Be not schmuck, be not obnoxious

[sovay]

In which I stare at a wall of jams and have a cultural disconnect. An experience from this afternoon.

Employee of Cardullo's: Hello, can I help you find anything?

Me: (holding a jar of apricot jam already) Yes, please. Do you carry prune and poppy?

E.C.: I'm sorry, we don't sell poppy seeds, but we have prunes right over here.

(The prunes are in a plastic container with a Cardullo's sticker on them and otherwise indistinguishable from the significantly less expensive kind I have at home already, waiting to be made into prune filling if I can't locate any of the storebought kind. Which I was hoping to do at a store with a wall of jams.)

Me: Thanks, but I was looking for prune preserves. And poppy seed paste. I'm making hamantashn.

E.C.: Oh. (after showing me the shelf with tins of almond and pistachio paste, which is not what I'm looking for, either) We only carry those around the holidays.

Me: (mentally) What holidays? What other holidays are there where people buy up stores of poppy seed paste? Bake Mohntaschen? Do you have a run on hamantash fillings around Passover? Do you only celebrate the Latke-Hamantash Debate in this town? And while I'm being incredulous, the holidays? (aloud) Do you know anywhere else around here that sells them, then?

E.C.: No. They're specialty items.

Me: Thank you.

(I purchase a jar of damson jam, because it is plummy and unusual, and my original jar of apricot jam, resisting the employee's hard sell on a different brand, and a couple of caramels because some of them are the salt kind I like and others are made with balsamic vinegar and that's either a stroke of genius or a terrible idea—it's the former, fortunately—and I leave.)

Ask nineweaving; she was there.

On the bright side, even though I had to go to Lexington because we still don't have a functioning oven at home, I made nearly six dozen hamantashn tonight. The flavors are apricot, damson, strawberry (only a few, because the jam liquefied while baking), homemade prune (needed more soaking time, but the taste is good—sweetened with honey and cinnamon), and homemade poppy (totally unsuccessful, but I ate one as soon as it came out of the oven anyway. Tasted like a bagel. Not enough honey. Next year with more prep time). Some of them are coming to phi's birthday tomorrow. derspatchel ate one of the apricots when I got home and involuntarily patted his tummy.

So my day was, ultimately, emotionally and traditionally satisfying, and as a side effect of baking at my parents' house, I got to see the completed redecoration of my ex-bedroom into a nursery for the days every week my mother is babysitting her grandchild (it has a violet accent wall, a crib my father built, and art from four generations), but seriously, I didn't think either prunes or poppy seeds were that obscure.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

Huh--I wouldn't have expected poppy seed paste to be so difficult nearish you, either. How weird.

[skygiants]

I'm also really surprised poppy seeds are that difficult to find! I've also never actually made the traditional poppy seed hamantaschen. ...this is mostly because I'm lazy and an inveterate use-whatever-jam-around-the-house-er. But we're low on jam and I have to buy some today if I want to embark on a hamantaschenfest tomorrow, so I think my plan is to go stare at the jam aisle in Whole Foods and make agonized faces of indecision. Maybe I will experiment with poppy at last, if they have it!

[movingfinger]

Huh! Cans of Solo filling used to be a staple in the supermarket baking aisle. Not a specialty thing at all.

Of course, I've been told that Indian Pudding (canned) is seasonal, too. In January. (Long stare: "It's winter. That's when you want Indian Pudding. When do you think its season is?" "Thanksgiving...")

King Arthur Flour used to sell good poppyseed paste, it would be worth keeping a few cans around if they still do. And the almond filling. You can roll them up in bread dough for quick-and-dirty special brunch treats.

[kerrickadrian.livejournal.com]

Happy Purim! Six dozen hamantaschen! That's a lot of work.

Our hamantaschen turned into puffy round jam cookies; too much or too active baking powder I would guess? The pear-ginger conserve slipped off most of them but was otherwise delicious. We're combining Purim with an irreverent baby-naming ceremony co-facilitated by our more seriously religious friend and a Sister of Perpetual Indulgence.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Evidently there are no Jews in the People's Republic of Cambridge. What?

How was the damson jam? They are the plums of Damascus, and the Romans scattered stones of them all across Britian. They are found in fosses.

I then went and ate a Duck Waffle, because Duck Waffle.

Nine

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Me: (mentally) What holidays? What other holidays are there where people buy up stores of poppy seed paste? Bake Mohntaschen? Do you have a run on hamantash fillings around Passover? Do you only celebrate the Latke-Hamantash Debate in this town? And while I'm being incredulous, the holidays?

Oh, dear. I am so sorry. I kind of feel guilty, as though you had run into an Englishman, although I know that cannot have been true.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Sorry to hear your disconnect with staff that seemed indifferent to your needs.As a mystery shopper that would marked them down in the negative.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Happy Purim! I'm glad you enjoyed the damson jam, despite the Cardullo's fail. (Try damson porter if you think you may have a taste for it.) They grow wild near my parents' house; I don't know if you have anywhere to plant one, but if you like I'll send you a stone or two when they come into fruit again.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

That...is a lot of Hamantaschen.

Happy Purim! And Ides!

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

I know I've seen poppy seed filling in the Somerville zone -- recently, even -- but I'm locking up on where. Logic indicates it would have to have been Dave's or Formaggio Kitchen. Or Pemberton Farms. Mmf. Logic isn't being very helpful.

[wirewalking.livejournal.com]

and others are made with balsamic vinegar and that's either a stroke of genius or a terrible idea—it's the former, fortunately

I make pomegranate balsamic caramels. I'm quite fond of them. I'll bring you some at Readercon if you like!

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry for the fail at the shop, especially the obnoxious bit about "the holidays."

I didn't think either prunes or poppy seeds were that obscure.

I'd never thought that, either.

I'm glad the hamentashen worked out and that the day was ultimately satisfying.