I come downstairs this morning and Lucy says, “Madame, Commander had a huge party last night, tons of food leftover. I told them not to cook so much. Such a waste. Commander say, ‘Lucy take all this food,’ but we like spicy so my husband told me to bring it to the boys. My husband will call me and we will go pick it up. But don’t tell anybody.”
Okay.
To translate: Lucy’s husband works as a private chef for an important person, the head of a private club. He has lots of parties for visiting dignitaries or ambassadors or something like that. When he has these parties Lucy’s husband cooks (but they also bring in additional chefs) and Lucy oversees the running of the waitstaff, the food prep, and makes sure that no one steals any alcohol (she told me the workers always try to steal alcohol). Last night there was a going-away party for some VIP and the amount of food left over afterward was enormous. She said she told one of the cooks not to make so much rice with all the appetizers and other dishes they were serving, but he didn’t listen to her and cooked 2 kilos. The leftover container of cooked rice was bigger than a large microwave.
The commander said that Lucy and her husband should take the leftovers because they were just going to throw them away, but she likes Indian food with lots of spices and this was all made for non-native Indian eaters so she didn’t want to eat it, but didn’t want it to go to waste. She knew she would find an appreciative audience at our house, but for reasons unknown to me, she was worried that someone would find out that she gave it away. I’m guessing because she wouldn’t want people to think she was stealing, or for the commander to think she didn’t appreciate the food, but I really have no idea.
To time our arrival so that we don’t run into any of the Omani staff who are cleaning up after the party, Lucy’s husband calls us when “the coast is clear” and we head over to Lucy’s house, many empty tupperware containers in hand. I pull up to the back gate and she comes back 5 minutes later with 2 bags full of food. She breathes a sigh of relief that no one saw her and hands me a small package and says, “this is a piece of cake that I saved special for my baby. The Omanis love sweets too much and they ate the entire cake last night, but I kept a piece for her.” Camille is going to be so spoiled by the time we leave here. Between Lucy and her brothers and two adoring parents . . . she’s got it good.
We come home and unpack our haul and there are containers of Lobster Thermidor, green vegetable curry with ginger and lemongrass, a sweet and “spicy” red chicken curry, a cold potato salad with tuna and asparagus, Lucy’s moussaka that she made special for one of the guests who called in a specific request, and of course, a ton of rice. Sure beats Taco Bell.