Dateline>City of Angels

Today being Easter Sunday, I can’t resist taking a trip down Memory Lane over lamb, that traditional spring holiday dish.

I love lamb now, but that wasn’t always the case. My first encounter with lamb on the dinner table (as opposed to in a petting zoo as a kid) was at St. John’s Seminary in the 1980s. (Yes, it may come as a shock to many, but I once studied for the priesthood.)

Back then the seminary was still somewhat regimented, and students and faculty were expected to take meals together in a large refectory. (Picture the dining scenes from Harry Potter, only without all the magic…) To escape this communal dining experience, a seminarian had to first gain permission from the Dean of Students and then “sign out” with the kitchen so they would have an exact count for dinner. If you forgot to do so, you were required to attend meals even if you ate nothing. Sneaking out was difficult; the Dean kept a careful eye on attendance.

Lamb was served every Monday night. I quickly learned it was a meal requiring at least a little talent to prepare — talent our school chef apparently lacked. No one liked it. One of my friends who grew up on a farm said it tasted more like mutton, and he didn’t mean it as a compliment.

Evening prayer always preceded dinner, and each Monday as we left the chapel we could smell the stench wafting over from the refectory. Soon the griping would start: “Oh [insert expletives that seminarians shouldn't utter but did anyway here]! I forgot to sign out…”

One day in class our philosophy professor, a Dutch priest, handed us back the prior week’s exams. They were graded the usual way, with one exception. In addition to A, B, C, etc., a few students received an “L.”

“What’s this?” one of my classmates demanded.

“It stands for ‘Lamb’,” replied the professor in an stern-sounding Dutch accent. “It’s worse than F.”

Since those days, I’ve learned how to properly prepare lamb and have come to appreciate a good chop now and then. Hopefully if you’re having lamb for Easter dinner tonight, yours will be better than my seminary days. Whatever you’re dining on tonight, Happy Easter.