhD). I asked him if he'd ever been to Petra (in Jordan) and he said, "Oh yes. I fought in the Israeli army for 4 years. Petra is beautiful."
How'd you like to have that doozy under your belt to throw out there at dinner parties? He was a very interesting person. And Cook is hilarious. Very animated.
So we sat out in the garden at this long table and ate lamb and exotic salad and fruit and fresh bread and then we had cheesecake for desert. When the sun went down they lit about 40 candles. It was nice and relaxing and I had a great excuse to stuff my face.
:)