Students at DePaul University in Chicago are voting on what brand of hummus they want served on campus. The outcome of this week\’s student referendum, which was requested by Students for Justice in Palestine, is nonbinding.
A falafel ball weighing nearly 52.8 pounds created at a Jewish food festival in California has been certified as the world\’s largest. The falafel ball was certified on Sunday for submission to the Guinness Book of World Records at the Santa Clarita Valley Jewish Food and Cultural Festival, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. The ball, made of ground chickpeas and fava beans, also measured 12.5 inches high.
The Santa Clarita Valley could become home to the world’s largest falafel ball on May 15, when local chef Dawn Walker tries to craft and cook a deep-fried chickpea patty that will outweigh the 24-pound falafel ball that set the record a year ago in New York. Part of the third annual Santa Clarita Valley Jewish Food and Cultural Festival, Walker’s attempt will be documented for the Guinness Book of World Records. If a test run held two weeks before the event is any indication, the ball could end up weighing as much as 50 pounds.
The 2nd Ave Deli in New York is under threat for purloining sandwich names. The Heart Attack Grill in Arizona apparently has warned the famed Manhattan deli to cease serving its Instant Heart Attack Sandwich or be hauled into court for trademark violation. The 2nd Ave Deli’s proposed Triple Bypass Burger also is under attack.
Joan Nathan says she\’s always had a particular fascination with French Jews and their food. For Nathan, author of \”Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France (Knopf, 2010), the love affair with French cuisine started as a teenager when she made her first trip to France in the 1950s. The prolific cookbook author says the simple pleasure of sampling a slightly melted bar of chocolate sandwiched into a crackly baguette transformed her life.
Sergio Bicas\’ a real-life Willy Wonka, minus the oompa loompas, and it likely doesn’t take much coaxing to get his three kids to come keep Daddy company at his office in Sherman Oaks. Snacking on pomegranate pucker suckers and a freshly opened 5-pound bag of gummy bears, the co-founder of YummyEarth gladly shared his excitement and some of his company’s kosher organic candy.
A European Parliament committee has approved a bill that would require meat that was not stunned before slaughter to be labeled as such. The amendment to the new European Union food labeling bill passed the Environmental and Consumer Affairs Committee by a vote of 34 to 28. The meat would be labeled “unstunned before slaughter.”
On an unexpectedly rainy late spring evening in Santa Barbara, Aldo’s new owner, Brad Sherman, stands in the doorway between the patio and the dining room, waiting to welcome diners. He is eager, thoughtful, neatly dressed in plaid shirt and slacks, at ease as he guides a family from Minnesota to a table and answers questions from a retired fellow about the discount for people with tickets to local cultural events. He recommends a good wine, jokes with the servers, one of whom is his daughter, Geneva, and always keeps an eye on the door.
My fascination with Israeli food started the first time I tasted a falafel laced with tahini at a little sidewalk cafe in Westwood, near UCLA. Inspired by this simple Israeli dish, I began developing a list of Middle Eastern recipes that grew with each trip to Israel.
It’s easy to spot Rabbi Shmuel Simenowitz at a Jewish food conference, an environmentalist gathering or any of the other progressive-minded confabs he frequents. Just look for the Chasid in the room.
