Archive for the 'Food Writing' Category
Kosher Locavore?
Cheese, Eco-Kashrut, Farming, Food Conference, Food Writing, Hazon, Health, Kosher, Notable Press, Organic, Seasonality, Sustainability, Tuv Ha'AretzFrom this week’s New York Jewish Week:
Can You Be A Kosher Locavore?
by Sandee Brawarsky
Published on: Feb 5, 2008
‘Locavore” is 2007’s Word of the Year, as anointed by the Oxford American Dictionary. The word refers to someone who makes an effort to use locally grown ingredients. More than a word, it’s a collaborative movement, encouraging people to buy their food from farmers’ markets or grow their own, with the aim of eating healthier, supporting local farmers and avoiding the great costs of fuel in shipping foods long distance.
Locavores — some of whom set a 100-mile radius to define local — may be environmentalists, food lovers who appreciate a challenge, health conscious cooks, novice and veteran farmers, for those with a spiritual bent who want to be aware of what they’re eating and where it comes from. But locavores who are both urban and kosher face particular challenges, especially in New York City in mid-winter.
10 Comments »The Jew and The Pig - On Kibbutz
Animal Care, Farming, Featured, Food Safety, Food Writing, Health, Israel, Kosher, Meat, Neat Projects, Personal Story, Vegetarian
The Jew & The Carrot blogger, Jeff Yoskowitz, has been on hiatus from the blog for a little while - but he has a darn good excuse. He is currently living on a kibbutz in Israel. On the one hand, like many kibbutzim, internet access is spotty so posting frequently is a challenge. But Jeff’s situation is a little different. Jeff is currently researching the (painfully ironic) pork industry in Israel. His kibbutz happens to house an industrial pork feed-lot, which means he’s spending most of his time hanging out with animals he’d never personally eat.
The little bit of time Jeff’s not researching pigs, he’s logging in his experience at his personal blog The Wet Sprocket. And while we understand his need to prioritize his web time, his stories are just too interesting not to share. To find out more about Jeff’s extraordinary daily experiences check out his blog, and read a few key (and quite graphic) excerpts below:
Oregon’s Jewish Foodies - Who Knew?
It’s just that, since moving to New York, I’ve fully realized to extent to which the east coast, and NYC in particular, sets the cultural tone for the rest of the American Jewish community. Seinfeld - New York. Woody Allen - New York. Manischewitz…okay, Cincinnati and then New Jersey, but close enough.
Considering the cultural monopoly east coast Jews have on most things Jewish, it seems to follow that the majority of successful Jewish food entrepreneurs would hail from the more neurotic side of the Mississippi. So I was utterly taken aback when Lois Leveen proved me wrong on her blog MacaroniManiac.
Is This Food Jewish?
(x-posted at Lilith)
I’ve been doing a lot of cooking lately. In comparison to the stereotypical “I use my oven as an extra shoe closet” New Yorker, I’ve always cooked a lot for this city. But since I started freelance writing two days a week last summer, and especially since the New Year when I renewed my commitment to preparing my own meals, I’ve found myself spending much more time in the kitchen.
I’ve also discovered that there’s lots of time to think when one cooks - even if NPR is playing in the background. As I’ve tinkered with various types of cookies and tried out new recipes from my favorite Chanukah present, Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook
Yes, there are the old standbys - Chicken soup with matzah balls, fresh challah, pastrami on rye. And then there are the mysterious, and often severely unappetizing foods that you find in the “kosher food” section at the supermarket - gefilte fish, pickles, Manischewitz, and Tam Tam crackers. Honestly, I can only imagine what folks who aren’t familiar with Jewish eating must think when they see a supermarket shelf of glass jars filled with gelatinous objects suspended in a bunch of different colored murky liquids.
Read it and Eat: A (Jewish) Review of In Defense of Food
Books, Community Agri., D'var Torah, Farmer's Markets, Farming, Featured, Food Safety, Food Writing, Health, Jewish Culture, Meat, Obesity, Organic, Participate!, Prayer, Seasonality, Shabbos Meals, Spirituality, Supermarkets, Synagogues, Vegetarian
Many people complain that it’s difficult to find a synagogue to join in New York City. There are just so many options, that none of them feel exactly right - you might call it The Shul-Goers Dilemma. These days, however, I’m feeling pretty good at Temple Bet Pollan.
Michael Pollan gets his fair share of love on this blog, and his new book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
Like any effective leader - Martin Luther King included - he’s charismatic and big on the big ideas that change the way we think - or in this case how we eat. But as I devoured (pun intented) Pollan’s new book on my subway commute, I wondered what, if anything, does his worldview offer to the Jewish community? And, perhaps more interestingly, what wisdom does the tribe have to offer back to him?
Two Cultures Separated at Birth?
