New Yorkers visiting a certain patch of real estate in the East 20s known affectionately as Curry Hill know the secrets of kosher vegetarian Indian food - in fact, you can hardly throw a dosa without hitting Madras Mahal, Chennai Garden, or another Indian restaurant serving hecshered, meat-free fare.

Now, Israeli-born, vegetarian actress Natalie Portman will star in Mira Nair’s new movie, “Kosher Vegetarian” - exploring the interfaith romance between a Gujarati guy (actor, Ifran Khan) and Jewish girl (Portman).

Like Nair’s last movie (The Namesake), the love between these two characters will undoubtedly be fraught with disapproving parents and inter-cultural conflict. But at very least, the couple will know where to eat.

I made a recipe for a client today that was so delicious, I feel compelled to share. I wish I had brought my camera on the job today, to take a picture, but alas, I didn’t. And while I found a photo of these very veggie burgers on another blog, it says it’s copyrighted, so I won’t use it here.

Now before you think: “she’s getting all excited about veggie burgers?” and move on to “Serious Eats,” or “Amateur Gourmet,” or whomever, hold on.  (You can check out those great sites afterwards.) These veggie burgers are something else. They have beets. They have carrots. They have sunflower seeds and cheddar cheese(!) They are some of the best damn veggie burgers I’ve ever had.

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This week and next, PBS is airing a 3-part series called “The Jewish Americans,” covering everything from the country’s earliest Jewish settlers to the experience of being Jewish in contemporary America.

Chef and Rabbi Gil Marks (author of The James Beard award-winning Olive Trees and Honey) is featured on a segment that addresses the question “what makes food Jewish?”  Unfortunately, it was cut from the final series ( he’s in good company - portions of Tony Kushner, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Mandy Patinkin’s segments and are also listed among the outtakes.)  But all footage (including Rabbi Marks) is available online for your viewing pleasure here.

Check PBS’s broadcast schedule to find out when The Jewish Americans is playing in your area. 

It’s a familiar legend - whether it’s the Golem or Dr. Frankenstein’s monster (the latter perhaps inspired by tales of the former) - what we arrogantly create comes back to haunt us. America’s monster might turn out to be one that we encounter in its most powerful form each Halloween: corn. Not the sweet, buttery kind that we get from our CSA in July. The kind that industrial-strength petro-chemicals and lobbyist-induced grain subsidies have produced in quantities unfathomable even fifty years ago. As Michael Pollan noted in Omnivore’s dilemma, which so eloquently sounded the clarion call for the dangers of corn, much of this crop has been turned into food additives that are so commonplace that if we’re eating any type of processed food, chances are we’re eating corn, even if we don’t even know it! Read more »

Get out your sustainable, local, affordable healthy food calendars, folks….

Because Farm Aid has released its lineup of HOMEGROWN Happenings surrounding Sun Sept 9th’s Farm Aid Concert on Randall’s Island in NY. The events, in partnership with many other local food and agriculture organizations, include a festival at Union Square from 10-4 on Sept 8th, and a week of farmfresh menu options at several NYC restaurants.

While the Farm Aid concert, for which tickets are still available, is the real peak of the homegrown happenings, don’t think it’s all over when the leaves drop from the trees- the festival will be culmniating with the theatrical debut of KING CORN, an amazing documentary about two twenty-somethings from Boston who decide to drive to Iowa and grow 1 acre of corn for 1 year, looking at the complexities of our food system in a nuanced and witty manner all the while their crop is growing. The film screening opens at Cinema Village on October 7 and runs for nearly 2 months.

Full Farm Aid NYC Calendar available here.

These days, you can’t toss an organic pomegrante drink in New York City without hitting someone gushing about “farming.” People are joining CSAs, flocking to the farmer’s markets, and insisting that their restaurants and supermarkets carry free range eggs and meat. Heck, even Farm Aid is coming to NYC this year! (As someone who coordinates CSAs for a living, this makes me swoon a little.)

But even with our newfound city-folk expertise on all things sustainable agriculture, most New Yorkers would be surprised to meet a farmer like Farmer John.

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