Comments on: What is Jewish Food? http://jcarrot.org/what-is-jewish-food Jews, Food, and Contemporary Issues Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:06:14 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Alla Staroseletskaya http://jcarrot.org/what-is-jewish-food/comment-page-1#comment-20440 Alla Staroseletskaya Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:17:43 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=9732#comment-20440 Dear rabbi Ruth, I would like to talk with you about my future book. I think, you are a right person to talk. My email is alla4you@yahoo.com Thanks Dear rabbi Ruth,

I would like to talk with you about my future book. I think, you are a right person to talk. My email is
alla4you@yahoo.com

Thanks

]]> By: malach hamovess http://jcarrot.org/what-is-jewish-food/comment-page-1#comment-20413 malach hamovess Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:13:22 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=9732#comment-20413 Only 1 Jewish Food: Matza. All else is just a Jewish interpretation of local custom and diet. Our "traditional challah" is quite at home in any fancy bakery in Cracow; pickled herring is favored in countries where Jews are no longer welcome (if they ever really were). Only 1 Jewish Food:
Matza.
All else is just a Jewish interpretation of local custom and diet.

Our “traditional challah” is quite at home in any fancy bakery in Cracow; pickled herring is favored in countries where Jews are no longer welcome (if they ever really were).

]]> By: Jonathan B-K http://jcarrot.org/what-is-jewish-food/comment-page-1#comment-20392 Jonathan B-K Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:49:23 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=9732#comment-20392 Julie, I like hamentaschen with strawberry jam too. Also good is a filling made of black cherry jam and dark chocolate bits. But then chocolate is Jewish, and if it isn't, it should be! ;-) Julie, I like hamentaschen with strawberry jam too. Also good is a filling made of black cherry jam and dark chocolate bits. But then chocolate is Jewish, and if it isn’t, it should be! ;-)

]]> By: Julie Steinberg http://jcarrot.org/what-is-jewish-food/comment-page-1#comment-20391 Julie Steinberg Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:16:11 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=9732#comment-20391 Ruth: I know what you mean about Thanksgiving. I had a friend come over to our house one year and at the end of the meal which of course included stuffed cabbage, pickles, the works, he said as nicely as he could, "You know, sometimes I forget that you are Jewish!". It never occurred to me beforehand that perhaps not everyone elects to stuff the turkey with Challah. Jonathan: I have to disagree on blueberry bagels, but only toasted and with butter. They are a great treat. I also don't mind hamentaschen with strawberry filling :) Ruth: I know what you mean about Thanksgiving. I had a friend come over to our house one year and at the end of the meal which of course included stuffed cabbage, pickles, the works, he said as nicely as he could, “You know, sometimes I forget that you are Jewish!”. It never occurred to me beforehand that perhaps not everyone elects to stuff the turkey with Challah.

Jonathan: I have to disagree on blueberry bagels, but only toasted and with butter. They are a great treat. I also don’t mind hamentaschen with strawberry filling :)

]]> By: Jonathan B-K http://jcarrot.org/what-is-jewish-food/comment-page-1#comment-20390 Jonathan B-K Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:27:21 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=9732#comment-20390 My ethnically Jewish instincts make me recoil in disgust from the blueberry bagel, much as I would from pastrami on white bread with mayo. ;-) My ethnically Jewish instincts make me recoil in disgust from the blueberry bagel, much as I would from pastrami on white bread with mayo. ;-)

]]> By: Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder http://jcarrot.org/what-is-jewish-food/comment-page-1#comment-20389 Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:15:28 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=9732#comment-20389 Hi Jonathan, Thanks so much for the insights. I have to ask, what makes a blueberry bagel out of bounds? Ruth Hi Jonathan,

Thanks so much for the insights.
I have to ask, what makes a blueberry bagel out of bounds?

