Thanks to all the readers who shared their favorite cheese recipes and were entered in the raffle to win a gift basket courtesy of Sugar River Cheese Co. Now the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The randomly selected winner is…Naomi! Naomi thinks cheese is at its best in a butternut squash and Gruyere souffle. “It’s much easier to make than it sounds, and is unbelievably delicious,” she said.
As for your own cheesy winners:
2 of you thought cheese shined in a quiche - or as ck so brilliantly described it “fancy omelet pie.”
5 of you preferred your cheese straight up, with maybe some crackers or slices of crisp apple.
5 wanted your cheese melty and hot in a fondue
9 raved about cheese sandwiches - everything from grilled cheese, to slices on Italian bread with sundried tomatoes, to a dang quesadilla.
11 agreed with Mark’s suggestion that Mac n’ Cheese was the ultimate way to consume cheese.
Read the interview with Mark Rosen, president of Sugar River Cheese here and find out how you can get your hands on some of their chipotle cheddar or here. Also, check back on The Jew & The Carrot for more giveaways around Passover!
Despite the shock value of my photos from a few days ago, Vietnam is a fascinating place to visit for the food obsessed. And while markets have always been one of my favorite places to wander through in developing countries, this was my first big trip abroad since I started thinking differently about food.
As I wrote previously, I wouldn’t recommend that people who keep kosher go there. It simply would be too hard to avoid the treyf. The default meat there is pork, and shrimp comes in a close second. It’s ironic too that one of the most common fish dishes, fish in a clay pot - a white fish coated in a delicious concoction of caramelized sugar, fish sauce, shallots, garlic, ginger and chiles, is made with catfish - once again, not kosher.
Read more »
If you haven’t yet seen the “things white people like,” website - well it’s probably best not to admit it to anyone and just sneak a peek here. The unavoidable “things Jewish people like” spin-offs (here and here) are pretty great too - not surprisingly, “buffets” top the list.
One of the lists claims that Jewish people like “taking sides on the Hydrox/Oreo debate.” Yeah…yeah, it’s true.
Any Jewish child reared in the 1980s (and likely the 1970s, but I can’t vouch for that) can remember the plate of Hydrox cookies that graced the shul social hall after services. They sat there stoically, the stand-in for their more popular, but lard-filled cousins, Oreos. Hydrox reigned the kiddush table until Oreos ditched the pig fat and got kosher certification in the late 1990s. Twas the touch of death for Hydrox, which was discontinued in 2003.
Still, some nostalgic Jewish cookie lovers insist that the Hydrox is a superior cookie that simply got a bum deal. Personally, although I do have a soft spot for Oreos (I’ve been known to eat half a bag in times of emotional trauma - a practice I don’t recommend!), I’ll generally take an organic Newman O (mint flavored) over an Oreo any day. What about you? Which chocolate sandwich cookie - past or present - tugs on your Jewish heartstrings?
The Boston Herald announced that Fenway Park is installing a kosher hot dog vending machine:
The home of the Fenway Frank, which claims to sell more hot dogs than any other ballpark in the country, is adding a new option for Jewish fans who adhere to strict kosher dietary laws. A new automated “Hot Nosh” vending machine, to be located in the big concourse under the bleachers, will cook and dispense all-beef, glatt kosher hot dogs in under a minute.
That’s cool at the ballpark, but how about in a Jewish day school?
Feder first eyed Kosher Vending Industries because his children’s Jewish day school, the Maimonides School in Brookline, lacked a hot lunch program. After Passover, the school will roll out another Hot Nosh machine that cooks and dispenses kosher pizza, mozzarella sticks, vegetable cutlets, onion rings and potato knishes.
Um, are there any Jewish foods - vendable! - which aren’t fried and unhealthy? And since when did mozzarella sticks and onion rings make it into the “Jewish” cultural food category?
Plus, there’s more Jewish weiners (and thus a few more Weiners) in the ballpark pews these days.
(x-posted at Lilith)
Today, I disagreed with Michael Pollan. (I know - I’m a little bit scared too.) According to an article in today’s NY Times, my favorite foodie believes that the rising price of commodity crops like wheat, corn, and soybeans is a good thing. The Times reports:
“[Pollan] likes the idea that some kinds of food will cost more, and here’s one reason why: As the price of fossil fuels and commodities like grain climb, nutritionally questionable, high-profit ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup will, too. As a result, Cokes are likely to get smaller and cost more. Then, the argument goes, fewer people will drink them.”
In other words, if the price of a Big Mac goes up high enough, then people will switch to purchasing vegetables at the farmers’ market. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am happy to be member of Pollan’s shul - I buy his argument that paying more for “good” food like free range eggs or organic milk is worthwhile, and that cheap foods are falsely cheap (though perhaps not for long).
But I think Pollan’s assertion that: A (foods made with commodity crops) + B (higher prices on those crops) = C (consumers purchasing more fruits and veggies from small farms) doesn’t necessarily hold up for the majority of the country’s eaters.
Read more »
The blogosphere has been buzzing with fake news stories for April Fool’s today (because we need more incorrect information on the internet?) including announcements that Al Gore announced his presidential bid, and Jewish philanthropist, Michael Steinhardt, started a network of kosher cannabis clubs.
Our friends over at Ethicurean really got us giggling with this gag:
Caca-Cola: The National Pork Producers Council and Coca-Cola have announced a joint venture to build facilities that will carbonate soft drinks using CAFO-sourced methane. The partners call the project “a dynamic, environmentally conscious approach to eliminating factory farming odors, which of course were never really a problem in the first place.” (CartelWatch.org)
Hmmm, well honey from bees (a treif insect) is kosher, but soda made fizzy with pig gas? Kosher-keeping Jews, and really everyone else, might decide the join the Pepsi generation after all.
