“Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.” - Anthony Bourdain, “Kitchen Confidential,” p. 70

Tell us how you really feel, Anthony!

Of course, vegetarians and vegan chefs were not about to take this crude, carnivorous cri de coeur lying down, and thus was born Hezbollah Tofu, a blog where vegan chefs are systematically veganizing chef Bourdain’s most celebrated recipes. They plan on selling the resulting compilation, and donating the proceeds to vegan causes (farm sanctuaries, public education, etc) in Bordain’s name. Take that, Anthony!

This topic brings up a whole host of questions for me, as a Jew and as a self-professed foodie who also strives to eat sustainably (although not regularly animal-product free):

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Thanks to Elena Sigman for this guest post.

My Tante Toni (may her memory be a sweet blessing) made a dish for Purim, called noun, which I haven’t seen since the 70s. It was my favorite treat at her house: a plate of sweet, sticky pieces of noun cut in the shape of diamonds about one-and-a-half inches long. I guessed it was made of honey and chopped nuts and dates, but I was never sure of the recipe. It was dark brown and chewy and even though it was super-sweet it was also somehow tangy. The plate was passed around the table at the end of our Purim seudah, and it was quickly finished. The batches were never big.

Tante Toni had blue eyes that were two different colors because one was hers and the other was glass. The glass eye was bluer and bigger and her real eye was smaller and more hazel. At home in the evening, she wore a hairnet in order to preserve her coiffure from erev Shabbos, after she came home from the beauty parlor, until the next Friday morning when she’d get her hair done again. She was a smart, compact woman, barely taller than my child self, but she walked with a spine so straight no runway model could match it. She never tried to make chit chat with me. When I was a kid I would occasionally sleep over at her apartment on Friday night. After dinner she read the B’nai Brith Messenger cover to cover in her high-backed chair, and I read my book (Agatha Christie mysteries one year, Pearl S. Buck novels the next) on the couch until the Shabbos clock clicked off the light.

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Tradition, shmadition, I hate poppy seed hamantaschen. I find this old-world filling to be gritty and saccharine and really just a vile affront to the taste buds. So when a friend suggested bringing a can of the corn syrup-laden stuff to my recent hamantaschen-making party, I kindly (but firmly) let her know that my home is mohn-free.

I don’t think she missed it too much. My kitchen table was strewn with interesting pots of jam (cherry-apricot from the farmers’ market, and blueberry canned last summer by the Adamah fellows), a container of raw honey, another of Nutella, and even a jar of peanut butter brought by a friend who insisted it could be great (it was).

But the highlight of the evening, without a doubt, centered around our experiments with savory hamantaschen - pockets of dough filled with an earthy mixture of sauteed mushrooms, browned onions, and a garlic and basil-infused jack cheese by the Sugar River Cheese Co.  As we bit in to the warm, herb-flecked treats, it felt like something of a Jewish food revolution. Poppy seeds, watch your back.

Photos and recipe below the jump…

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Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the New York Times published “I Love You, but You Love Meat” - an article that explores how dietary differences between couples impact their relationship - for better or for worse.  When it comes to eating with loved ones, the article suggests we all just need to be a little more “flexitarian.”

My boyfriend and I are included in this story - he’s strictly kosher and I’m a vegetarian.  See if you can spot us!  And let us know - how does food impact YOUR relationships?

I Love You, but You Love Meat
The New York Times
By: Kate Murphy

SOME relationships run aground on the perilous shoals of money, sex or religion. When Shauna James’s new romance hit the rocks, the culprit was wheat.

“I went out with one guy who said I seemed really great but he liked bread too much to date me,” said Ms. James, 41, a writer in Seattle who cannot eat gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.

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(Hat tip to Jewschool .)

I believe in dinner plate feng shui.  There comes a time, right before dinner, when I take a few moments to select just the right plate or bowl on which to nestle the food I’ve made.**  (Since many of the dishes in my cupboard hail from Goodwill and/or roommates’ collections, I have any number of styles and patterns to choose from.)  

Now the folks at the decidedly non Jewish company, “Feed on the Word,” have added a whole different component into the mix of choices: Scripture Tableware.  As Danya at Jewschool wrote:

“…Several of the themed collections (at least “Praise,” “Psalms,” “Patriotic” and a few of the serving dishes) are comprised of all Old Testament pasukim, so maybe this could be a nice way to differentiate between milk and meat dishes.”

Here are the verses found on the “Praise” collection:

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From 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.

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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: 

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 I lived in Oregon for two years (the defunct hippie enclave of Eugene to be exact), so before any of you west coast readers get all up in arms over what I’m about to say, just remember I’m a sympathetic member of the tribe.

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.

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(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 (thanks Mom!), I’ve started to wonder, “what makes food feel Jewish?”

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.

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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 has already joined its predecessor, The Omnivore’s Dilemma as a New York Times Best Seller. Pollan is in the middle of his second whirlwind book tour in two years (I guess he sleeps on the plane) – and I hear the same account every where he goes. Huge venue, sold out show, knockout performance.

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?

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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.

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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.

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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?

Oh Jewschool, you all are so sweet! :)  We feel exactly the same way….

Jewschool’s Picks for Best of 2007
by Kol Ra’ash Gadol · 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