A friend of my sent me an article written in the Washington Post about Google with the subject, “we should all be as lucky.” It talks about the amazingly top quality café (notice how they chose not to use the word cafeteria instead) which Google offers its employees. Did I mention that it’s free? For all three meals every day? And how by noon menus are distributed electronically for all the 11 cafes on its campus? Furthermore, I am happy to say that “Google supports local farming, organic produce, hormone-free meats and healthful eating.” Don’t you wish you could work there?

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I went to California last week for vacation with a friend and had some interesting food experiences which were quite thought-provoking. In California, there is a chain of coffee shops called Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and in most of them their coffees and baked goods are kosher, in addition to being delicious. My friend and I made it a top priority to support this special establishment daily during our trip (and on a day we missed, we were religious to double-up the following day). Unfortunately, there aren’t any stores on the east coast (yet!), so we felt we had to optimize on making these visits while on the west coast.

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Overall, my food preferences and likings are pretty simple. My family never had a cupboard with an array of various spices and seasonings – just the basics: salt, black pepper (which wasn’t used frequently since my family doesn’t like spicy food), garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cinnamon, and some interesting beef seasoning to be added to the weekly Shabbos cholent once in a while. This may be just a family thing, or a cultural trend, how Ashkenazic Jews don’t necessarily have an inspired pallet for an assortment of seasoning.

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Continuing on my previous post about “Olive Tree and Honey”, author Gil Marks raises the question: If there isn’t an original Jewish food, then what makes food Jewish? He answered it with essentially one word: tradition. Despite our dispersion over all four corners of the earth, we have still somewhat maintained our unity through, especially, food!

The example in question here is the development of kosher cuisine around Jewish Law. This can be seen easily through the creation of a popular Shabbat dish called cholent. According to Jewish law, one cannot cook on Shabbat. However, it is customary to serve a hot dish for Shabbat lunch. Thus this stew-like dish that cooks over a low flame put up before Shabbat was invented in many different Jewish communities.

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I received the cookbook, Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World by Gil Marks as a birthday gift this year, and it is a really fascinating book of Jewish history in addition to the compilation of recipes.

Marks mentions how our culinary habits were transformed due to the geographic areas in which we lived throughout the past 2000 years of exile, based on the different demographics of the countries in which we lived. Since they continued to change, as a result we don’t have one particularly distinct kind of Jewish cooking; rather we have a “mosaic” of cuisines from differing Jewish communities, each with their own history and customs. The largest ones are the Ashkenazic and Sefardic communities. The largest community of Ashkenazic Jews is that of the ancestors of the American Jewish community and the one most Americans relate with as “Jewish food.”

On the contrary, the Sefardic community, interestingly, were welcomed into the Ottoman Empire after the Spanish Expulsion in 1492 and there they grew into a large Jewish community. Today, there is a very large Sefardic community in Israel. However, Jewish cooking now depicts a blend of Jewish cultures throughout the world.

To me, these ideas depict the beauty of Jewish history and continuity. It takes something like food to show how rich are our culture and customs. Furthermore, it’s amazing to think that we are still making foods that our ancestors made hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. We have a strong dedication to customs, for if not, why then would we still be making latkes and sufganiyot on this lovely holiday of Chanukah? Although we may have altered some recipes to add a healthier twist on them, overall we have a wealth of diverse, wholesome and remarkable recipes.

I’ll talk about more of my findings from this cookbook next week, but until then – has anyone made any of the recipes they enjoyed from this cookbook that they would like to share with me? Feel free to email me!

I love traditional shabbos food – white flour challah (that almost taste like cake thanks to the numerous eggs that are in it); various kugels full of either oil or margarine; gefilte fish with mayonnaise on the side (don’t worry – I’m a big fan of low-fat mayo); and we can’t forget about dessert – I’m pretty open to any kind of pastries (cake, cookies, candy, chocolate, etc.) – I’m not particularly picky :). However, they are typically full of all those unhealthy ingredients as well.What are we to do - change tradition and not have potato kugel?

When I have people over for shabbos meals in my apartment or at my parent’s house, I am often torn over whether to make contemporary, healthier dishes that don’t follow the conventional appetite because I don’t know what other people will like. At the same time, I still want to make what I am accustomed to making but with healthier ingredients. For example, is there a recipe out there for a chocolate cake with whole wheat flour? I’m not confident how well that would taste, so my goal is to find recipes for all the traditional dishes, as well as contemporary dishes, with more nutritious ingredients. I’ve already found a tasty whole wheat, vegan challah recipe (which is listed below). If you have any suggestions please feel free to share.

Similar to what I mentioned last week, making these changes in orthodox circles is challenging. Read more »

My involvement in Hazon’s recent food work has opened me up to a whole new world of environmental and food issues and have given me a lot of “food for thought,” pardon the pun, as to how I can better my eating habits and thinking about how the food I eat gets to my table. As an orthodox Jew involved in mycommunity, environmental issues haven’t been strongly highlighted during my upbringing. However, changes are taking place in orthodox thought and I am happy to see more awareness and attention given to them.

It’s still fascinating, though, how people are genuinely intrigued to learn about CSA’s, Fast Food Nation, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It has happened to me on more than one occasion where I will be at shabbos meal with new people in my community and when asked what I do professionally, I start explaining what Hazon does. When I begin to explain about the concept of CSA’s with a Jewish twist (since I was a proud member of the Washington Heights CSA this season!) and about the various insights that have stuck with me, I realize that not only are my listeners very interested in these new ideas, but I am also very passionate about what I am saying as well! Whether it is about supporting local agriculture and decreasing the amount of fuel wasted to ship produce across the world, or the quality of eggs from Polyface farm due to the natural internal eco-system the farmer created which Michael Pollan describes, or how corrupt the meatpacking industry is in this country as highlighted by Eric Schlosser… I think since Jews are attracted to food (hey, we like to eat!) hearing about these insights catches their attention. Read more »