The deli has been in the spotlight these days thanks to the work of  David Sax.  You  may have read Joan Nathan’s piece in the New York Times about David’s upcoming book, Save the Deli, a call to action to revive deli culture.  Deli has been in most newspapers and on the radio now and is  the talk of the town in a way it hasn’t been since its golden years thanks to one man with a mission.

Early on for the Jew and the Carrot Leah Koenig wrote a post about David’s deli zeal during David’s journey to eat at delis around the world (which he also chronicled on his blog), and now the Jew and the Carrot is eager to announce a deli contest in the book’s honor. The winner will receive a free copy of Save the Deli.

Just leave us a comment on this post about your most memorable deli meal or experience and your name could be drawn to win a copy of his book.  Last day to leave a comment is Thursday October 22nd and the winner will be contacted the next day.

And while we’re on the subject, the Save the Deli book launch will be held this Monday at Ben’s Kosher Delicatessen.  It will be a great time with remarkable deli kitsch.

After 70 years of publication, Conde Nast is ceasing publication of Gourmet magazine, while maintaining its support of Bon Appetit magazine.  As with many (most?) corporate decisions, it was a precipitous one, announced to its staff on Monday just as the November issue was off the presses.

As an immigrant to this country, I learned about the cultural rituals of my new country through the Girls Scouts manual– obtained from my small, neighborhood library, another American treasure– and later on, the pages of the food magazines.  The National Geographic was too arcane for me, but Bon Appetit broadened my cultural horizons past my family’s tenement apartment in New York’s Chinatown.  It showed me what people really do eat in their own homes and how to prepare their dishes.  It gave me a cultural passport, even before I could afford to travel on my own salary.

You can take kids out of the sukkah, but you can’t take the sukkah out of the kids.  Katja Goldman, author of The Empire Kosher Chicken Cookbook - a book described as changing “the way you think about the kosher kitchen”-   had a dilemma.  Her young twins were not feeling well, too sick to travel, and too sick for the sukkah. As the symptoms worsened it was clear that their freshly-baked challah would be traveling alone to the family sukkah.  Katja, a woman who understands the kitchen’s direct link to a child’s soul, immediately recognized that her children must not be deprived of their treasured sukkah experience.  So they baked one. 

Photo courtesy of Nina Barnett

My love affair with kale actually began in the winter when, desperate for a fresh vegetable I began searching for something in season.  When we began to thaw out admittedly my head was turned by the fresh younger spring vegetables, and I nearly forgot about the deep green leafy goodness I had been putting in my winter soups until one week my CSA box said “one pound baby kale.”

Um, how interesting. What does one do with baby kale? I asked the all-knowing conduit of helpful hints, recipes and if nothing else good suggestions – Google.  The search results mostly suggested I put it into salads but then came recipes for braised baby kale – which basically sounded like tossing the little guys in some olive oil then baking them.

A group of Jewish food lovers, a spread of delectable dishes, and milkshakes made of laughter. If it were possible for one afternoon to be too good, this is where it would start.

A group of Jew & the Carrot writers, editors, and friends faced the risk—overflowing goodness and all—this past Sunday. Of course, it all started with the food. I arrived at host Avigail’s Clinton Hill, Brooklyn apartment to find hand-layered ratatouille swirling from the center of a clay baking dish, crusty homemade beer bread, a cake topped with the purple velvet of baked plums, aromatic rosemary bread, peach-basil salad, and made-from-scratch yogurt. That alone nearly tipped the scales to the side of the too good. Did I mention that we washed this down with homemade sparkling ginger-grapefruit juice? Spiked with gin?

When it comes to romantic relationships, I’m emotionally inept. Well, that’s probably not fair – it’s more like I’m expressively inept. Maybe it comes from the plenitude of lousy dates or the abundance of bad relationships that makes me hold my tongue when it comes to talking about my feelings. And it probably doesn’t help that my current boyfriend is really shy. Although we hold hands in public as if they were magnetic, he’ll put his arms around me if I’m cold, he is much coyer than I about stealing a kiss in a dark movie theatre or other apparent PDA while amongst polite company. In turn I am more likely to describe myself as “a women in love” to friends, strangers and blog readers than I am to drop the “L” word around him. But I’m fairly certain he knows how much I care from the meals we eat together.

So you’ve just opened your CSA box to an unfamiliar sight—a strange-looking bulb with long leaves sprouting every which way. After asking Google, your hippie aunt, two of your neighbors and a guy in line with you at Trader Joe’s, you finally figure out that the mystery plant is called kohlrabi. Great… now what do you do with the giant bag of it in your fridge?

Jared Koch, author.

Like any good narcissist, I’m a sucker for a self help book. Particularly those sweet tongue-in-cheek manuals sitting near the counter at B&N. Those slim volumes seem to promise a schematic for your life: how to dress, date, survive a bear attack, and of course, eat. Clean Plates N.Y.C. fits the bill neatly. But unlike those “Survival Guides,” this is a self help book with a mission: to help its readers eat healthy and yummy meals in NYC.

