“When I was a little boy, I ate real kosher meat, not like this. It was tasty, it was greasy, and it was great.” “What kind of meat was it?” I ask. “It was pork,” replies Grigorii. “There are special butchers for pigs. Otherwise their meat is not kosher.”(1)“Soviet Jewish Foodways: Transformation through Detabooization,” Gennady Estraikh, in Global Jewish Foodways: […]
Jewish Food Bookshelf: Yankel’s Tavern
After examining a cookbook and a general source on all things Jewish Food in my previous Jewish Food Bookshelf posts, how about a nice stiff drink? I am fascinated by the long and complex history of Jews and alcohol, and my lecture on the subject is one of favorites (and also a pretty fun one). One of my primary sources […]
Q&A: Knishes, Bourekas and Other Stuffed Goodies
Knishes are a type of beloved Ashkenazi stuffed pastry. Bourekas, as I’ve written about previously, are a type of beloved Sephardi stuffed pastry. Is there a connection between them, and if so, what is it? That is essentially what I was asked by two readers of my recent post about boyos and bulemas, though they asked it in somewhat different […]
Cooking Jewish Culture: Schmaltz
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, […]
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. […]
Understanding Israel… One Cup of Coffee at a Time
I had a lot of fun writing my latest article for The Nosher, all about Israeli culture and history, as seen via its coffee! In it, I answer such questions as: Why can you get espresso at any Israeli gas station? Why do some Israelis still order instant coffee there anyway? Why do Israelis call instant coffee a “miracle?” How […]
Jewish Food Bookshelf: Encyclopedia of Jewish Food
It’s time for another edition of From The Jewish Food Bookshelf. This time around, I’m featuring a highly recommended classic. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I like to cite my sources, and there are three in particular that I quote most frequently. I consider them the best three Jewish Food books […]
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 […]
The Jewish Connection to a New Years Soul Food Classic
One of the amazing things you uncover when you study food is the similarities between foods of different cultures. Flavors, cooking methods, symbolism and more — when similar things crop up in the cuisines of distinct cultures, they underscore how connected we all are, rather than the things that separate us. A symbolic New Years food from the American South […]
