Writing from my super-clean pesadik kitchen where the sweet potatoes are mashed, the matzo balls are made and in the freezer, the bagels are out of the oven, and the vegetables are waiting to go into the oven for roasting. It's erev Pesach and our family is lucky enough to be invited out for both seders, otherwise all you'd see on this page is incoherent rants about why things can't cook faster. And the oil fire and finger-slicing would have upset me a lot more than they did.
Some new things to get used to while making Passover in Australia:
Number 1: The matzo meal. Everyone knows you can't make Passover without large quantities of the stuff. It looks different here. It's labeled coarse, medium, and fine. I am assuming the fine is the same as cake meal, because that's what I'm going to try to make cookies and popovers out of, and there's no "cake meal" to be found.
Number 2: There are Jewish groceries in which you can find anything pesadik you would like but in regular grocery stores you will only find what you need in Jewish suburbs or near Jewish schools, and you'll find just the basics. Charlottesville had a better selection, and that's really not saying much.
Number 3: The Jewish stores are NOT open on chol ha-moed days. They closed two days ago after everyone picked up their prepared meals, and will not open again until the day after Passover is over. My trick of going in on day 4 and buying up all the now half-price KLP chocolates and potato chips will not work here. Maybe that's a good thing . . . but I never found potato starch at the regular stores, so I won't be able to make my blueberry muffins . . . again, maybe that's a good thing. We're going to have such a healthy holiday. Or I'll make up for it by making dozens of potato kugels.
Number 4: No Maneschewitz. Strictly a Kedem country.
On the good side, the 375 g. packet of matzo meal is exactly the amount I need to triple my Passover bagel recipe.
As most people know, Passover and Easter almost always coincide. Good Friday (the Friday before Easter) is a public holiday in Australia. As a result, just about every store is closed. I did not know this ahead of time, and yesterday almost didn't buy the vegetables I was assigned to bring to seder #1. In my head, I was thinking Friday's vegetables would be fresher. If I hadn't decided to shop yesterday I would be totally freaking out now. Ironically, stores that are closed on Good Friday are open Easter Sunday. It's not a terribly religious country, but they are religious about observing public holidays.
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