An Israeli Wedding and another Schwarma controversy

I had the good fortune of being invited to my friend Irin's brother's wedding, which took place last night in Beit Hanan, a small area near Rehovot. The wedding of Itai and Shirli was held in the Achuza, an absolutely gorgeous building. This was the most lavish wedding I have ever been to, anywhere. It was wonderful. The food was outstanding. The hors d'oeuvres were exquisite. They had samosas with sauce, Chinese style chicken, fried potato wedges with mayonnaise, all sorts of other stuff I can't name but trust me it was delicious. They also had a couple of stations were food was made for you. One was a Chinese style noodle dish along with chicken and a peanut sauce. Now the other appeared to be a sort of Mexican station, as meat was being wrapped in tortillas. However, as it was soon pointed out to me, this was supposedly a variation on the schwarma. Now, it was probably half the size of an actual schwarma, and on tortilla. So does this count? If yes, I'm at 19*, but the asterisk becomes even more significant.

The main course was some kind of roast beef thing (you know where they slice the meat for you) and salmon with a nice glaze and duck, of the most magnificent duck. It absolutely melted in your mouth. Then someone told me it was goose. I'm not sure. But it was outstanding. The desert table was average, they had this chocolate and cream dish that came in individual cups but the portions were so small I had to have about 5 of them.

The wedding itself was very nice. Irin has a huge family, so there were tons of people. And I lvoe weddings, and the couple looked very happy. When the groom, who is in his late 30s, put on a yarmulke, it looked as if he hadn't worn one since his Bar Mitvzah. The bride was absolutely gorgeous, she looked like a blond Liv Tyler. And the groom was smoking a cigar while he was dancing with her, and then she had a cigarette. I love Israel.