Luxury and Feasts

We spent four nights at my cousin’s house and we were treated like royalty. A bed never felt as comfortable as the one in the guestroom at their house. My cousin’s husband is an uber cook and we were never without a cappuccino, or a mineral water, or a platter of cherries, figs, peaches, and nectarines.

My half-brother and sister picked us up and brought us to Ivar’s, a seafood restaurant overlooking a lake, to meet my birth father and his wife. I had never met his wife, so this was a momentous occasion. She was gracious and kind in conversation, and I thought the evening went well. I had the most delicious salmon. It doesn’t taste anything like the fish we get back east. Conor impressed me by ordering the salmon from the children’s menu.

When we got back to my cousin’s house, my aunt was still there and we played Blokus and talked about what to do the next day. I asked them if someone might recommend a place to get a pedicure and then the idea of all of us going out together to get one, while Conor did something with the guys became the plan for the next day. After two weeks of camping and limping along on the socialist realism pedicure I got in Prague, my feet were eager to go along.

We picked Jim up at the airport and went to my birth father’s house for dinner. I was also to meet another cousin that night, the son of one of Majid’s brothers and his wife. We were presented with a Persian feast. Three main courses two different kinds of chicken, one like a shish kabob and the other in a stew and then shrimp, along with rice, salad, sautéed vegetables, and cucumbers in yogurt. We had strawberry juice to drink.

One feast followed by another, the next morning Adam cooked brunch for us. Homemade Belgian waffles made with a yeast batter, omelets, fruit, and the makings for a Persian breakfast, as Katti explained to me, cucumber, feta and nan bread with fresh mint.

We left for an outing to Snoqualmie Falls and planned to go back to Katti's for yet another Persian feast, this time cooked by my Aunt Maryam. I hoped to get home early enough to help, and perhaps learn a little about this magical cuisine.