Category: Sabbath Food
Episode 13 – Kugel: Spirituality in the Jewish Kitchen and Beyond
Kugel is more a class of foods, than a food. Growing out of the medieval Ashkenazi kitchen, it went through a multi-stage development process, and now comes in many forms. It remains, however, one of the most popular Shabbat dishes. But primarily due to its popularity, it also grew into a dish that is particularly revered by Chasidic Jews. Understanding […]
Episode 12 – Adafina: Jewish Food Conquers Antisemitism
Since this episode is being released during a period of mourning, on the Jewish calendar, I am looking at how food also reflects one of the near constant negative aspects in Jewish history: Jew-hatred. Adafina is a dish that dates back to medieval Spain, and during the Inquisition, it literally became a matter of life and death. But other foods […]
Episode 7 – Gondi: A Persian Pleasure to Honor Shabbat
Jews everywhere have always reserved their best foods for the Sabbath. Gondi is a food that is unique to the Jews of Persia (Iran), and is almost exclusively eaten at Friday night Shabbat dinner. One of many examples of how Jews use cuisine to honor and show respect for their Day of Rest. Interview: Tannaz Sassooni Episode Notes
The German-Jewish Cookbook: From the Bookshelf
I have written previously about the effects of the Holocaust on Jewish cuisine, most prominently in the breaking of the chain of transmission from generation to generation. This resulted in a tremendous amount of cultural knowledge being lost. We do have a few books that can help us learn about pre-war European Jewish food. For example, there is a unique […]
Episode 3 – Chulent/Hamin: The Dish That Embodies Jewish Culture
The Shabbat Stew — chulent, hamin, dafina, and so many more — is eaten by Jews from around the world every Saturday, and I consider it the most Jewish Food in the world. Even more than the matzah of the previous episode. Here I explore the diversity of this dish, and trace its migrations through the Jewish Diaspora. I also […]
What is T’bit?
With the specific history of Jews in the Arab world, particularly in the latter half of the 20th century, but also over the preceding century, it is easy to overlook the fact that masses of Jews lived throughout the Middle East for millennia. This is of course reflected in the third major classification category of Jews, afer Ashkenazi and Sephardi: […]
From the Jewish Food Bookshelf: The Angel and the Cholent
Okay, so you can probably guess what first drew me to this book, right? Of all the Jewish Food books I own and have read, this one is unique. The Angel and the Cholent: Food Representation from the Israeli Folktale Archives, by Idit Pintel-Ginsberg is not a book of food history, nor is it a cookbook or a book analyzing […]
Media Updates
A few recent media updates for y’all… I had a lot of fun chatting with my friend Leah Jones for her podcast Finding Favorites, that explores people’s favorite things, without using an algorithm. Of course, for my favorite thing, we chatted at length about Shabbat Stews from around the world, the topic of the book I’m working on. So if […]
Kishke: Ashkenazi Comfort Food That… Sticks to Your Kishkes
Thinking about kishke (or kishkeh, kishka, etc.), so many questions spring to mind. How did it become so beloved in Ashkenazi cuisine? Who even thought it was a good idea to make in the first place? And why do so many Ashkenazi food names start with “k” (e.g. kugel, knaidlach, knish, kasha, kreplach, etc.)? While I may not have a […]
Get To Know These Yemenite Jewish Baked Goods
The Yemenite Jewish community is a very old one, and many of their foods are largely unique among Jewish cuisine. Among the many special Yemenite Jewish foods, perhaps their most distinctive are their baked goods. But due to the only passing familiarity that many Jews have with this community, a number of similar pastries and breads are often confused for […]
