Much Ado About Jessie Kaplan Read Online Free PDF

retreated to a mysterious area behind the cluttered office that one assumed to be the kitchen. Almost immediately, a large Hispanic man, wearing a chef’s hat and a mildly irritated expression, emerged holding a tray with three
bowls of salad. “This is Eduardo, the best kosher chef in the Northeast.” Moishe gestured toward the chef. “And here’s your salad course,” he announced, “a very good starter, since if they want to go up and schmooze or do the hora, it won’t get cold. We’re doing a meat meal for you, since that tends to be the favorite with the kids. Our nondairy ice cream is awesome,” he turned to Stephanie, “and the cheese on the cheesesteaks—you’d think you were at Pat’s in South Philly, not that I know myself, but I’ve been told.
    â€œAnyway, the salad has croutons, tomatoes, cucumber, walnuts, a little arugula for those who like the fancy lettuce, with a nice vinaigrette. A big favorite.” Mark and Carla sampled the salad and observed that it was good. Stephanie, who didn’t eat salad, waited patiently.
    â€œOkay, that’s the salad,” said Moishe, “Now for the soup. It’s good to get everyone settled down with the soup. We have a nice matzo-ball soup—lightest matzo balls in the Delaware Valley—no offense to Grandma.”
    The soup was brought out by the surly chef. Stephanie, who liked matzo-ball soup, agreed that it was good.
    â€œThe kids can have the matzo-ball soup too,” said Moishe. “Usually we give them mozzarella sticks as a first course—tastes just like real mozzarella—but we can substitute the matzo-ball soup if you want; we do it a lot.” Stephanie said she wanted the matzo-ball soup instead of the mozzarella sticks.
    â€œDone,” said Moishe.
    â€œNext, we have a palate cleanser, a nice sorbet.” Eduardo brought out three dishes of sorbet: two yellow, one red. “Raspberry or lemon, your choice.”
    â€œLemon,” pronounced Stephanie.
    â€œLemon it is.
    â€œThen we have the main dish for the grown-ups. We’re going to bring you three choices here: the pistachio-crusted sea bass, the chicken with tomato and pesto glaze, and the filet mignon with
shiitake mushrooms and red wine. I’ll tell you frankly here that the sea bass and the filet are generally the favorites. Nothing wrong with the chicken, mind you.” Carla and Mark sampled the three dishes and agreed to go with the sea bass and the filet.
    â€œNow we’ll bring out the kids’ choices,” said Moishe. “Here we have a cheesesteak—and you tell me if you can tell the difference from the real thing. We also have the hotdog and the hamburger, the ten-foot hoagie, the chicken nuggets, and the pasta with meat sauce—all big winners. Generally, we serve three of these, so there’s plenty to satisfy if a kid doesn’t like something.”
    Stephanie was biting into the cheesesteak with the air of a serious connoisseur. “It’s pretty good,” she admitted. Mark took a bite to assure himself that Stephanie had not been snowed by an impressive sales job, and had to admit that it was indeed pretty good. Stephanie also chose the nuggets and the pasta, which, according to Moishe, were what most kids chose.
    â€œAnd now for the final and most important course,” said Moishe, looking knowingly at Stephanie. “The dessert. Can we make it taste like ice cream?—that is the question. Not one of the Four Questions, I’ll grant you, but an important one.” Eduardo brought out a tray with the faux ice cream and a variety of toppings, which Stephanie carefully prepared into a sundae.
    â€œIt tastes real,” she said, to which Moishe exclaimed, “What did I tell you? For the adults, we serve a nice plate with fresh fruit and a chocolate torte.” He obviously did not intend to bring this out, having accomplished the task