I looooooove popcorn. But I hate the smell of microwave popcorn, especially how it sticks to my hands for days after I actually pop it. But I don’t have a good pot for popping on the stove, and I don’t want a gadget that only pops popcorn and serves no other function. What’s a girl to do?!
Apartment Therapy to the rescue!
It was just my birthday, so if anyone wants to send me a popcorn-related birthday present, I receive mail — and Hazon will be happy to accept donations to help support “The Jew & The Carrot,” your favorite blog — at the following address: 45 West 36th Street, 8th Floor, NYC 10018.
I LOVE lattes, so I pay $3.50+ for coffee and soy milk way too often. Starbucks is often my latte-provider of choice. I do love independent coffee shops (not necessarily for the coffee), but for a quick in-and-out, it’s Starbucks. I often take my own travel mug with me. But until my collection of travel mugs was augmented by the Hazon Food Conference mug, the only one I had was often in the wrong location (at home when I needed it at work, in DC when I needed it in NYC…)–which means that I have used more than my fair share of disposable cups and their sleeves.
Guess post by Miriam K at the Israeli Kitchen blog
eli’s note: There’s something special about bread, particularly challah. In this guest post, Miriam takes on the differences between challah and weekly bread.
Challot in Mahane Yehuda, Jerusalem
Challah was never ordinary bread when I was growing up. Challah was special in a special way. It had to be braided and baked a golden brown, taste slightly sweet, and have a particular moist texture. With or without raisins, white or whole wheat, it had that special challah look and taste. We would tear into the thick, fresh slices so good for mopping up cholent gravy, and once more our souls would fill with satisfaction.
When I came to Israel, an entire new challah horizen opened. The Yemenite, Sephardic, and Ethiopian communities make challot that look and taste different from the Ashekenazic braided loaf I was used to. Many Sephardim prefer not to cut their Shabbat bread with a knife, so their challot are braided into soft, round loaves that are easy to tear apart with the hands. Others simply serve pitta. Ethiopian dabbo is round and sweetened with honey. And the Yemenite jachnun and kubana, baked overnight, are breads I’d never dreamed of. But no matter how different Shabbat breads are from each other, each community bakes them in the traditional way for Shabbat and Yom Tov. Weekday bread, no matter how attractive and tasty, is weekday bread.
I’ve been thinking a lot about manna lately. For a fun project called G-dcast!, I’ve been studying the parsha in which we first read about manna – that mysterious substance that is like coriander seed but also is supposed to taste differently for everyone, based on your age (honey for small children, bread for youths, and oil for the elderly, according to Wikipedia).
But here’s my favorite thing about the manna: It might be pretty common knowledge that you’re not supposed to take more manna than you can eat in one day – except on shabbat – but have we really thought that through? If you do take extras on any regular day of the week, and there are leftovers, it gets rancid and maggoty overnight. But on Shabbat, there won’t be any manna, so you are supposed to take manna for two days on Friday morning and it won’t go bad overnight. So, that makes sense, moving on. But stop – think about it.
And then read more below the fold!
Eli Valley, a writer and comic artist, has hit the jackpot this time: His latest comic interprets a Chagall painting as a scene at the Agriprocessors place in Postville. It’s beautifully colored and well thought out—-and has sparked intense conversation on the Jewcy page where it’s posted.
(To read the comic, start in the top left and go clockwise around the Chagall painting in the middle.)
Guest Post by Lizzi Jill Honeyrose Heydemann
eli’s note: I just posted about PresenTense’s online debates, the first of which is on the eternal Jewish food question: latke or hamentaschen. Here is one person’s take on the matter.
The Debate that Really Matters
I arrive 45 minutes early, and the line is already out the front door, around the block and halfway down the street. This seems highly irregular. I’m at the University of Chicago, after all, a place whose general agoraphobia is captured by mottoes like, “The U of C: Where fun comes to die,” and “That’s all well and good in practice, but what about in theory?” It is fricken’ cold outside on this November 25th eve, and pretty close to finals. What Hillel event could possibly attract such a wide and diverse audience– undergrads, business, law and medical students, Jews and non-Jews, community folk and random locals– and have them waiting out in the cold for an hour before the event?
More below the jump!
Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving… I’m over it already. How about a little Hanukkah versus Purim?
PresenTense Magazine—a collaboration of people working together from all over the world to explore Jewish creativity—is taking a step forward technologically with the launching of its online debates (which will be about issues covered in the magazine). At the same time, with its upcoming issue, PT is grounding itself in the most basic of subjects: food.
So, the first online PT Debate is, of course: the latke or the hamentaschen?
Visit the PresenTense Debates site to add your comments, and subscribe or order their Food Issue in mid-January here.
I always describe Bamba as “Israel’s Cheetos, with peanut butter instead of cheese.” I can’t translate the line at the top of this Bamba package–help?–but it does refer to the States and the election. An aleph and vav have been added to the name of the product, turning it from Bamba into Obamba. Just thought I’d share.
(Can someone in Israel tell me if this is for real, and if they’re available in multiple flavors?)shabbat shalom
Vassar’s chapter of Challah for Hunger makes a new a flavor of the week every week, in addition to their regular offerings, plain and chocolate chip. In the past, they’ve done garlic Parmesan challah, “Challahween” challah with various candies stuffed into the dough, parley+sage+rosemary+thyme (minus the parsley) challah. (To send them suggestions, email vassar@challahforhunger.org).
This week they went all patriotic, with “Yes we challah!” challah.
(Sorry for the blurry, phone camera photo.)
And for your reading pleasure, haikus from Pomona Challah for Hunger:
Challah for Hunger? No, haikus for hunger.
“If there be magic on this planet, it is contained in water.” – scientist Loren Eisley.
I’ve always wondered why there was no special bracha (blessing) in Jewish tradition for water. Water is the source of life, I thought. As Eisley says, “Water…its substance reaches everywhere; it touches the past and prepares the future.” Water is magic. So where is its special blessing?
