(x-posted at Lilith)
* To clear up any confusion - the picture at left is not me! See below for details…
So, my boyfriend came to Chicago with me for Thanksgiving dinner. Although he’s met my parents before, this was the first time he’d ever visited the town where I spent the first 18 years of my life. Overall, the trip and meal went smoothly, but as expected there were some sticky moments. Like when my boyfriend and parents agreed it would be just the most wonderful idea to watch my bat-mitzvah video!
We gathered around the television and watched as visions of my painfully pre-teen self flashed across the screen. On the one hand, I enjoyed this trip down Jewish milestone lane. Although I’d love to forget the braces, the awkward limbs, and bad hair-cut of my adolescense, I was also proud. I enjoyed the opportunity to root for this miniature version of myself and imagine that the “little Leah” could sense the loving presence of her future self, watching as she chanted the haftorah. I also loved the way the video made my parents smile and my boyfriend say, “wow, you were really great!”
On the other hand, it turns out there’s nothing like a little backward glance to shake the foundation of your current reality.
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Jewish Grandmas are known for their special gift for feeding - and over feeding - their loved ones. But for Jill Ginsberg (second from right), her Grandma Rose not only filled her belly with chicken soup, rugelach, and blintzes - she also sparked Jill’s entrepreneurial spirit.
In 2005, Ginsberg founded Thou Shall Snack - a line of kosher snacks products that recreate traditional Jewish recipes, while giving them a decidedly contemporary twist (they’re kosher as well as baked, free of trans fats and genetically modified ingredients, and made with 70% organic ingredients). Read an interview with Jill below and answer this question for a chance to win a special gift basket from Thou Shall Snack: What is your all-time favorite Jewish comfort food? The gift basket contains an assortment of Latke Crisps and Babka Bites from Thou Shall Snack, a custom apron and/or T-shirt, and a beautiful latke serving platter.
LK: How did you come up with the original idea for Thou Shall Snack?
JG: The first time I got the idea for Latke Crisps was after I heard of my friend’s Jewish beer company, HeBrew Beer. I thought, someone better make some latke crisps to go with that beer! It was really more of a lark in the moment, but it ended up becoming our first product.
[I also realized] there were a lot of other ethnic-inspired snack foods out there, which got me thinking about the Jewish foods I grew up eating. I began to wonder why no one had done something like this before.
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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…
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Laura Frankel is not your typical kosher chef. For those of who have been reading her recent posts, she has little tolerance for fake foods and refuses to kowtow to clients who demand kosher versions of otherwise unkosher food. I recently had the opportunity to sit and chat with her about her thoughts on food and the nature of food in Jewish society.
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Congratulations to Shahar Peer, who became the first Israeli woman to reach the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open by defeating Agnieszka Radwanska last night in the fourth round.
Unfortunately, the reporting of Peer’s accomplishment in the Times threatened to incite an international food-incident, when reporter Karen Crouse referred to Peer being “as at home as pastrami between two slices of rye bread” amongst all the Israeli fans at Flushing Meadows.
As an article in New York Magazine correctly (if snarkily) noted, Katz’s Deli is not the official cuisine of the Jewish people - especially not Sabras!! Now, if she had written that Shahar had felt as at home as a fried chickpea surrounded by tahini sauce, well, it still would have been ridiculous, but at least more culinarily accurate.
Best of luck to Peer, and if she drinks enough Kaballah Energy Drink, I’m sure she’ll do great in her match against Anna Chakvetadze tomorrow.
The secret to the feminist revolution is in a vegan cupcake.
Brooklyn born, Isa Moskowitz, is the founder and co-host of the Post Punk Kitchen, a public access cooking show that features recipes like sushi, coconut cream pie, and matzoh ball soup, all sans meat, dairy, eggs, honey, and other animal products.”
Despite its niche focus, PPK became a hit, and Moskowitz has enjoyed the attention of animal-welfare magazines like Satya, as well as slightly more, ahem, mainstream publications (e.g. The Washington Post and The New York Times). Building on PPK’s success, Moskowitz and her co-host Terry Hope Romero launched a website with a recipe archive and an almost unbelievably active forum that connects ostracized pink-haired teenagers and vegan feminists from around the globe. The website claims: “All we believe in is punk rock and tofu.” Cute, but I have to wonder what Ms. Moskowitz thinks of all the food miles her heavily-processed tofu products have traveled….
Read the full post over at Lilith Magazine’s blog where I write about women and food.
Photo of the pistachio rosewater cupcake originally from the: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World Blog
Food it seems, is quite the hot topic these days. Some people are learning more about sustainable agriculture, some are learning to bake or roast vegetables for the first time. Some are exploring their connection to their cultural roots through food, while others are learning about the 2007 Food Bill or really excited about food’s medicinal properties of certain herbs, or interested in finding out more about Jewish tradition’s connection to agriculture and what the laws of kashrut mean (or don’t mean) for them.
The Jew and the Carrot seeks to broaden and deepen the conversation on all of these fronts. We also get really excited to hear that other publications are starting to take interest in food and eating. To that end, Jewish feminist publication, Lilith Magazine, has recently started a blog of their own and asked me to write a weekly column for them on - no surprise - Food is a Jewish Feminist Issue.
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