Just another kosher weblog

Celebrate Passover and Earth Day at the same time? Yes, you can! You can be green while enjoying all the traditions. Remember, Passover includes cleaning out the old and starting fresh. Just by ridding your home of excess, that is, allowing yourself and your environment to ‘breathe’, you have done at least one small thing to ‘improve your world’.

When we look at Passover as a celebration of being “set free”, we can apply this toward being also “set free” from things and possessions that tend to ‘clog up’ our lives. Freedom is a great feeling, but comes with a responsibility to take care of who we are, where we live, and the world we leave behind. Today, we deal with the plagues of climate issues and the such, things that really affect us all.

So enjoy Passover, but don’t pass over the chance to go the extra step and look at who you are and where you live. It’s those little things that really add up to help create a better world. Don’t take for granted what you have been given! Giving back is the perspective of living green. And don’t forget: “The less you have, the less you have to clean up!”

1: Just a reminder…

2: A Few Of My Favorite Passover Things
(Sung to the tune of “These are a few of my favorite things”)

Cleaning and cooking and so many dishes
Out with the hametz, no pasta, no knishes
Fish that’s gefillted, horseradish that stings
These are a few of our passover things.

Matzoh and karpas and chopped up haroset
Shankbones and kiddish and yiddish neuroses
Tante who kvetches and uncle who sings
These are a few of our Passover things.

Motzi and maror and trouble with Pharoahs
Famines and locusts and slaves with wheelbarrows
Matzah balls floating and eggshell that cling
These are a few of our Passover things.

When the plagues strike
When the lice bite
When we’re feeling sad
We simply remember our Passover things
And then we don’t feel so bad.

3: And if you wanted a different song in your head for all of Passover, here you go!

5: Time to get your Passover groove on!

4: Just watch and learn!

6: It’s all about your point of view
A little boy once returned home from Hebrew school and his father asked, “what did you learn today?” He answered, “The Rabbi told us how Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt.”
“How?”
The boy said “Moses was a big strong man and he beat Pharaoh up. Then while he was down, he got all the people together and ran towards the sea. When he got there, he has the Corps of Engineers build a huge pontoon bridge. Once they got on the other side, they blew up the bridge while the Egyptians were trying to cross.”
The father was shocked. “Is that what the Rabbi taught you?”
The boy replied, “No. But you’d never believe the story he DID tell us!”

7: “A brush with the law and a burning bush”

8: Cleaning for Passover means you go ALL OUT!!

During the past five years, kosher cheeses have passed beyond the basic varieties. No longer are there just a few choices, but so much more now that there has been an increase in all the kinds available. After waiting for years for kosher cheese to be on par with nonkosher kinds, consumers now have plenty to choose from. And because of the surge of competition, kosher cheese sometimes gets more attention from customers who don’t even eat kosher.

Israel and Europe export many exotic flavors of cheeses, and this has added to the growth of choices now available. It seems as if lately this ‘cheese rivalry’ has created an explosion of the kinds of quality kosher cheese. Cheese makers are adding spices and flavors to their kosher cheese, and selling cheeses to all markets, not just kosher consumers alone. This would include vegetarians and upscale restaurants, looking for quality in taste and purity in the product.

The word is getting out that kosher cheese is gaining strength as a growing trend. People are getting educated, and are willing to pay a little more in order to get a lot more. In return, they get more choices and higher quality kosher cheese that they can enjoy. Kosher certified cheese is making a real run for popularity lately and the demand is rising. And cheese makers are meeting that demand now that they have found that selling kosher really sets their product apart.

The tears that flow cannot be subsided, and children wail in despair. Who knew that such a loss would destroy the very souls of our Generation? The loss, of course, is that Tam Tams, the perennial bite-sized matzo favorite for years upon years, will not be available for this Passover season. The producer of these tasty crackers, Manischewitz, is unable to produce this delectable variety of product.

Although many fans of the zesty munchable snack are grieving, others are giving up on what it means to enjoy this crispy treat. Most are just walking around the house in a somber daze, waiting for a sign that their favorite noshable joy just might wind up on shelves in the next few weeks. The root of this loss of flavor apparently comes down to production issues in the plant that makes them in New Jersey, specifically, a state of the art, mult-million dollar, delicious Tam Tam baking oven just didn’t come online in time to meet the seasonal demands.

