The world of kosher junk food tours seems heaven-sent for Purim. Some of America\’s old-time favorites and a few newer arrivals offer factory tours and visits to megastores where you can taste kosher goodies and learn how they\’re made.
Yeladim
This week\’s Torah portion, Vayakhel (meaning \”and he gathered\”), is about the community of Israelites building the Mishkan.
Why Not Pie?
Latkes are a simple form of potato preparation, as potato dishes go. But simplicity in cooking, as the food writer Richard Olney wrote, is a complex thing. I have had rubbery latkes, starchy latkes, undercooked latkes and latkes so greasy that two of them could run a diesel engine for a week.
Following are pointers on livening up your Chanukah table from \”Kosher by Design\” by Susie Fishbein (Mesorah, 2003).
While some food writers automatically push the same old latke and brisket menu at Chanukah, Susie Fishbein offers a lighter touch by mixing in Mediterranean fare. And although she tweaks culinary tradition, she honors it. Fishbein believes in presenting beautiful food in unique ways.
On the day preceding the first night of Chanukah, I was too tired to make yet another trip to the grocery store for latke fixings, so we had warm bowls of soup, lit the Chanukah candles, and without much fanfare, my daughter opened her first present. But on the second day, I re-entered my kitchen and found one box of instant latke mix and a refrigerator drawer full of apples.
We just returned from a trip to Italy, concentrating on the provinces of Puglia and Campania close to Naples. It is a region that we enjoy because of the diversity of the foods and wines available.
It\’s got to be one of the toughest marketing problems of all time: selling Orthodox Judaism. You gotta hand it to Chabad. They\’re making amazing progress, especially when you think about what an unmarketable name they have to deal with: Orthodox Judaism.
In the past, the dynamic and innovative Pacific Northwestern city of Seattle has been associated with Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks, The Pike Street Market, The Space Needle and grunge bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana.
