Monday, April 2, 2012

Macaroons

Ok, full disclosure.  I do not like macaroons.  No, let's be honest, I hate them.  I have never liked the taste, and there is something slimy about them that makes me shudder.

BUT - I always buy a can of macaroons for Pesach.  Because, I mean really, what is Pesach without that can of macaroons that sits there the whole week with no one touching it.  I remember the year they came out with chocolate macaroons for the first time.  Wow, we thought, now THAT is going to be different, THAT will be tasty.  Or the year they came out with chocolate chip macaroons.  I defy anyone to find what could technically be called a chocolate chip in those babies.  Chocolate dust, maybe.

Alas, those delicacies were no better than the originals.  One thing they were great for were as snacks for the kids (hey, what do they know) when we'd go on chol hamoed trips.  They pack well, never get stale (because they are created stale) and kids will eat them because they are sweet.

So goes the tradition of buying macaroons every year. 

Today I went to Rami Levi (home of very cheap food) to do a hefty Pesach shopping.  Right there as you walk in they had tons and tons of macaroons.  I happily walked over to pick up my requisite box and guess what - they were only OK for "ochlei kitniyos" (people who eat kitniyos).

No, I thought, this can't be.  I picked up another box - same thing.  Then I looked at the cookies - I mean we always buy at least one box of the Pesach cookies as well - and sure enough, only for people who eat kitniyos.

So I shall have Pesach 5772 without macaroons.  It just doesn't seem the same.  I am sure I could find a store somewhere that sells American macaroons for like $75 a box, but I am not that devoted to tradition.

Oh, and remember the saga about the margarine?  Today someone posted a note on the Modiin list serve that she still has the non-kitniyos margarine she bought last Pesach in the freezer because it was so awful her family forbade her to use it. 

So, let's see.  No margarine, no macaroons, no boxed cookies.  But don't worry, folks I will carry on with fortitude.  It's the way Israelis deal with Pesach. 

Because....

What we DO have here are billboards wishing everyone a chag kasher v'sameach, radio announcements offering chol hamoed activities, and, most beautiful of all, streets lined with Israeli flags in anticipation of Yom Ha'atzmaut.  Those went up suddenly in the last few days.  Every street is festooned with beautiful Israeli flags.

Somehow the macaroons don't seem to matter very much.

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