People are learning to cope with the loss, but it will not be easy. What legacy will this non-enjoyment leave? It is unclear what enduring hopelessness the lovers of this morsel will endure in the next few months. How some will try to replace their Tam Tams is still yet undetermined, but still dissapointment prevails for those who would give anything for just one, small, yummy bite. The Tri-State will miss you this year, Tam Tams. See you next year. Until then, why not try another one of the many matzo crackers available at Kosher.com!

(Last chance to eat challah for a while )
With the Passover season rapidly approaching, the kosher world is thinking about food and preparation. Have a look at some of our favorite kosher videos online!

His first visit to a kosher McDonald’s

This kid just wants you to eat your kosher!

MATZA FACTORY!

Crank that Kosher Boy!

Feed Me Bubbe!

This guy insists that his food be kosher, no exceptions!

And one more just for fun: Whasssup? SHALOM!

Click here for a bonus cartoon straight from kosher.com!

America’s cultural and ethnic confusion is continuing - and it behooves the kosher consumer to be careful.

A popular restaurant and musical night spot in Virginia Beach, more than 30 years old, is called The Jewish Mother. Performers over the years have included Richie Havens, Dave Mason, Leon Russell, Dave Mathews, Hootie & The Blow Fish, and Bruce Hornsby.  It serves a Jewish-style (but decidedly unkosher) menu. A local southern Virgina jazz combo, Big Wide Grin, has just held a CD release performance at The Jewish Mother for its new Christmas album, Big Wide Holiday Grin.

Balducci’s, the gourmet delicatessen and grocery store in Greenwich Village, New York, was recently caught red-faced by a blogger who photographed a sign in the store advertising “Delicious for Chanukah” Boneless Spiral Ham. The tempest in a trafe pan spread through the mainstream media, and Balducci’s was caught quite unprepared to explain its hamhanded treatment of the holidays.

For truly kosher meat, better stick with Kosher.com.

It may not offer only kosher fare, but Zabar’s delicatessen in New York City’s Upper West Side played a significant role in recent decades in lifting the image of traditional Jewish food from the ordinary to the gourmet.

The reason we’re thinking about this now is because of the recent death of Murray Klein (z”l), a part-owner of Zabar’s, and the man most visible to the public in that store, now a New York institution.

In the days following his December 6 death at 84, the praise for Klein came pouring in from foodies worldwide.

Zabar’s was in part responsible for creating the notion that Jewish foods can also be gourmet, the trade newsletter Kosher Today said.

“That one little Yiddishe store had an effect on the way people ate all over America, and it was really because of him,” Steven Fass, an importer, told the New York Times.

Klein was born in a Jewish town in the Soviet Union near the Romanian border. His parents and five siblings all died in Nazi concentration camps, and he ended up in a Soviet labor camp. Klein spent time in a displaced persons camp in Italy before making it to the United States. He even worked in Europe for the Irgun, a Jewish guerrilla movement that helped smuggle arms to pre-state Palestine.

He joined Zabar’s as a stockman and worked with - and occasionally against - the Zabar family for the next 40 years, winding up as a co-owner of the store when he retired in 1994.

So, now, when you see upper-scale gourmet kosher restaurants such as Levana in New York or A Cow Jumped Over The Moon in Beverly Hills, as well as the gourmet kosher items here on Kosher.com, you can thank Murray Klein and the mavens at Zabar’s.

Annapolis may be known, at some future date, as the City of Peace - if the international conference currently under way there results in any significant progress in the Israeli-Palestinian problem. But it is never going to be known as the City of Kosher. In fact, a recent article by the Associated Press makes the point that Annapolis is better known as the City of Crab Cakes and Oysters than any kind of a source of kosher food.

