Last week a brick of bright yellow cornmeal sitting on a supermarket shelfl sent me into gastronomic ecstasy. This wasn’t just any cornmeal It was KiTov, a food manufacturer specializing in insect free products. Insects, warehouse beetles, ants, moths and other things that creep are the scourge of the food industry. Nobody wants to eat … 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
While I grew up eating honey cooked carrots every Rosh Hashana, I never realized this was holy food until I read Rabbi Dovid Meisel’s account of the every day life of Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, the previous Satmar Rebbe. In case you’re unfamiliar with his story, the old Satmar Rebbe walked out of Bergen Belsen alive. … Continue reading
If fish could be said to have families, then pickled salmon would rank as gefilte fish’s forgotten sister. Everyone remembers gefilte. The old ground carp has been frozen and jarred even served up in three layers like a petit four. Salmon does star on the foodie pantheon but that’s only when it’s grilled on cedar planks or … Continue reading
Forget Zen koans, trips to the Dalai Lama, meditation retreats. You can find life’s secrets in a cheese blintz. Says the Rebbe Rav Naftoli of Ropschitz , the cheese (in Hebrew gevina) whose numerical value is 70 (gematriya) stands for the 70 paths to Torah wisdom which enlightens the soul of the Jew. The pancake wrapper is a … Continue reading
When I discovered that my formerly lovely red delicious apples were growing soft brown patches on their sides I knew it was time to perform cosmetic surgery. No I didn’t botox the fruit, I pared off the ugly patches, shredded the healthy flesh and gave my apples a new lease on life as apple muffins. My salvage operation … Continue reading
Lamed is for Lukshen When I was a kid I loved to peer longingly into the window of the now defunct Meal Mart kosher takeaway store on Broadway and 77th Street. There were all kinds of intriguing things: roasted chickens, potato kugels, chopped liver but what caught my eye was the savory salt and pepper … Continue reading
Look at all those great greens! I don’t know which green eggs it was that Dr. Suess’s notoriously finicky Sam didn’t like, but I bet it wasn’t Kookoo Sabzi. Kookoo Sabzi is a very yummy and very healthy Iranian frittata like dish which happens to be green . If the name Kookoo Sabzi will inspire … Continue reading
After my last post, I didn’t believe that I’d be making stuffed cabbage this Sukkos which made me maudlin. After all women in my family, probably in lots of families have been stuffing them for years, even centuries, I’m sure for a perfectly good reason, though no one seems to remember what that reason is. Ididn’t want to … Continue reading
This job takes under five minutes to complete This will eventually morph into farfel! Forget the Siberian Tiger and the Mountain Gorilla! There’s something far important that may be vanishing from the planet—farfel.. The once ubiquitous gravel shaped noodle known as the Ba’al Shem Tov’s tzimmes is almost nearly extinct, replaced on our Shabbos and Yuntif … Continue reading