Cooking, Dinner parties, Family & Kids, Food Writing, Holidays, Jewish Culture, Personal Story, Recipes
Thanks to Rhea Kennedy of the You are Delicious blog, for this guest post and two delicious recipes.
As yet another plate of lamb careened toward the table, the scene at my boyfriend’s aunt and uncle’s Shanghainese house started to feel very familiar. I’d already discovered that latke-like potato cakes are a staple street food in Shanghai. Now, as my boyfriend’s aunt’s chopsticks moved from serving plate to individual bowls, clunking down pieces of meat in front of the people she’d decided should eat them, I realized that eating Chinese food on Christmas is not the only thing that bonds Jewish folks with our friends in the Far East.
Rebbe Pollan vs. Rebbe Industry
Just a thought, but could the new food credo of “Eat food not too much, mostly plants,” be a threat to the Kashrut industry as we know it?
I just finished watching a promotional video from the OU. Targeted to the food industry, this video demonstrates the process by which a product receives certification. Using a fictional cake made by Drakes (of Seinfeld lore), the OU rabbi shows how, early in the process the ingredient list of the new cake is sent to the OU to ensure that all ingredients are kosher. Some of the ingredients are found to be problematic, the red sprinkles on top and the emulsifiers that in the words of Rabbi Moshe Elefant “make ingredients mix when they normally can’t.”
According to Rebbe Michael Pollan, food is defined as something your grandmother would recognize. I would bet a big bunch of kale that your grandmother didn’t use emulsifiers to make sure her cake was delicious.
Digest This
Lately the conversation amongst my foodie friends has gone something like this:
Friend 1: “Sustainable food is all the rage right now. It’s amazing that so many people are talking and writing about it!”
Friend 2: “That’s true, but how long do you think it will last? What if it’s just a fad?”
Whether Americans’ current obsession with all foods local and healthy will continue, dwindle, or change shape remains to be seen. For now, we think 2008 is off to a great start with three articles written about Hazon’s food work in the last week.
In Hadassah Magazine, Adeena Sussman writes about Tu B’shevat or (Tu Bishvat, as I’ve been scolded into writing even though it looks funny), Tuv Ha’Aretz and Community-Supported Agriculture, and organic kosher meat. Read it here.
The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles reports about how Tuv Ha’Aretz’s new LA location at Sinai Temple is bringing local, organic flavor to Southern California. Read it here.
Houston’s Examiner News also spreads the Jewish CSA gospel with an article on Tuv Ha’Aretz happenings at the JCC in Houston. Read it here.
So what do you predict? Will sustainable food stay hot in 2008, or are we destined to be eating out of cans again by the end of the year?
Awww, shucks…
Oh Jewschool, you all are so sweet! :) We feel exactly the same way….
Jewschool’s Picks for Best of 2007
by · Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
Best JBlog
Despite actually having been founded in 2006, we’re still giving our vote to The Jew and the Carrot. It’s really taken off this year and there have been so many themes they’ve covered that we wished we thought of, but now can leave it to he experts. Maybe we just love Hazon.
Topic of the Year: Food
From the schechting of the goat at the Hazon food conference, to the growing eco-kashrut movement, from increasing awareness of the necessity to eat local and organic to “kosher” being the most popular claim found on product labels in 2007, (beating out “All Natural” and “No Additives or Preservatives,”), and let’s not forget the triumphant return of the 2nd Ave Deli, yep, we Jews know what we like, and as usual, it was food
The Year in Carrots: Best of 2007
In honor of New Year’s, The Jew & The Carrot proudly presents The Year in Carrots: Best of 2007. We’ve rounded up the posts that most inspired, outraged and tickled us (and you!) over the past year - not to mention the tastiest, most sustainable recipes from 2007. Whether you’re new to The Jew & The Carrot or a long-time reader, we hope you find something delicious in the list below.
So, sit back (with a glass of champagne if you’d like) and dig in!
Happy New Year! Chag Sameach!
Our Top 10 Favorite Posts
1. The View from Your Fork: An Interview with Michael Pollan
2. They’re Kashering My Kitchen
3. Thoughts on Becomming a Shochet
4. Why I’m Not a Foodie
5. In Praise of Dinner Parties
6. I Just Couldn’t Do It
7. Growing Food?
8. A Blessing of Rain
9. Is it a Bris Without Bagels?
10. Eating and Reading
Your Top Five Favorite Posts (Most Comments)
1. Schecting a Goat at The Hazon Food Conference
2. Thou Shall Snack - An Interview
3. Hazon Food Conference: The Goat
4. If Your Great Grandmother Wouldn’t Recognize It
5. Will They Wipe Your Chin Too?
Favorite Holiday Posts
1. Seder Con Salsa
2. The Great Matzah Tasting
3. Dip The Apple In The Maple Syrup
4. How Juice Saved My Yom Kippur
5. Canola and Grapeseed and Olive, Oh My! How To Fry This Hanukkah
Tastiest Recipes
1. Bone Warming Winter’s Meal - Peter Berley’s Recipes
2. Heeeeeeeeres Herman!
3. Latke Time
4. Happy Birthday to Us - Chocolate Cake
5. Move Over Rachel Ray
6. In Search of the Perfect Pomegranate Chicken (and Seitan!)
Hot Off the Press
Thanks to The Jew & The Carrot contributor, Jeffrey Yoskowitz, for his great article “Thinking Outside the Bun,” in The New Jersey Jewish News. Read the article here and see the full text below.
