Schmaltz, aka “Liquid Gold,” is the not-so secret ingredient in the classic Ashkenazi kitchen. So while last week I wrote about some truly beloved Sephardic baked goods (and a big shout out to all of the new followers to my blog, who came via that popular post), I felt this week I should go to my own heritage. After all, […]
Category: Classic Foods
Beyond Bourekas: On Boyos and Bulemas
Do you know what boyos and bulemas are? You may have even eaten one without realizing it, but more on that later. Some time ago, I wrote a post about the Jewish history of bourekas, mentioning in it that they were one of three Sephardic pastries commonly referred to as “The Three B’s.” Boyos and bulemas are the other two. […]
The Multicultural Jewish Food of Machane Yehuda
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 […]
Cooking Jewish Culture: Choucroute Garnie
Welcome to the newest recurring feature on my blog: Cooking Jewish Culture. While this site is not a “cooking blog” per se, and it remains focused on my primary topic of Jewish Food History, I am going to incorporate periodic cooking posts. One of the things I’ve noticed as I research Jewish Food culture is that you can sometimes tell […]
Q&A: All About American Jewish Deli
I love answering questions about Jewish Food history, and some time ago, in my newsletter, I asked people to email me with anything they wanted to know. My long-time friend Julie responded with some queries about American Jewish delis. As fate would have it, the most common topic I was asked about while on my recent lecture tour in America, […]
Thank God for Food Spoilage
Traditional Jews have a wide array of food blessings, based on the type of food being consumed. We thank God with a different bracha (blessing) for creating grain products, fruits or wine, for example. These add up to an expression of our gratitude to the Creator for providing us not just with sustenance, but with a variety both nutritionally and […]
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 Tangled History of Noodle Kugel
About a month ago I posted a link to my recent article for The Nosher, all about Potato Kugel. Well, as promised, my next article to come out follows up on that, by unraveling the tangled history of noodle (or lokshen) kugel! Noodle kugel is the older of the two, and has at least as complex a story as the […]
Borscht’s Belt Wraps Ashkenazi Food and Broader Jewish Cuisine
When it comes to holiday food, my mother is a real traditionalist. No need to ask what will be served at the Seder, for example, because it would be the same every year. Which was also the same as what her mother prepared. One of those standard Pesach/Passover dishes was always knobl borscht. I am much less of a traditionalist […]