With this post, I am inaugurating a new series on this blog, called “The Jewish Food Bookshelf.” I love Jewish Food History, and there are so many wonderful sources out there to get educated on the topic. In the past, I have tried to footnote and credit the many amazing books I have used as resources for my posts. And […]
Alternate Chanukkah Food Traditions and Their Surprising Sources
What are the Jewish Foods classically connected with Chanukkah (or Hanukkah, Chanuka, Hanuka, etc., choose your spelling…)? Most people would point to latkes or sufganiyot (potato pancakes or jelly doughnuts), or any of many other fried items from around the Jewish world, as the “traditional foods” for this holiday. And while I will not complain about fried yumminess (most things […]
My Jewish Food History Lecture Tour Schedule
So I am heading to the States in a week, and will be delivering lectures on Jewish Food History, spread out over the next month. I would love to see many of you, either at lectures, or just to meet up in person. Below you will find my speaking schedule. A few with different titles are actually the same talk, […]
Yom Kippur Chulent (For Real)
One of the more intriguing things I’ve come across during my research on Jewish Food was a recipe for a Yom Kippur Chulent. (More accurately, it was a Yom Kippur Hamin, though I recognize that the term chulent is more recognizable for a number of my readers, so I grudgingly use it for ease of understanding!) I don’t mean a […]
More on Rosh Hashana’s Symbolic Foods
Rosh Hashana is the start of the season in which we Jews ask for forgiveness — from those we may have harmed or offended, from God, and from ourselves. So in that spirit, I will first apologize for not posting in quite a while. I’ve been busy with moving apartments here in Jerusalem (an auspicious start for the new year […]
The Good, The Bad and The Boozy: Jews and Prohibition
I’ll be presenting my talk “My Cup Runneth Over,” all about the history of Jews and alcohol, live in Jerusalem on Sunday, July 25. So as a little teaser, this post will explore in a bit more detail something I’ll only have time to address in passing during the talk. (And if you’re in Jerusalem, and want to join, please […]
One and a Half New Articles
Just a brief post to let you know about two articles I have had published this week. My latest piece for The Nosher is up, and it is the interesting story of the Fleischmann’s Yeast family. I’d been thinking of writing this piece for a while, and find the story somewhat surprising and fun. As I write there, amid the […]
Thank God for Food Spoilage
Traditional Jews have a wide array of food blessings, based on the type of food being consumed. We thank God with a different bracha (blessing) for creating grain products, fruits or wine, for example. These add up to an expression of our gratitude to the Creator for providing us not just with sustenance, but with a variety both nutritionally and […]
The Freaky Ancient Grain Still Prepared Today and Connected with the Season
If you’ve attended Hebrew School, or one of many Jewish Summer Camps, you probably know the Hebrew word for Spring: Aviv. It’s an ancient word, that appears multiple times in the Jewish Bible. The only problem is… it doesn’t mean Spring. Or at least it didn’t in Biblical times. Back then, it described a food product, one that is still […]
Respectfully Responding to Reem Kassis (Re: Bagels)
If you spend time reading on the Internet about food history or Middle Eastern cuisine, chances are you recently saw a post by Palestinian-American cookbook author Reem Kassis in which she claimed that the bagel has origins in the Arab kitchen. I first came across it when my friend Sarah forwarded me an article from Serious Eats in which Ms. […]
