As the most globalized nation on Earth, the Jewish people have a cuisine that is notoriously hard to define. But as Claudia Roden wrote in her The Book of Jewish Food, just “because a culture is complex this does not mean it does not exist.” Our food is multicultural, because we have been influenced by the foods of the people […]
Tag: Israel
2021: The Year in Jewish Food
In what has now become an annual tradition, I’d like to welcome you to my Jewish Food Year in Review. To see how much (or little) has changed since last year, here is 2020’s Year in Jewish Food post. While the world has not yet fully emerged from under the cloud of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a lot to […]
Alternate Chanukkah Food Traditions and Their Surprising Sources
What are the Jewish Foods classically connected with Chanukkah (or Hanukkah, Chanuka, Hanuka, etc., choose your spelling…)? Most people would point to latkes or sufganiyot (potato pancakes or jelly doughnuts), or any of many other fried items from around the Jewish world, as the “traditional foods” for this holiday. And while I will not complain about fried yumminess (most things […]
My Jewish Food History Lecture Tour Schedule
So I am heading to the States in a week, and will be delivering lectures on Jewish Food History, spread out over the next month. I would love to see many of you, either at lectures, or just to meet up in person. Below you will find my speaking schedule. A few with different titles are actually the same talk, […]
Yom Kippur Chulent (For Real)
One of the more intriguing things I’ve come across during my research on Jewish Food was a recipe for a Yom Kippur Chulent. (More accurately, it was a Yom Kippur Hamin, though I recognize that the term chulent is more recognizable for a number of my readers, so I grudgingly use it for ease of understanding!) I don’t mean a […]
The Freaky Ancient Grain Still Prepared Today and Connected with the Season
If you’ve attended Hebrew School, or one of many Jewish Summer Camps, you probably know the Hebrew word for Spring: Aviv. It’s an ancient word, that appears multiple times in the Jewish Bible. The only problem is… it doesn’t mean Spring. Or at least it didn’t in Biblical times. Back then, it described a food product, one that is still […]
Respectfully Responding to Reem Kassis (Re: Bagels)
If you spend time reading on the Internet about food history or Middle Eastern cuisine, chances are you recently saw a post by Palestinian-American cookbook author Reem Kassis in which she claimed that the bagel has origins in the Arab kitchen. I first came across it when my friend Sarah forwarded me an article from Serious Eats in which Ms. […]
The Classic Jerusalem Dish That Stands Up Against The Insta-trends
So many eateries these days build their concepts on how well a dish photographs. Instagram has changed the way people eat, and even the way some restaurants cook. Call me crazy, but while looks are important, the way a food tastes is way more significant! That’s why it is good to know that true classics hold up in popularity, even […]
The Unknown Jewish History of Bourekas
Bourekas are one of those foods that are uber-popular here in Israel, and becoming better-known around the world. But many people don’t know their country of origin — Turkey — and even fewer know that they were actually invented by Turkish Jews. Bourekas (or burekas or borekas or however you choose to spell them) are actually a true Jewish Food, […]
Yom HaAtz’Mallow’t
I wanted to do a special post for Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) this week, but really the only food practice that seems nearly universal among Israelis is what we call al ha’esh (Hebrew for “on the fire”) or mangal (Turkish, originally from Arabic for “portable”). It is what you probably know better as grilling. Grilling meat outdoors over an […]
