I just finished reading this article in today’s Chronicle, and immediately had to post it. What a great idea to get urban kids interested not only in sustainable agriculture, but how they should be feeding themselves. Check it out.
Cooking, Farmer's Markets, Farming, Food Writing, Health, Jewish Culture, Judaism, On The Web, Personal Story, Restaurants, Seasonality, Shabbos Meals, Spirituality, Sustainability, Television, The Carrot, The JewRecently, a friend asked me if I was a foodie, a question which caught me thinking quite a while for an accurate response. “Well, I used to be” was the only thing I could think of. Reflecting back on that answer, I found myself questioning what and how I eat and how that differs from what one many think of when they think of a foodie.
Typically your average culinary fan tends to place a high value on taste and other palate-based pleasures. Different tastes and cuisines are prized and much is made of importance of the finest ingredients. Star chefs, award-winning cookbooks, and the finest tools become things to live for. But, I like food. I like to eat good food. What makes me feel that I am different that this? I pondered this and came to the conclusion that perspective was key.
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The first kabbalistic restaurant in the world is in…Ft. Lauderdale? And run by a Chabad rabbi?
Cafe Emunah is, says The Forward, a new beachfront restaurant in this South Florida city is billing itself as the country’s first kabbalistic restaurant which has already distinguished itself with its holistic approach to kosher food — combining organic chic with a dash of Jewish mysticism.
Jewish food in America doesn’t have a high gastronomic reputation. Criticized for stringy meat and starchy, schmaltzy sides, the censure is to some degree well earned. The peasant food of Eastern European immigrants reflects the landscape and lives from which it came – the winters were long, the vegetables few, and meat was left on the hob from sundown to sundown.
Yet Jewish cuisine is fixed in the American dietary consciousness via the kosher delis of yore, despite a reputation for gummy brown food. You can find a bagel anywhere in America. (Price Chopper carries bacon and egg bagels.) Corned Beef and Pastrami are in every supermarket in Minnesota. Matzo balls have made their way to Hawaii.
In America’s Great Delis, author Sheryll Bellman provides a timeline for deli culture, starting at 6000 BC when hunter gatherers boil water, which she declares the birthday of borscht. (Borscht Belt humor, thankfully, has not made it too far past the Catskills.) In a book that is lovingly produced with archival photos and the occasional recipe, Bellman pays homage to the transmission of Jewish culture through deli food.
Animal Care, Community Agri., Farming, Leftovers, NYTimes, Obesity, Organic, Restaurants, School Food, Seasonality, Sustainability, Wine
Any doubts that humane, healthy, organic and local are the dominant food trends? Witness today’s NYTimes dining:
Assuming the dining section is one step behind the curve, reporting peaking trends rather than coming ones, what do you think will be next? Where will sustainability take our plates tomorrow?
[NYTimes]
Are the people who serve your fries getting sick leave? Does your barista get paid for overtime? Are the dishwashers getting paid minimum wage?
The folks at Bema’agalei Tzedek are working to make sure that everyone entering a public eatery in Israel can answer these questions. Their social seal program, which is active in five Israeli cities, takes the idea of fair trade one step further, assesses the whether or not a restaurant or catering hall is living up to its social responsibilities towards it employees and patrons. The social seal sticker makes it easy for customers to do a quick ethical check before they scan the menu. Read more »
Disgruntled former masgiach to theatre district kosher favorite, Le Marais, has a rockstar past, the NYPost reports:
April 16, 2007 — He was European rockin’ royalty until he saw the light of the rebbe. Now Isaac Bitton’s former bosses at Le Marais, a French kosher steakhouse in Manhattan, may use his fast-living past against him in their $10 million lawsuit denouncing allegations they failed to maintain a kosher kitchen.
In his youth, Bitton was famous as Jacky Bitton, the drummer for Les Variations, a hard-rock band that topped France’s music charts and played on bills with 1970s supergroups Aerosmith, Kiss and Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
More recently, Bitton was a mashgiach, or kosher supervisor, at Le Marais. After he quit the job last month, he posted a blog accusing the restaurant’s chef of allowing bugs in the salad and permitting non-kosher margarine and shellfish in the kitchen.
[NYPost]
Recipe for 1980s New York Style Sesame Noodle (courtesy NYTimes Magazine)
In an article that is launching an occasional series in the San Francisco Chronicle’s dining section about food consciousness, it was reported yesterday that Alice Waters is jumping on the anti-bottled water bandwagon. Some of our fine dining establishments, it seems, have found alternative ways to offer sparkling water that does not have to be flown here from Italy. Of course we have many local brands, like Calistoga, but the article reports that California brands tend to be more carbonated than their European sisters.
Where should you go when you want to eat a healthy, local, sustainable, socially responsible meal in a restaurant?
The Green Restaurant Association certifies restaurants according to a strict set of environmental guidelines.
The Chefs Collaborative is a national network promoting local, artisinal, sustainable and socially responsible cusine amongst food professionals.
Prizes for the first kosher restaurant to make either list.
[Ed note: the prize is already awarded! Come May, some 200 Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Co. shops, all kosher certified, will have met the standards for GRA certification.]
