I love cooking shows – especially the ones that are competitions. Often the contestants are required to cook with surprise ingredients. One of my favorites is Iron Chef where the Chairman always reveals a mystery ingredient that has to be the “Star” of all the dishes being prepared in the multi-course dinner. Frequently it is something rather odd that is not a kitchen staple.
Imagine Iron Chef Exodus where the mystery ingredient is…manna! And you have forty years to cook with it everyday because you grumbled and complained and didn’t trust God. Oh and quail. You also get quail.
Did I mention this is a road show? Sort of like Iron Chef meets Anthony Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods where you travel around and eat, wait for it, manna and quail. Right about the time you get a good roast going on the quail, the Cloud rises and signals it’s time to move out. What!?!? Wait! I just got the manna toasted for the coating on the quail! It’s not like there is a lot else out in the DESERT you’re wandering around in that can help with the flavor or the variety of yet another meal of manna and quail.
The mandate is also “no leftovers” except on the day before Sabbath which means that on the Sabbath you get cold manna and quail. The kicker is I can literally see the Land of Milk and Honey, the Promised Land from where my tent is pitched in front of my evening meal of…manna and quail.
Did the new generation of Israelites even know how to cook anything else when they did cross the River Jordan and entered Canaan? Talk about a culinary extravaganza.
May I be ever grateful that I am not sent to my room for forty years with just manna and quail.
Just Sayin' 