“I have no idea what they’re going to eat,” Rabbi Ari J. Goldstein of Temple Beth Shalom, a Reform synagogue in Arnold, Md., told the AP. “They can either buy their stuff at Trader Joe’s and borrow someone’s kitchen … or they can just go vegetarian, which is what they’re probably going to do.” The proprietors of Chick and Ruth’s Delly (they can’t even seem to spell it correctly) concede they are “kosher-style” only (We note, of course, that “kosher style” is not a term generally permitted in advertising or promotional material, as it can be misleading.).

The story, surprisingly, offers no answer as to how the various delegations - both Israeli and Arab - are going to satisfy culinary and dietary needs. It quotes a White House chef talking about kashrut at the White House, but that famous residence is more than an hour from Annapolis.

The US Naval Academy has a lovely Jewish chapel for its small cadre of Jewish midshipmen (about 120 out of more than 4,000), faculty members, and community members who attend services at the Commodore Uriah P. Levy Center and Jewish Chapel. The Academy’s Jewish chaplain, Cmdr. Irv Elson, once told me that the Jewish middies who want to keep kosher at the Academy’s dining rooms, usually eat vegetarian food .

So, other than calling Kosher.com, what will the delegates do?

The box that your kosher noodles or favorite breakfast cereals come in may contain an ingredient that once was in a lead-acid battery, but now is a kosher product.

It may not sound appetizing, but one company’s recycling of lead-acid batteries - an environmentally helpful process that primarily yields lead,  also yields sodium sulfate - a salt commonly used in the manufacturing of starch. Doe Run Company’s Buick Resource Recycling Division also takes the extra step of getting that salt product certified kosher.

Lou Magdits, Doe Run’s director of raw materials, says none of the sodium sulfate the company produces is contained in food, but it is used in making an industrial, corn-based starch that goes into papermaking or cardboard production. Doe Run sought the kosher certification because the paper packaging may come into contact with food at a later time. Chicago Rabbinical Council certifies the salt-creation process and raw materials.

Doe Run’s sodium sulfate is also used in the manufacturing of other products such as glass, powdered laundry detergent and carpet freshening products. The company processes more than 13.5 million lead-acid batteries annually. Battery recycling yields approximately 1,200 tons of sodium sulfate a month.

The Honey is a new Jerusalem-based email newsletter and website focusing on the best of things available in Israel (and sometimes in the U.S.). For The Honey, that means hotels, restaurants, sights, sounds, clothes and, of course, food and wine. In just a few months the site - modeled on the U.S. website and email network Daily Candy - has begun drawing thousands of readers. Kosher.com caught up with one of the Honey’s founders, Jessica Steinberg, between cooking and sampling some of the new gourmet goodies available in Israel.

Kosher.com - What is the idea behind The Honey?

JS - To talk about what’s fun to see, do and consume in Israel.

Kosher.com - Who is The Honey aimed at?

JS - English speakers in Israel, tourists and Israelis, from a wide range of ages, from somewhere around 25 to 85, although we would happily accept any older readers as well.

Kosher.com - How do you select the items, locations and tips you write up?
JS - It’s a fairly organic process, partially because all four of us are people who keep a regular lookout for what’s new and different in Israel. We find our finds mostly from our own treks around the cities in which we live and travel. In fact, we started The Honey because friends and family were always asking each of us where to find certain products, where to go to eat, drink and be merry. We love being in the know, and sharing what we know with others, in a sharp, hip and pithy format.

Kosher.com - Do you think a site like The Honey can improve Israel’s image by showing that “gourmet” products are being produced in Israel?

JS - We certainly see ourselves as a kind of hasbara for Israel, partially because we write about fun, lighthearted subjects that have nothing to do with politics, but also because Israel is such a destination for all things creative. There are many talented people here creating all kinds of things, whether they’re designing clothing, developing wines or inventing skins for the cell phone whose parts were designed in Israel. And if the worldwide search for everything that is gourmet and off-the-beaten path brings tourists to Israel, or, even better, reminds those of us who live here what there is to discover about this place, then we’ll be satisfied.

Kosher.com - Do you want to say anything else about The Honey?

JS - We’re always happy to hear from our readers, whether they have tips to share or comments to make about something we’ve featured or missed. Please keep in contact at thehoney.israel@gmail.com