if a woman ( and there were a great number of them ) advanced with a tray of roasted meat , roasted vegetables , slabs of spiced meat , cut fruit , flat breads slathered with what looked and tasted like herbed hummus or a white yogurt sauce with cucumber , onion and garlic or even pieces of candy that looked like creamy white sugar bark doused liberally with nuts and candied fruit , lahn would make my selections for me , turn to me , lean into me , his hand held out and i 'd have to take it not with my hand ( i learned that with a quick , clipped , bark of `` me '' from lahn at the beginning ) but with my mouth .