Archive for the 'Fish' Category
The Kosher Fish Scandal
This week, the Winnipeg Free Press reported yet another scandal in the kosher food industry - this time focusing on the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp. According to the article, the company sold kosher-certified fish products that had sloppy-at-best supervision throughout the 1990s:
“The FFMC is the largest North American supplier of fish minced to produce kosher fish called “gefilte fish…” To be OU certified, the FFMC employed a rabbi to supervise the processing and cleaning required for the kosher certification…But according to information obtained from employees at FFMC, the rabbi was often derelict in his duties and management knew it.While he was required to observe the production line at all times, he spent a great deal of time in an office on a computer, or was simply absent….He was obliged to make sure that only fish with fins and scales were being processed, that species like burbot and catfish were not in the mix. Allowing a catfish into the mix would be as offensive to Jews as dropping pork into ground beef would be to Muslims.
The rabbi inspector was in the employ of the FFMC from the late 1980s until 2000. But for at least the last five of those years, he lived in Kenora and commuted to Winnipeg once every couple of weeks to pick up his Government of Canada paycheque.”
Honestly, as I read about this latest transgression - I felt anything but shocked.
7 Comments »You say Toro, but I say Tomago…
There was a disturbing story in the Times today about the alarmingly high level of mercury in both store-bought and restaurant-served sushi-grade tuna. How is it possible that no government agency tests for mercury in our country’s seafood, when even the FDA and EPA have issued warning advisories about the consumption of certain fish that are known to contain unsafe levels of this industrial pollutant?
While it might be fun for my three-year-old son to color in this page from his “Jewish Activity Book (!):
…maybe I should just substitute a page with Joe Camel smoking a cigarette, which would be no more toxic?
The good news for fish-eating Jews everywhere is that there are sustainable seafood choices out there, including smaller fish found lower on the food chain (but just as high up on the kiddush buffet line), which are not only safer in terms of mercury levels, but very high in healthy omega-3 fatty acids. So dig into those herring, sardines and anchovies, everyone!
Vegetarian* with an asterisk
In a pinch, I call myself a vegetarian. Over the years, I have found the term socially useful–simpler to explain than my complex eating habits–and accurately describing my diet without meat. But am I a vegetarian? Rebecca, a teen on an Israel trip I staffed this summer, wondered just this. And while at the time I responded in the affirmative, I realized that I wasn’t being entirely honest. There is an asterisk that I hadn’t thought much of: I eat fish.
What I’ve come to realize is that, to some degree, my categorization of fish as not-so-meatish is an internalization of the laws of kashruth. According to traditional Jewish law, fish is neither here nor there–it is neutral. And though there are restrictions on eating fish and meat on the same plate, this tends to be irrelevant outside the observant Jewish community. Any list of cultural Jewish foods surely includes: a) tuna melt with American cheese; b) lox and cream cheese; and c) gefilte fish neighboring brisket. As far as kashruth is concerned, fish is less of an animal than cattle or chickens.
The people of the grill?
Jewish simchas (joyous events) usually don’t conjure images of charcoal, lighter fluid and grills. Steaming bowls of soup? Yes. Buffet tables loaded with dishes? Definitely. But not BBQ.* A recent article by Tina Wasserman in Reform Judaism says:
“…finding a traditional Jewish recipe that uses this technique is almost impossible. The preparation of meals in biblical times was centered on milk and bread. When meat was eaten, it was usually boiled and only occasionally roasted, as we know from 1 Samuel 2:15 (when the sons of Eli declared that they preferred their meat roasted rather than boiled) and from the roasting of the paschal lamb.”
But although “Jewish grilling” is hard to come by, finding Jews who grill is easy.
Fishy thoughts from the Monterey Bay Aquarium
I spent an amazing afternoon at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Tuesday. The Aquarium’s mission is to “inspire conservation of the oceans” and they do, in part because of their location on Monterey Bay: after you’ve gazed at the 40′ high “Kelp Forest” exhibit, and watched fish nibble something tasty off the kelp leaves, and watched a school of mackerel follow itself around in circles like an undulating lava lamp — you can look out of the huge windows at the ocean, right there, and think, ‘all of this is going on, right now, right out there.’
Fish. It bothers me when people say, “I’m a vegetarian, but I eat fish.” I think vegetarian ought to be restored to its hardcore origins: no animals, period. Fish are just as much animals as chickens or cows — but somehow they get put in another category? And in kosher terms they also end up in a third column: fish is parve, you have have it with milk or meat because it is technically neither. Huh? Tell that to a self-respecting tuna! I think fish is worth paying a lot more attention to, and, incidentally, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has some tips for how to do just that.
