Tonight is Monday night and Seva Cafe is closed on Mondays. Everyone showed up at Manav Sadhna office to prepare for a bye bye party for a resident volunteer who is due to return to her life. Since I did not deliver blanket with my partner I ended up helping out to prepare food for the dinner party.
The regular Seva Cafe being their night off were suppose to enjoy an evening of us serving them. But it turned out anyways that we needed their help. Usually the cooks at any place don’t get to take any time off because really, they have most experience and make the best food anyways and they always will be called on the last minute to rescue a dish from tragic to magic. So that is what happened tonight.
Lakshme had a recipe to make chili beans and it was a recipe from her sister in law for two, when she tried to make it for 50, she ran into experience trouble and quantity trouble. Who did we call to save the big 20 gallon pot? The head Seva Cafe chef! It was suppose to be his night to chill. But which kind hearted service person would let a pot of beautiful ingredients turn indigestible?
Auchil made veggie kabobs over the gas stove. It was a hit. She strung all the cut bell peppers together on to a metal skewer and grilled it over the gas stove and so on with the rest of the veggies. Then she took it all apart and reassembled them onto bamboo sticks. I think her curry sate tofu balls were the best and high lighted the kabob.
We sat in a circle. In the center was a mandala made with colored sand or red and yellow. We the new comers got to light the candles that highlighted the beautiful mandala.
We ran out of plates so there was a rush people wanting to insist they rather share plates with each other. One group of five ended up eating off one plate and of course the usual you go first no you go first went on. I once heard that is how they do it in the heavens, letting the other go first.
After dinner there was music and dancing keeping the circle formation. My back hurt and I had trouble standing and sitting but I wasn’t going to be a party pooper. I didn’t quite pick up the dancing and just ran around in the circle with everyone. Linda was more than tired and ready to leave. Because the girls cooked all the guys did the washing afterwards in assembly line formation and that was nice.
