What do parsley, pickles, and charoseth have in common? They constitute the exhaustive list of Jewish foods that fit neatly into a raw food diet. The remaining arsenal of heavy, noodle-egg-and-shmaltz-filled dishes that dominate the world of traditional Jewish cuisine don’t exactly make the cut.
But now - proving that there is indeed an online community for every interest - there is a new Yahoo group for raw foodists who love Jewish food. Members will swap Jewishly-inspired recipes created through vegan and raw techniques. While I can see how borscht and hummus would be fairly straight forward to make raw, I’m having a little trouble wrapping my mind around an uncooked matzah ball…
Check out Jewish Raw Food here.
Photo credit: Judy Pokras “Raw Vegan Potato Latkes and Mock Sour Cream”
National Geographic is known for its compelling articles on the wonders of the ancient and modern world - and also its photographs of bare chested women (the ones that brought a blush to the cheeks of more than one generation of kids.).
Now, National Geographic can also be known as a resource for green living - they’ve launched a new magazine, Green Guide, which they claim is for everyday folks, not “enviromanics.” (ummm…thanks, that makes me feel great about myself).
They’ve also created a series of online quizzes that test one’s knowledge on things like saving gas and plastic recycling, and allow one to find out which “eco-celebrity” they most resemble. Two of the quizzes are food related: Food Safety and Get to Know Your Inner Organic Foodie, so if you’re in the mood for a little wholesome, nerdy fun (beats reading another story about the recall - or staring warily at your hamburger), take a few minutes to test your food savvy.
(hat tip to Slashfood)
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.
Read more »
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:
Read more »
I’ve already posted once today, so sorry for double-dipping, but this is worth posting ASAP:
From the JTS press release:
Dr. David Kraemer, the author of Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages [and 2006 Hazon Food Conference Keynote Speaker], will discuss “Jewish Eating and Jewish Identity” at The Jewish Theological Seminary’s Henry N. Rapaport Memorial Lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, February 4, 2008. The event will take place at JTS, 3080 Broadway (at 122nd Street), New York City.
Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages is the first book ever to explore the history of Jewish eating practices from the Bible to the present, and the first to interpret Jewish eating practices throughout the ages as keys to understanding current Jewish identities.
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.
Read more »
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!
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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Last Sunday Hazon hosted our annual BIG board meeting. The board itself meets four times a year, but January’s meeting is the only time when the staff is invited and everyone is in the same place. It’s kind of a big deal around here.
As with every business meeting these days, serving food is essential - Michael Pollan writes in In Defense of Food, “It is apparently considered gauche at a business meeting or conference if a spread of bagels, muffins, pastries and soft drinks is not provided at frequent intervals.”
What Pollan doesn’t say is that, of all the aspects of a given meeting, food is probably the thing that attendees grumble about most. Maybe the bagels were too hard, the muffins too sticky, and would it have killed them to have herbal tea with the coffee? In the end, it seems getting the food “right” is almost as important as the meeting agenda.
Unfortunately, finding the right food when your organization is committed to health, sustainability and inclusive Jewish community is not particularly straight forward.
Read more »
We’re all familiar with the saying, “you are what you eat.” But two recent articles got me thinking that perhaps this old adage would be better stated, “you are what you think you eat.”
The first is a unnecessarily hateful article called “Extreme Eating” by Joel Stein in this week’s Time magazine. Stein decides to stick it to the “luddite” locavores, by making a meal strictly with ingredients grown 3,000 miles from his Los Angeles home and purchased at Whole Foods. (He must mistakenly believe that locavores revere Whole Foods as some sort of local food Mecca.) Stein writes:
“I want the world to come to me, to see it shrink so small it fits on my plate. I want Maine lobster in broth flavored with Spanish saffron. I want Alaskan salmon, truffles from Europe, a bottle of Beaujolais, a damn pineapple. And I want them much more than I want that carrot you grew in your garden. Because I know you’re going to talk to me for 20 minutes about your carrot.”
I’m not about to fight to the death for locavores or stop supplementing my CSA share with the occasional avocado or grapefruit. And as I’ve said before, there’s bound to be some backlash against sustainable food this year. But Stein’s “distavore” meal is little more than a petulant and obvious attack on a movement that has caused a lot of people to consider more carefully the impact of their food choices.
In his article, Stein likens his meal to one fit for a “European king.” Well, he’s right. European kings were known for cutting off people’s heads to get what they wanted, and in a sense, that’s exactly what his meal (ahem, publicity stunt) accomplished. Read more »
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.
Read more »
(x-posted from my new favorite foodie blog - aside from The Jew & The Carrot of course - Serious Eats.)
Michael Pollan’s Twelve Commandments for Serious Eaters: Can You Live By Them?
Posted by Ed Levine
Here they are, Michael Pollan’s Twelve Commandments for Serious Eaters, from his new book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. As Jamie Forrest noted yesterday, a few food pundits are taking him to task for a number of them. I’m down with most of what brother Pollan is preaching. What about you? These commandments are made to order for serious fat-chewing.
See Pollan’s 12 Commandments below the jump
Read more »
The foodie world has been abuzz about Michael Pollan’s newest book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. Teased by its delicious catch phrase, “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants,” we’ve hungered to sit down with a mug of fair trade hot chocolate and dig in.
Well, it’s out. The Jew & The Carrot review (with a special Jewish twist, of course) is on the way. In the meantime, read an excerpt from the NY Times’ review below, and catch the whole review here.
“Goaded by “the silence of the yams,” Mr. Pollan wants to help old-fashioned edibles fight back. So he has written “In Defense of Food,” a tough, witty, cogent rebuttal to the proposition that food can be reduced to its nutritional components without the loss of something essential. “We know how to break down a kernel of corn or grain of wheat into its chemical parts, but we have no idea how to put it back together again,” he writes.”
And if you’re in the New York area, join Hazon next Tuesday, January 8th for a reception and lecture with Michael Pollan and Dan Barber at the 92nd Street Y. More info.
“You can trace the recent history of Tu B’shevat seders like branches on a tree.” - Nigel Savage, Jerusalem Post, 2004
The Jew & The Carrot Presents: Healthy, Sustainable Tu B’shevat Resources
Click here to peruse The Jew & The Carrot’s Tu B’shevat Resource List, for helpful tips and ideas to create your own Tu B’shevat seder, or celebrate the holiday of the trees in sustainable style. If you have any ideas or tips you’ve picked up from a Tu B’shevat past, please share them below.
