own square. Onion Pletzl as a superannuated onion roll, a sandwich bread fit for Gulliver the Giant. Pletzl means square in Yiddish as in town square and this bread is square, albeit imperfectly so. Think of it as Sicilian pizza with the sauce and cheese replaced by raw onions. According to Arthur Schwartz, the author … Continue reading
Succoth which is coming up soon is a major bread eating holiday.There are fourteen meals over the course of a the seven day holiday. For Jews a meal means bread. And lots of bread gets eaten in the sukkah.Thre’s also lots of entertaining, actual and metaphysical as every sukkah receives a nightly visit from one … Continue reading
Kiddush is the blessing over the wine. Kiddush is also the name of a post Sabbath morning services reception which begins with the recitation of the kiddush blessing. Kiddushes which are actually open house parties are a feature of synagogue life. At many synagogues there is a kiddush every week. Sometimes a congregant will sponsor … Continue reading
Tu Bishvat which is on Shabbat is the time to pray for a good etrog. An etrog, the citron, the Biblical “fruit of the goodly tree” is one of the four species used during the holiday of Succoth and finding a good one is no simple matter. As there are an almost infinite variety … Continue reading
Don’t think we food bloggers don’t work hard. I attempted this recipe at least three times before hitting upon the winning formula. My first batch, made with old fashioned farmer cheese was leaden. After that I tried a recipe that included milk and ended up runny, but I didn’t give up. I persisted and … Continue reading
While I really don’t know what the Macabees ate during that first Hanuka I’m sure that it wasn’t potato latkes. Potatoes didn’t exist in Ancient Israel or even in Ancient Greece. The iconic tuber known in Yiddish as kartoffel (and in Hebrew as tapuach adama or sometimes tapud, a literal translation of the French pomme de … Continue reading
Many years ago a couple lived together in a small Polish shtetl . Though they were both basically good people, they had a disagreement they couldn’t resolve. In time their difference grew so severe that they were contemplating divorce. But before throwing in the towel they sought counsel from the local wise man who happened … Continue reading
Though nobody knows for certain whether Mother Sarah braided six strand challot in her tent, these lovely edible macrames have been featured on Ashkenazi Shabbos tables for centuries, maybe even longer. The number six is no accident. On the Shabbos table there are two loaves. That means if each one is fashioned from six strands … Continue reading
As far as I can tell there isn’t any mystical reason for eating gefilte fish with chrain, no kaballah about the fish being white as in mercy and the chrain being red as in judgment. The pairing is purely a matter of taste,-the sweetish relatively bland fish contrasting with the fiery sauce though it must be pointed out … Continue reading
I’m not a gefilte fish lover. I’ve been known to refuse the stuff even when it’s dressed up like a fishy petite four.But gefilte fish isn’t something to sneer at. It is actually a reflection of Jewish culinary genius.Since Shabbos means fish but the Sabbath laws forbid using a utensil to separate the bones from the flesh (you can … Continue reading
