Of all the foods that play an important role in Jewish ritual life, perhaps the most overlooked in terms of its transformative symbolism is the lowly breadcrumb. Each Rosh Hashanah we loft these penitential panko into flowing waters, then stand at the ready with spoon, feather and candle as they mysteriously wash ashore six months later inside our toaster, behind our fridge, or surreptitiously planted, like the murder weapon from a bad episode of Law and Order, in an easy-to-reach corner of our home, waiting to be swept up, pronounced null and void, and burnt to a (inedible) crisp. Normally sitting innocently atop our mac & cheese, or (not so innocently) in our clams casino, why were these crumbs chosen to represent our most hidden sins, or (as the chasidim teach), our haughtiest arrogance? Why must we Jews endure this twice-yearly crouton crucible? Read more »

• Winner of the first annual matzah scuplture contest: the Washington Square Arch. [NYSun]
• In 18 minutes, Joan Nathan answers your fermenting Passover questions, also writes about chometz-free Spanish deserts, pre-1492. [NYTimes]
• Newsday asks what makes wine kosher for Passover? [Newsday]
• “Inspector Rabbi” answers the same question about orange juice at the St. Pete Times. [SP Times]
• Like getting to Carnegie Hall, the secret to a perfect seder: practice, practice, practice. [AP]
• Let all who are hungry, come and eat gourmet. [NYMag]
• Police shutter the matzah bus. [NYTimes]

Sugaring season is conveniently “sandwiched” between Purim and Pesach. When the nights are still below freezing and the days sunny and warm, the sap begins to flow up and down, coursing through the veins of mature sugar maples ready to be tapped, the sap eager to be boiled down into sweet maple syrup. The mountains are a patchwork quilt of snow and clearing and streams - swollen with runoff - roar with a nervous energy as their waters seek the rivers below.

Actually, the juxtaposition of sugaring to Purim - Pesach is quite serendipitous. For just as Purim showed us the concealed face of Hashem, so too, the clear cool sap - containing 98% water – hides the true sweetness which is only revealed after “boiling off” the excess. By the time we get to Pesach – the ultimate in your face, Old Testament big ticket miracle kinda holiday – the water is a distant memory leaving us with only the rich syrups with such exotic monikers as “dark amber” – as much a revelation as a revolution! Read more »

I look forward to Pesach for a lot of reasons, but one of them is my cousin-in-law Rebecca’s famous charoset pyramid.
For many years now, my aunt Diane has made Egyptian charoset along with the Ashkenazi one, even though our family is 100 percent Ashkenazi. One year, Rebecca realized the dense matter looked a lot like…mortar. She started sculpting it, and voila, the pyramid was born.
Each year since, it has gotten more and more complicated. One year, she added plastic palm trees. Another, she managed to find a Pharoah action figure, which perfectly complimented the one I found of Moses. In this photo, from our seder at my home in Oakland in 2003, she fashioned sand out of brown sugar.
I wonder what it will be this year.

JTA reports:

A Manhattan kosher bistro filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit against its former kashrut inspector.

The suit filed Monday by Le Marais in New York Supreme Court of Kings County charges that Isaac Bitton defamed it on 66 counts when he posted on his Web site and blog — amashgiachspeaksout.com/ — that the upscale restaurant’s chef, Mark Hennessy, deliberately sneaked non-kosher food into the kitchen and disobeyed other kashrut standards.

Read more »

From Dr. David Kraemer, keynote speaker at the 2006 Food Conference, Latkes to Lattes, in The Forward on how bread — and leavening by extension — communicates far more about Jewish life than at first glance:

Leavened or Unleavened: A History

David Kraemer | Fri. Mar 30, 2007 | The Forward

Everyone knows that food is a serious part of the Passover Seder. But very few people take Seder food seriously. Though everyone who attends a Seder is aware that certain foods are central to the Seder ritual, and most — at least by the end of the Seder — will be aware of the conventional interpretations attached to the Seder’s “symbolic” foods, few people see the food symbols as more than “mere” symbols. That is to say, they fail to appreciate fully the potential expressive power of the foods. This is unfortunate, for the foods communicate far more than we might imagine.

Read more »

This evening, as my roommates and I were finishing up an exhausting round of stripping the dirt and chametz from our kitchen, I found it unfortunate that I had to throw several jars of salsa and tupperware of chiles down the garbage disposal. I wondered if the disposal could handle this amount of “hotness,” as an American garbage disposal would presumably not be accustomed to such intensity. On Passover, probably spurred on by the choice of packaged foods available and promoted by the local supermarket’s “Passover Aisle,” American Ashkenazi Jews traditionally retreat into the deepest recesses of Jewish culinary tradition; to me, it seems completely unnecessary to eat cold fish jelly or kishke for 8 days straight.