Also - check out The Jew & The Carrot’s new “Jcarrot in the News” page.
Thinking Outside the Bun
By: Jeffrey Yoskowitz
New Jersey Jewish Week
12.20.07
I just ate a kosher Whopper from Burger King in Tel Aviv on a soggy, white sesame seed bun that oozed with mayonnaise, tasteless pickles, subpar mustard, and wilted lettuce. I made sure to add an extra packet of ketchup to enhance the flavors of the meat patty.
Israel was ahead in terms of kosher fast food, but the United States is catching up. A kosher Subway has opened in Livingston, one of 15 kosher Subways expected to open this year throughout the United States.
When large corporations take an interest in kosher food, the Jewish community responds with jubilation, a sense of triumph, and an opening of their wallets. More exciting than the typical Jewish products (read: anything made by Manischewitz or Streits) are American products that go kosher.
Two Bites
5-Spoke Creamery - As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, 5-Spoke Creamery is the place to look if you’re looking for raw milk, artisanal, amazingly delicious, and kosher certified (Kof-K) cheese. Now, it seems event the New York Times agrees. Hazon was blessed to have Alan, Barbara, and their kids serving up samples of their delicious cheese - including their recently released, Tumbleweed variety (see left) - at the Food Conference. Click here, to find out where you can get your hands on some.
Lantern Books Essay Contest - Lantern Books - publishers of books on animal advocacy, religion, social justice, and environmentalism announced its 2007 essay competition. The aim of the competition is to allow new thinking to emerge on the key subjects of Lantern’s publishing program and to encourage new voices to step forward to shape the debate for the future.
The first prize is $1000. There is no entry fee. Essays should be no longer than 1500 words. The deadline is December 31, 2007. For complete guidelines, as well as prior years’ winning essays, click here.
Chow Time: Interview with Jane Goldman of Chow
When Jane Goldman founded Chow in 2004, she envisioned a new kind of food magazine: one that eschewed the stodgy, elitest air that typifies the world of gourmet food, and embraced the sense of adventure and joy that can be found baking a pie from scratch, or throwing your first dinner party.
With no formal culinary training herself (but plenty of experience in magazines and media), Goldman knew what her audience of home cooks were looking for: entertaining features, friendly culinary advice, instructional videos, regional restaurant recommendations, and a community board (originally the independent Chowhound) where they could chat with one another about their favorite pastime.
Three years, later, Chow - which more recently converted to an online format - is earning a reputation as the go-to spot for enthusiastic - or simply curious - do-it-yourself foodies.
I spoke with Goldman (who was recently named one of Heeb’s 100 most innovative Jews) about the fun side of food, the emerging community of DIY cooks, and, when it comes to “good chow” - why a good poppyseed hamentashen always trumps a latke.
Read the interview below the jump…
Getting Your Goat - An Interview with Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz
Adamah, Animal Care, Blessings, Books, Cheese, Eco-Kashrut, Events, Farming, Food Conference, Food Writing, Hazon, Holidays, Jewish Culture, Neat Projects, Organic, Personal Story, Sustainability
Margaret Hathaway’s new book, The Year of the Goat
Before embarking on their year-long journey, Hathaway was a freelance writer who managed Magnolia Bakery in New York City, and Schatz worked as a photo editor for Time Magazine’s website. Together, they lived in Brooklyn, shopped at the Greenmarkets, and generally enjoyed city life - but they craved something more than the five boroughs could offer. So, they set off on a year-long journey to discover if farming - and particularly working with goats - held the secrets of the next chapter of their lives.
Along the way, Hathaway and Schatz met what they call, a “vivid cast of characters,” including a myriad of goat cheese and meat enthusiasts, a Texas-born Muslim living in Maine and helping the local Somali community in Lewiston acquire fitting goats for their religious festivals, and a Messianic Jew who keeps Shabbat as well as a herd of goats.
I spoke with Margaret and Karl last week about goats (naturally), their adventures in homesteading, the connection between farming and Jewish tradition, and their upcoming event in NYC, the Goatstravaganza (Nov. 8).
Interview continues below the jump…
