Be-bop-a-ree-bop Rhubarb Pie

Ever since I was a little kid, I have loved rhubarb.  It’s a strange vegetable that when the stalks are stewed, they yield a tart sauce that can be eaten with sugar and stewed fruit or used as filling for pies (see rhubarb pie), tarts, and crumbles. This common use has led to the slang term for rhubarb, “pie plant”. Cooked with strawberries or apples as a sweetener, or with stem or root ginger, rhubarb makes excellent jam. It can also be used to make wine.

It really is one of my favorite desserts, especially as Mom makes it — a nice compote with a crisp crumble on top, served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (Breyer’s Vanilla Bean, not the French Vanilla crap).

So, imagine my surprise when I was invited to have lunch at the USAID Compound yesterday and the dessert of the day was rhubarb pie!  For a while, I was just in ridiculous delight that I had the good fortune to be there on the day that rhubarb pie was being served and worth every penny of the $3 price tag. But, later, as I began to digest the pie and my taste buds had forgotten the treat that was being served, I reflected on the fact that rhubarb pie was actually something that was AVAILABLE to the federal workers in Juba.  I don’t know of any other dining establishment in all of Southern Sudan that could boast such a treat.  Sadly, yet again, I was reminded of how well US Government employees are taken care of and that contractors, such as myself, are left fending for themselves with what is available on the local market (if I see another small banana or pineapple, I think I just might go crazy).

The good news is that I got me some rhubarb.  And, I was also reminded of a little radio commercial for a fictitious rhubarb pie company called Be-bop-a-ree-bop Rhubarb Pie, that always makes me giggle.  Performed by Meryl Streep and Garrison Keillor in the 2006 flick “A Prairie Home Companion“, is the following:

Be-bop-a-ree-bop Rhubarb Pie (Click on the “>” to start)

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