Read more »

The Jerusalem Post asks, is marijuana kosher for passover?

Not for Ashkenazim.

The rabbis’ reasoning: it is thought of as kitniyot, or a legume.

What are they smoking?

Every Sunday school student knows Pessah for its ban on food that rises, but a growing number of Jews are asking whether the holiday also precludes them from getting high.

Hemp has increasingly been spotted on the list of kitniyot, or legumes, that Ashkenazi Jews abstain from eating during Pessah, according to several influential rabbinical Web sites, including kashrut.com. But not everyone agrees that hemp qualifies for the ban, and the debate has led many to question the definition of kitniyot.

Read more »

Been craving organic matzah? (well, okay - maybe not craving.)  It’s now available from Chicago’s Shmura Matzah Factory - the only certified organic matzah bakery in the country.

The company says:

“Most matzah today is made from genetically modified wheat, so to get a taste of our ancestors’ original matzah, let’s try some authentic natural organic whole wheat matzah that is ground by the ancient millstone method.” 

I’m not sure that a urban organic matzah factory is quite the same as our ancestors’ ancient millstones, but it’s still pretty great.  Find out more here.

This past weekend, I hosted the first (and maybe the last) annual matzah tasting. We tasted six different types of matzah: egg, grape, whole wheat, thin tea (go figure) milk chocolate- covered egg, and dark chocolate-covered regular.

I invited my friends Leah and Ben to join me as judges. We scored the matzahs using a score sheet adapted from the pie-judging sheet from the American Pie Council’s pie competition. Each matzah could receive up to four points in the first six categories, and up to eight in the last one. These were the categories:

Read more »

Which is better: Organic or locally-grown food? Rice milk or dairy? Tofu or grass-fed beef? Michael Pollan’s not telling.

The author of the New York-Times’ best selling book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Pollan is a luminary within an impressive group of writers who examine America’s food industry to find out exactly how our food gets to our plates.

Pollan’s ground-breaking work has profoundly impacted the lives and habits of eaters across the country (mine included), and even inspired beautiful artwork. But despite his great influence, Pollan strongly believes that when it comes to figuring out, “What’s for dinner?” the right answer is ultimately up to each individual consumer.

I spoke with Pollan about the power of making food choices, truly valuing our food, and the importance of holidays, like Pesach, to connect us to the earth, and to each other. Click on “Read More” for the interview. Read more »

The web site Kashrut.com, by kosher news maven Arlene J. Mathes-Scharf, has kept it’s Kashrut Alerts going strong for years to cover the various mislabelings — both deliberate and malicious — as well as sudden changes, hekhsher revocations, and industry news. Here you can learn not only a reputably complete list of recognized hekhshers and their certifying agencies, but that Wawa Hot & Spicy Peanuts are using an unauthorized OU hekhsher and that consumers should call the Orthodox Union to report Wawa sightings.

Read more »

The first seder I ever went to, I hosted. I was deep into conversion classes with my husband-to-be and we had tons of questions. It was the opposite of scripted. We used a Reconstructionist haggadah a friend’s family had put together, and the conversation flowed. The older generations regaled us with their memories. Though it was over 10 years ago I remember it well. There was just one problem. My food was warming on the stove and in the oven, forever. Who knew that you spent so long talking before eating the meal? I ruined my first seder. Everything was dehydrated to shoe leather, the matzoh balls leaden after simmering for so long.

If a recipe ends with “serve immediately,” it is not for Pesach. That was my first huge lesson. I think I’ve hosted almost every first night since then, but I’ve picked up a lot of things on the second nights when we’ve gone to other people’s houses. The whole evening has changed with the advent of our children, as well. Here are some of our evolving traditions:

Read more »

Check out these amazing papercuts by April Greenberg, a Brooklyn-based artist whose painting, papercutting, drawing & sculpture is really stunning. April has also done Hazon’s NY Ride and is a stalwart member of Hazon’s webteam! See more of her work here.

These papercuts were inspired by Michael Pollan’s article in the New York Times “Unhappy Meals” (January 28, 2007). And - coming soon: Leah Koenig’s Exclusive Interview with Michael Pollan - stay tuned!
Read more »