Friday, March 18, 2011

The One Where We Got a Grown Man to Cluck Like a Chicken in The Freezer Aisle

For the past two weeks, we have been wanting chicken soup. I was too sick to actually figure out how to make it from scratch and Neil had no luck locating it at the grocery store the first couple of times he went searching for it. On Thursday, however, we went to the store in an attempt to get Riley to take a nap and get some much-needed sleep and we stumbled upon a bunch of frozen soup. Neil had looked for canned soup, but hadn't checked the freezer aisle.

We found two soups that looked like they might be chicken and Neil flagged over the nearest Dane to ask what kinds of soup they were. The man he found was a little older, probably in his 70s and we've found that older Danes tend to be less proficient in English.

This man was no exception. He knew we wanted to know what the food item was and first told us that it was soup. "Ah yes," we explained, "We know it's soup but what kind?" So the man pointed to one and put his index fingers up to his head like horns and based on the word on the packaging and his pantomimes we determined it was ox soup. "It's good," he said. Maybe, but not exactly what we were looking for.

I then  asked him about the other soup I was holding and he said, "You know, bock, bock, bock?" Eureka! We thanked him and threw the chicken soup in our cart. Later we reflected on the hilariousness of the fact that we had an older Danish man clucking like a chicken in the freezer aisle. He was very nice to humor us and go out on a limb to try to explain even though we lacked common language. Plus, he gave us something to giggle about.

It turns out that it was to be a day of bountiful chicken soup because our new friend Norah came to visit and brought us a magical box of Manischewitz Matzoball soup mix - something I could not believe I neglected to pack before our move. I am sure it's no coincidence that Thursday marked a major health turnaround for us all. Thank you Norah! Thank you random man in the freezer section. Sipping once, sipping twice, sipping chicken soup (no rice).

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