Chutzpah

Sarina Menashe’s Pineapple Sponge Cake

Chutzpah

In the beginning, the Menashe family lived humbly in the back of the first store they acquired up the corner from First Street on First Avenue in Que Que.  Still, Mrs. Sarina Menashe prided herself in producing delicious Sephardic meals for the family and a sumptuous table for special occasions.  They never had to go to hotels.  She baked the best cakes in Que Que.  During the War there were always cake sales.  Barney Kahn would only buy her cakes. Her specialty was pan sponjado (sponge cake) filled with pineapple and fresh cream.

Chutzpah

Nick, a relative of Sarina’s, was the son of a rich man in Eifel Flats.  He had not married out of faith, which would have put his parents into black to mourn publicly for a year and disgraced the family for a lifetime.  But he had married an Ashkenazi girl.   He brought his new wife, Joyce, and his bull frog of a mother-in-law, a snob from Johannesburg, for dinner.  As usual she carried her Pekinese dog.

From early morning there had been a hive of activity in the kitchen as Sarina and her daughters Katie and Rachel prepared for their arrival.   Out of the chaos emerged a wonderful aroma that wafted to the dining room even before the array of dishes were brought to the dining room table.

With the dishes passed around, plates full, and the meal underway, Nick’s mother-in- law reached down.  She pulled out of her handbag a small parcel.  She opened it revealing lox (smoked salmon, a great delicacy).  She proceeded to cut a piece.  She placed it on her daughter’s plate.  She tried to put some on Nick’s plate.  He protested.

Mr. Aaron Menashe, sitting at the head of his table, could not believe his eyes.  At Sarina’s table!

“If she comes again, I’ll give her poison,” he said afterwards.

She never appeared in their house again.