Rosalie TP #11: Kanafe in a Downpour

September 22, 2013

            Mehmas requested that I tutor him on a Sunday since he was concerned about a reading assignment. I suggested Black Dog Café at Lake Ella as a meeting place, but that afternoon it was remarkably crowded. To make matters worse (and further crowd the coffee shop), the skies opened up just at 4 pm when we were to meet. Mehmas and I are texting back and forth, and he informs me that he rode his motorcycle to the lake and is currently stranded in the gazebo. I drove around to find him, and after a bit of driving we settled on Aladdin’s. It was a welcome respite from the rain and one of Mehmas’ favorite haunts.

            Mehmas’ reading assignment was to summarize an article about energy. It was hard for me to judge how his teacher wanted him to format his homework, as he didn’t have any graded assignments to show me. I think the choice of reading material is interesting since it’s not a five paragraph essay. The passages I have helped him with have an article format, which means there is rarely a thesis statement or conclusion. The information just seemed to flow. Luckily, I was familiar with the topic from my physics classes, and as he had already completed the summary, we just added a few more useful details. I also chided him for including, in the paragraph on hydroelectric energy, that it is used for agriculture. “How do you know that?” I asked.

            He shrugged. “It is how they do it,” he explained. “It is used for the plants, to grow.”

            “But where in the article did you read that?” I asked. I told him, “I used to get in trouble for that too (on the GRE). I always wanted to put in what I already knew about the topic. But when you’re summarizing, you can only write what they said in the article. Not what you know from outside!” He smiled and nodded.

            After we finished the reading, Mehmas took out his vocabulary notebook which he updates faithfully. He told me it is his second one; the first one had words like “he” and “she,” he told me, laughing. He reviewed them, reading them out and asking me for the meaning if he no longer remembered (like the word cuddle). I think his knowledge of grammar is very solid. We sipped tea, and Mehmas offered me the grape leaves he had ordered as well as something I’d never seen before. It’s called kanafe, and it has the same coral color as sushi or caviar. I tried a forkful and was utterly surprised. It tasted like honey and cheese! It’s made with phyllo dough (I researched it later), ricotta cheese, and a sweet syrup. There are Greek versions as well as Turkish and Syrian. It was delicious. Mehmas bought an extra one and surprised me by handing it to me as we were leaving. “For your parents,” he told me graciously. I was touched.