Testi kabob for dinner

One of the dishes that is always very popular with our students who eat meat is testi kabob. Thus far it's been much too hot to even consider wanting to be next to an open flame, but last night the weather cooled down enough that a number of the students decided to order testi kabob. In addition to being a very tasty dish, testi kabob is presented in a bed of flames. The server comes to the table with a tray of flaming coals and a clay pot. The clay pot is sealed at the top and has a deep score along the bottom. After the pot has been thoroughly heated in the flames, the server brings out a long knife, with which he ... (it's always a "he" - the only place we've ever been here with female servers is Mado, the ice cream parlor. But sorry, I digress...). So the server brings out a long knife with which he taps the pot along the score line repeatedly, with increasingly strong strokes until the bottom of the pot flies off (sometimes flaming) and the hot stew inside is poured onto the customer's plate. This year after he'd broken the first two pots he invited our 12 year-old daughter Cait to break the last one. She looked a little nervous (what with all the flames and the meat, since she's a staunch vegetarian) but she was a trooper and willingly split the pot for Rachel's dinner. I think he saved the smallest pot for her (the other two were for two people each), but she did a good job and there were no disasters with flaming potsherds or huge knives, so we were all happy. Cait breaking the pot:

(note the large flames on the left side of the photo - this is the flaming dish used to heat the pots)