Grandma Makes Good Flour Balls

September 2015

On one rainy night my host grandmother made what we call soup. Soup is made from water, flour, and sugar. It’s this white goopy soup with balls of half-cooked flour in it that does not look the least bit appetizing. But the way my grandmother makes it is delicious. She takes the balls of flour and mixes chofar (the embreyo-type coconut meat) in it. The first thing I thought of when I tried her version of soup was, “Damn. Grandma makes good flour balls.” I started calling the dish “flour balls” and my family got a kick out of it. Now, we tack on “balls” to any and everything: breadfruit balls, taro balls, donut balls, bread balls…