Ruth

]]> By: Jonathan B-K http://jcarrot.org/what-is-jewish-food/comment-page-1#comment-20388 Jonathan B-K Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:11:45 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=9732#comment-20388 Ruth, this is great! At the risk of sounding flippant, here are my answers to your ?s, 1) No, a blueberry bagel is not Jewish, it's goyish (in the sense of Lenny Bruce's classic comic routine). 2) Ham and cheese on matzah is definitely more Jewish than kosher sushi. It so much better exemplifies the chutzpah characteristic of the way we Jews violate our own rules. 3) Yes and no. Prescriptions in Jewish texts, contexts, and intentions all seem to have something to do with making food "Jewish." In that sense, even kosher sushi would be very Jewish to me, since there's an intention to make something that something that could be trayf according to Jewish prescriptions accommodate Jewish law. Then there's the miserable experience that my wife and I (who keep a kosher home - eat out vegetarian, kosher fish) once had going to an well known Italian restaurant in Providence whose chef touted his specialty was the cuisine of the Jews of Italy. We couldn't eat anything there, even the dishes marked "Jewish." They There was nothing vegetarian, the meat of course was not from a kosher butcher, and all the fish dishes were non-kosher seafood. Our "favorite" of the dishes we couldn't eat was the "Venetian style calamari [squid] alla giudia." There was something perverse to us about marketing food as "Jewish" when there was nothing on the menu that a kashrut-observing Jew could actually eat. Granted, not all "Jewish" food is kosher (much of it technically is not), but at least some of food served and labeled as such should be e Bottom line: There is both halakhically "Jewish" food (kosher), and culturally "Jewish" food (what Jews actually eat and prepare as a self-conscious expression of their Jewish identity), and I get annoyed when I'm served a meal where I can't eat any of the latter. Ruth, this is great! At the risk of sounding flippant, here are my answers to your ?s, 1) No, a blueberry bagel is not Jewish, it’s goyish (in the sense of Lenny Bruce’s classic comic routine). 2) Ham and cheese on matzah is definitely more Jewish than kosher sushi. It so much better exemplifies the chutzpah characteristic of the way we Jews violate our own rules. 3) Yes and no. Prescriptions in Jewish texts, contexts, and intentions all seem to have something to do with making food “Jewish.” In that sense, even kosher sushi would be very Jewish to me, since there’s an intention to make something that something that could be trayf according to Jewish prescriptions accommodate Jewish law. Then there’s the miserable experience that my wife and I (who keep a kosher home – eat out vegetarian, kosher fish) once had going to an well known Italian restaurant in Providence whose chef touted his specialty was the cuisine of the Jews of Italy. We couldn’t eat anything there, even the dishes marked “Jewish.” They There was nothing vegetarian, the meat of course was not from a kosher butcher, and all the fish dishes were non-kosher seafood. Our “favorite” of the dishes we couldn’t eat was the “Venetian style calamari [squid] alla giudia.” There was something perverse to us about marketing food as “Jewish” when there was nothing on the menu that a kashrut-observing Jew could actually eat. Granted, not all “Jewish” food is kosher (much of it technically is not), but at least some of food served and labeled as such should be e

Bottom line: There is both halakhically “Jewish” food (kosher), and culturally “Jewish” food (what Jews actually eat and prepare as a self-conscious expression of their Jewish identity), and I get annoyed when I’m served a meal where I can’t eat any of the latter.

]]> By: Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder http://jcarrot.org/what-is-jewish-food/comment-page-1#comment-20384 Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:38:31 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=9732#comment-20384 Hi Julie, My thoughts exactly, questions about Jewish food do get to some of the core issues about what it means to be Jewish. A Canadian, the first time I was asked to bring something to American Thanksgiving, I brought matzah ball soup -my idea of something festive- and was laughed at all night. Time and place certainly do shift what is appropriate. Ruth Hi Julie,

My thoughts exactly, questions about Jewish food do get to some of the core issues about what it means to be Jewish.

A Canadian, the first time I was asked to bring something to American Thanksgiving, I brought matzah ball soup -my idea of something festive- and was laughed at all night. Time and place certainly do shift what is appropriate.

Ruth

]]> By: Julie Steinberg http://jcarrot.org/what-is-jewish-food/comment-page-1#comment-20379 Julie Steinberg Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:28:37 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=9732#comment-20379 These are great questions and they get to a larger issue of what is Jewish? Is it culture, kashrut, tradition, family, geography? I think the answer is all of the above, and therefore the answer to your questions depends on each individual and their personal Jewish experience. I like to call it Jewish relativism, all puns intended. One other thing to consider is how foods interact with each other. For example, when I think brisket, I think Rosh Hashanah, which also means stuffed cabbage, mushroom barley soup, etc. For Passover I think matzo ball soup and gefilte fish. And who can make the hottest horse radish competitions. There is something about seeing the individual dishes as part of a larger meal or menu that defines them as Jewish, at least for me. These are great questions and they get to a larger issue of what is Jewish? Is it culture, kashrut, tradition, family, geography? I think the answer is all of the above, and therefore the answer to your questions depends on each individual and their personal Jewish experience. I like to call it Jewish relativism, all puns intended.

One other thing to consider is how foods interact with each other. For example, when I think brisket, I think Rosh Hashanah, which also means stuffed cabbage, mushroom barley soup, etc. For Passover I think matzo ball soup and gefilte fish. And who can make the hottest horse radish competitions. There is something about seeing the individual dishes as part of a larger meal or menu that defines them as Jewish, at least for me.

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