Thanks so much to Rachel Bergstein for this great cross-post from the Green Profit.  Since her summer camp counselor explained in detail to a 14-year-old Rachel how the dairy industry ravages the environment, she has been awkwardly obsessed with sustainable food.  Today, Rachel and dairy are in a complicated relationship, based on a simultaneous love of cheese and concern for sustainability and environmental justice.  Rachel is a 2009 graduate of the University of Maryland, a New Israel Fund 2009 Social Justice Fellow, and a contributor to Green Prophet.

Photos courtesy of Jamie R. Liu

Noah Dan has not forgotten the tastes of his childhood.  He remembers eating brara, the fruits and vegetables bursting with incredible flavor but too “ugly” to package for sale in the cities, on Kibbutz Givat Brenner, where he was born and raised.  He also remembers eating creamy, homemade gelato in Trieste, Italy where he spent summers with his Italian grandparents.

Now a resident of the Washington DC area, Noah is the founder and CEO of Pitango Gelato.  Pitango, whose namesake is a variety of cherry that grows wild in Israel, recently opened two new shops in Washington, DC and Reston, Virginia after a successful first run in Baltimore, Maryland.  In his attempt to reproduce the gelato of his childhood, Noah has found a way to build a business that is sustainable, conscientious, and produces a very high-end product without the use of chemicals or artificial additives.

Thanks so much to Rachel Harkham for this great Guest Post.  Rachel is a mother of three, wife of one, living in Rockland County, NY. She keeps a food blog that records her life, times and the dishes that went with it. Her articles on uncomplicated, tasty, and  health-conscious recipes can be found in the About Our Children insert in the Bergen County Jewish Standard.  Rachel’s alter ego Roxy Chocsmith, is responsible for the fanciful and outlandish chocolate creations found on RoxyChocSmith.com.  And in her spare time Rachel teaches cooking and baking for kids at the local day school and at the local JCC.

This morning I woke up to bright sunshine and fresh air.   Even before the usual morning go around with the kids, I was thinking of what to make for dinner.   As I prepared their breakfasts of cold cereal and cold milk, I regretted  this most important meal’s lack of warmth.  A vision of oven-baked sun- yellow corn muffins, flicked through my mind as I placed the white bowls of crunchy brown squares in front of them.

“I’m not going to the supermarket today” I remind myself later that morning as I take stock of the fridge.  Supermarket once a week, twice max- is my new resolution in order to save time, and, more importantly money.   I pause on a package of sliced nova. Then I look for the eggs- I know I bought a new carton the other day. Locate them, open up to find all twelve eggs -but curse the last two cracked ones.   A feeling of mild triumph, like fitting the right word into a crossword puzzle, alights when I know what I’m making for dinner tonight.  Monday-first day of the week, June 1st  the first day of the month. I want to begin fresh and light and cool with smoked salmon egg salad and corn muffins.

There is a cheesecake sitting in my (boyfriend’s) refrigerator right now. At some point late last week I got it in my head that with Shavuot just around the corner I should make a cheesecake. Since I’m doing a time-share with my boyfriend’s kitchen, permission had to be granted by the relevant roommates, which was how I found myself late last night remembering how much I disliked baking.

But I’m terribly sentimental about food and of course my cheesecake comes with a story…

Thanks so much to Jessica Miller for this great cross-post from Jewcy.  Jessica is a former Jewcy Editorial Intern. She currently studies religion and English at Barnard College, right now spending most of her time working on her senior thesis, which involves Sufi saints, Muslim tombs, and the prophet Daniel.

Living close to San Mateo, CA, the artichoke producing capital of the US, I am lucky. For months, the delicious, complicated, decadent vegetables have appeared faithfully at my nearby farmer’s market. I usually steam them and eat the leaves plain, or possibly dipped in butter-garlic sauce. Or, if my fiance mixes up a dipping sauce of mayo and mustard, I may dip a few in there. But mostly I just eat them plain, enjoying the complex green vegetable taste.

Then I read Out of the Kitchen Adventures of a Food Writer by Jeannette Ferrary.

Thanks to our good friends at Jewcy.com for this great tip and cross-post. Lilit Marcus, the author of the post was pretty uncertain about pastrami burritos, so let her know what you think.

Cinco de Mayo may be a holiday about Mexican Independence, but that doesn’t stop Americans from celebrating it as an ode to tacos, pinatas, and copious drinking. Well, if you live in New York, an establishment called Tequilaville (I’d make a Jimmy Buffett joke, but not enough Southerners are on this website to find it funny) on Vanderbilt Avenue between 42nd and 43rd streets is giving away pastrami burritos and kosher tequila. The tequila, Agave 99, is produced in Mexico under the supervision of a rabbi.