Scene 10

Maille resolved therefore to allow himself a simpler and somewhat more convenient process of transformation – like the process one observes, for instance, in the kitchen. In the Mahane Yehuda market he had seen the wealth of culinary delights the city offered with vegetables from the region, fruits from the south, spices out of Arabian fables, and bread like those in a German town. It must have been so even in Biblical times – in the time of the Second Temple there was for example a fish-door in the south-east of the city wall, through which fish could be brought into the city from Jordan and the Lake Genazareth as well as the sea.

Hungry, Maille hurried through the nocturnal, honey-hued lanes of the Old Town in which the light glinted and flickered like the surface of a lightly rippling river. Ah, how much he would have liked to have been out in the lap of nature at that moment – for instance, fishing in the Delta El Tigre of Buenos Aires.

He lengthened his stride and saw his goal clearly before his eyes, which was to enjoy a handsome slice of fish, above all, «Gefilte Fish», a carp speciality that he knew only from fearsome preserving glass jars standing dusty in grocery shops on the Rue des Rosiers in Paris. He found Armenian restaurants and Arabic ones, pizzerias and cafeterias, waterpipe-pubs and doner stalls, only Jewish restaurants appeared to be missing from the scene. Moreover, it was already late and many of the eateries had shut for the day – so he finally settled down in a tiny eatery, seduced by his nose which had smelled the aroma of cumin and fresh unleavened bread in the air. There was no fish on offer at this restaurant – something he hadn't really reckoned on. He was instead served lukewarm chickpeas with sesame paste and spicy sauce, a dish which looked like an edible Bible stand – this, despite the indisputably unbiblical chillis.

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