Saturday, June 23, 2007

Dinner with the Greeks of Campinas

Well today against all odds, I managed to organize a dinner with the 2 other greeks I know in Campinas. It was a busy day, but still I decided that it was possible and it is something I want to do long time ago. So I made teh proposal to the one couple, and then I tried to contact the other greek student to organize this.
Unfortunately I hadn´t talked to her until the morning of the dinner day. Since I am alone, Daniel is in Portugal, my timescedule is worst than the usual, so I decided to ask our maid to prepare this special dinner. My maid is another story, that I should write about it another time, but the main detail that intersts in this story is that she is up to some degree deaf. Now imagine an almost deaf brasilian uneducated woman and a greek trying to communicate...hm...
Since i konw the communication problem, I am always trying to be as clear as possible and avoid misunderstandings by asking her to repeat what we agreed...
Back to our story, I delayed specially to give her guidelines for this dinner and I was explaining all sort of details, such as how to do the tzatziki, and what to cook and what to by in Carrefour, etc. Since there was a possibility to cancel, if I couldn´t arrange this with the greek student, I told her:
If it is canceled, I will call you (se te ligar, é para avisar que está cancelado). Later a friend explained to me that in Brasil is used to say this as I I do not call you, it is confirmed (se não te ligar, ta confirmado.)

well, relaxed that this is resolved, I confirmed with all parties that the dinner would take place that night at 20:00. Even the fact that emergency situation in work required the help of my maid too, I left her prepare the dinner and didn´t call as we agreed...
After a hectic day of work, I even started to think that I shouldn´t had arrange this, but I was glad with the idea. I arrived after a stop for ice-cream and soft drink supplies, at 19:30.
Imagine my despare, when I read in the whiteboard we use to leave messages to one another, that she undersood that there was no dinner for 6 persons, becasue I didn´t call to confirm!
After seconds of the original shock, I started to swear for 5 minutes, i wanted to call her, and say something, heavy, but then I realized that this had to do with her beeing deaf situation...and started to focus on what can I do.
Canceling the dinner was out of question, since the time was almost 20:00. Thank God I had pelnty of sypplies already bought some days ago. I heated up several things in the oven, put boiling water for pasta and separated anything that could be served for salat. My guest were at majority vegeterians, so salat was an important element.
I checked what she had prepared, A huge tzatziki bowl was available, but no bread or any substitute and a sause of corn, with no rice, fish or something to serve it with. There was a portion of a a vegeteraian mix, for one, that would be offered too.
The corn sause, I combined it with the pasta, which would boil in a while, and I called a friend joining the dinner to bring bread.
When my guest came, rather delayed thanks God, I wellcomed them and explained the situation... it was very funny, and they offered to help me in the situation...
Soon 3 salats were ready and starterd were on the table. The precooked int he oven also ready and pasta served with the sauce.
My friend brought some 4 or 5 different tipes of bread, so we all sat down and started the banquet, which resulted to an excess of food...





I really enjoyed the whole situation and the conversations that night, I liked it very much...
The only thing, was Daniel´s absence, but I made a promisse to repeat this dinner with the delicious food by Donna Fransisca, my maid.

PS.: My maid, felt very guilty next morning, but I could only laught, and of course the only punishment for her was to wash the dishes...

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2 Comments:

Blogger Asfaz said...

Hummmmm, isso parece estar muito gostoso ...

6/26/2007 8:36 PM  
Blogger alximist said...

pois a ultima se chama Ntakos, especialidade da ilha Creta, simples e gostoso. Na metade é uma salata grega com o elemento mais importante o queso grego "FETA", e a primera é o tzatziki com base em iogurte, uma delicia... tudo muito simples para preparar se tem os igredientes.
Hoje encinei a minha empregada a fazer o meu favorito, ervilhas com aceite...e ficou bommm...

6/26/2007 10:22 PM  

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